March 19, 2009

Contact: 
Tom Reed, (307) 349-8266
Steve Moyer, (703) 284-9406
Chris Hunt, (208) 552-0891, ext. 714

NEWS ALERT:

Public Lands bill passes Senate for second time

WASHINGTON, D.C.—By  a margin of 77-20, The U.S. Senate voted for a second time today to approve the Omnibus Public Land Protection Act of 2009—a collection of bills vital to sportsmen and women from coast to coast. The bill will now move to the U.S. House of Representatives, where, despite a strong majority of members voting in support of the bill, it failed by a mere two votes last week during a suspension vote that required a two-thirds majority. The House will likely need just a simple majority when the bill is considered again in the coming days.

Should it pass, the bill will protect important landscapes all over the country for the benefit of anglers and hunters. Included in the bill is the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, the Copper-Salmon Wilderness Act, the National Landscape Conservation System Permanence Act and a bill that would add 400,000 acres of wilderness in California, protecting much of that state’s at-risk hunting and fishing country. Additionally, the bill will allow water conservation projects to get under way on the San Joaquin River, a move that will hopefully result in the return of thousands of salmon and steelhead to their historic range.

“This collection of bills does more for hunters and anglers than any legislation in the last 25 years,” said Tom Reed, TU field coordinator in Wyoming and Montana. It protects sportsmen access to public land and some of the finest fish and wildlife habitat in the country.”

Trout Unlimited is a private, non-profit organization with more than 140,000 members dedicated to conserving, protecting, and restoring North America’s trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds.

Date: 3/19/2009