BENEFITING: SODA MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS COUNCIL
EVENT: Save our Lands, Rivers and Trails!
EVENT DATE: Jul 12, 2010
DEADLINE TO GIVE: Nov 12, 2010
AMOUNT RAISED OFFLINE: $500.00
HERE'S THE STORY:

(Continued from Soda Mountain Wilderness Council page)

The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was not only a name-changer for the Soda Mountain-Pilot Rock loading dock to the Klamath-Siskiyou ark. The Monument was also a game-changer for protection efforts here. The Monument Proclamation rightly calls the area an “ecological wonder” and “biological crossroads.” The recognition the Monument has brought the area has heightened conservation opportunities here, while also making clear the gravity of continuing threats to this ecologically strategic landscape.

In May 2010, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt wrote, “…I can now say we should have been more expansive in our thinking about Monument boundaries. Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument should now be expanded to include more of this unique ecosystem.”

Through grass roots advocacy, public education, litigation, and market incentives, the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council works to both perfect and expand Cascade-Siskiyou land bridge protections by:

• Promoting Monument and Wilderness additions here, while also seeking additional permanent public land cattle grazing lease retirements.
• Urging and persuading the Bureau of Land Management to both improve inadequate management plans and develop management policies that truly protect this unique and important area via road closures, best-science forest management, and a new conservation vision.
• Partnering with land trusts toward public acquisition of in-holdings and ex-holdings from willing sellers.
• Responding to myriad and continuing threats such as new power lines, illegal in-holding development, off-road vehicle abuse, and timber sales.
• Helping local people establish a relationship with this special area via free public hikes led by local naturalists – plus custom VIP trips for key decision makers.

“Looking back on the [Soda Mountain Wilderness] Council’s work over the past decade, I can say without reservation that you have set the national standard for making monument declarations into vital conservation reality.” Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of the Department of the Interior – May 26, 2010

The Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, welcomes your support as we continue our work to strengthen the ecologically strategic Cascade-Siskiyou loading dock to the botanically world-class Klamath-Siskiyou ark.