February 11, 2020

United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Support H.R. 2546, the Protecting America’s Wilderness Act

Dear Representative:

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) works to turn environmental values into national priorities. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

We urge you to vote YES on H.R. 2546, the Protecting America’s Wilderness (PAW) Act, which would permanently protect 1.37 million acres of public lands and waters in California, Colorado, and Washington.

The PAW Act is an ambitious public lands package that combines six bills: H.R. 2546, the Colorado Wilderness Act; H.R. 2250, the Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation and Working Forests Act; H.R. 2199, the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act; H.R. 2215, the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Act; H.R. 1708, the Rim of Valley Corridor Protection Act; and H.R. 2642, the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. By designating these sites as new, expanded, or potential wilderness, H.R. 2546 would preserve majestic landscapes and rivers for future generations, protect tribal lands and cultural sites from oil and gas development, improve access to public lands for underserved communities, address the threats of climate change by increasing wildfire resiliency, and promote our country’s thriving outdoor recreation economy.

At a time of unprecedented attacks by the Administration on our public lands and in the midst of the global nature, extinction, and climate crises, protecting our public lands is crucial to fight against the desecration of our natural resources and heritage, address the rapid loss of natural areas to human activity, safeguard wildlife and biodiversity from mass extinction, ensure the safety and health of our communities from Big Polluters, and naturally mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.

For these reasons, LCV strongly urges you to support H.R. 2546 and to oppose any amendments that undermine this bill. We will strongly consider including vote(s) on this bill in the 2020 Scorecard. If you need more information, please call my office at (202) 785-8683 and ask to speak with a member of our government affairs team.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski
President