Visionary Legislation, Based in Science and Economics

The Northern Rocky Mountains encompass the last great expanse of native biodiversity in the contiguous United States. This bioregion—known as America's Serengeti—is the last stronghold of the grizzly bear, the woodland caribou and the bull trout. It contains all the species present at the time of the Lewis & Clark Expedition two hundred years ago, including free-roaming populations of bison, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, wolves, mountain lions and hundreds of others. They roam the region's great forests and native grasslands. Salmon and trout still make their epic migrations from the sea, more than 900 miles inland, to high mountain tributaries along the Great Divide.

"Some of the nation's last remaining elk herds and grizzly bears are managing to survive in these areas. If we allow further development we're actually offering taxpayer money to finance the depletion of the land and the species."
—Rep. Carolyn Maloney

Congress has made great strides in protecting a portion of this great region, designating some areas as wilderness, and others as national parks such as Yellowstone and Glacier. However, more than 20 million acres of these unspoiled lands remain unprotected and increasingly vulnerable to being lost forever through excessive roadbuilding, forest clearcutting, mining and other developments that mar the beauty of the landscape. Adding economic insult to injury, corporations receive federal subsidies for logging through money-losing timber sales. That is, the federal government sells the development rights for logging at below-cost rates. We're literally paying for the destruction of our last wild forests.

"America has the opportunity to protect some 20 million acres of western land and save more than $245 million of taxpayers' dollars."
—Rep. Christopher Shays

To reverse this alarming trend, common citizens from all walks of life, scientists, and economists have developed a plan to protect the Northern Rockies Ecosystem. The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) is sponsored by a bipartisan coalition in the U.S. Congress led by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

On to Biological Linkage Corridors

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