My commitment to serve wild places...

 

One of my favorite things to do when I visit a National Park is to become a Junior Ranger. It's a lot of fun, really, and anybody can do it (it's not just for kids). You have to meet certain requirements, mostly having to do with learning the natural history of the park, the plants and animals that are found there, and the environmental factors that define the area, such as water availability or wind erosion.

Once you meet the criteria, a real Ranger swears you in and hands you your Jr. Ranger patch, which you can then wear with pride forever. The swearing-in includes your commitment to protect all National Parks.

So, as part of my commitment to the National Parks and all places wild, I'm using this post to ask my like-minded friends to put a stop to some recent political nonsense.

Senate Amendment 838, introduced by Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to "allow states to take over, transfer and sell public, federal lands, including National Forests, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas", passed the Senate vote 51-49, with all Democrats voting against and all but 3 Republicans voting FOR the measure.

You can read the details of this mostly symbolic (message: Republican senators are more interested in profiting from public lands than they are in preserving them) measure here: http://gearjunkie.com/senate-amendment-sa-838

And you can see how your Senator voted by clicking here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/114-2015/s106

I won't presume that you agree with me about the land preservation thing, but I hope you do. And if you do, I ask that you make a simple call to your state Senators to express your opinion on how they voted.

Thanks for letting me rant. Thanks, especially, for getting involved - especially if you agree that this measure is ridiculously short-sighted and wrong for this country.