NPCA submitted the following position to the House Committee on Natural Resources ahead of an anticpated legislative hearing scheduled for July 29th.
H.R. 1267 - B-47 Ridge Designation Act: The National Parks Conservation Association supports H.R. 1267, which would designate an unnamed mountain ridge north of Yellowstone National Park as “B-47 Ridge”. This mountain ridge lies within the core of the public lands which were withdrawn from mining through the 2019 “Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act”. Millions of visitors travel past this ridge each year to reach the northern entrance to America’s first national park. This designation would further provide the American people with a broader suite of the stories of the lands and waters that surround Yellowstone National Park. It also is part of the military history of the region, from the 25th Infantry “Buffalo Soldiers” who braved the region’s harsh landscape to protect Yellowstone’s wild creatures, to soldiers from the 23rd Infantry Regiment from Fort Lewis (Washington) 9th Infantry Division who battled the fires that tore through the park in 1988. This designation honors the four airmen who lost their lives when their U.S. Air Force B-47 crashed during a routine training mission in 1962.
Secondly, NPCA had previously expressed concerns regarding certain components of H.R. 3879 - Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation Act. We appreciate the hard work that was put into the ANS for this important legislation that sufficiently addressed all of our previous concerns.
