Pink Floyd performing “Poles Apart” from the great Division Bell tour in 1994:

The Northern Rockies are the best we have left in the lower 48. Immediately protecting all remaining roadless areas and creating wilderness is a top conservation priority. I have heard some people say ” why should I care about a place I don’t see very often, or at all?” And the answer to that would be because preventive conservation is always easier and cheaper than “fix it” conservation. By keeping our last wild places wild, it allows a refocus of efforts on fixing areas that have been damaged. It makes no sense to put all your energy into sand bags while the dam still has a leak.

Use the contact link on the right column of this page to contact your congress person and tell them to supprt the “Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, HR ”

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The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act would more than double existing wilderness acreage in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.

More from the Alliance for the Wild Rockies:

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NREPA will protect as wilderness nearly 7 million acres of wilderness in Montana, 9.5 million acres of wilderness in Idaho, 5 million acres of wilderness in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington on federal public land. Included in this total is over 3 million acres in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks.

The Northern Rockies is the only place in the lower 48 states where native species and wildlife are protected on lands that are virtually unchanged since Lewis and Clark saw them. This is public land belonging to all Americans. NREPA designates all of the remaining roadless lands in the Northern Rockies as wilderness, the strongest protection the federal government can confer on public lands. NREPA does not affect private land.

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U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) is no fan of recreation fees. Or the Federal Lands Recreation Act (FLREA), often called the Recreation Access Tax or RAT by fee opponents.

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The Spotted Bear Ranger District is proposing closing about 20 miles of trail to motorized use - primarily motorcycles - as part of its travel plan.

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Chunks of dirty, crusty, soot-colored snow are eaten by the dark water that rushes past. The river valleys vibrancy will be on display in a few weeks, but today the river seems sullen and neglected, like a swollen wound rubbed raw by the change of seasons.

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BONDURANT — Phyllis Boye has one of the best views in Wyoming. Perched atop a ridge, where she has lived since 1980, Boye, nearly 80, can look out to 30 head of deer in her yard in the morning, or the majesty of the Wyoming Range in the near distance.

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Money trees and roads paved with someone else’s gold — for Alaska’s timber industry, things can’t get much better. For taxpayers, things could hardly get worse. Subsidies to the timber industry are nothing new. The U.S. Forest Service routinely builds roads through our national forests to give timber companies access to new sources of profit. In doing so, they spend an enormous amount of taxpayer money for little or no return.

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. Coconino National Forest officials are considering closing almost all off-road trails used by motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles by September 2009

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A draft environmental assessment was released last week that explores options for regulating all-terrain vehicle use within the Chippewa National Forest.