Dear National Park Advocate,

When the State of Montana wanted to expand a major highway near Glacier National Park, tribal leaders and park advocates knew it could spell trouble. Together with other community leaders, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Government spoke out and pushed Montana to evaluate how the project could damage the cultural resources, landscape and wildlife.

And they won.

That's the power of environmental review and community input. It's a power the administration is trying to take away from communities like yours.

Take action now! Tell the administration that you want strong environmental reviews -- with community input -- to protect parks from destructive development.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the government to evaluate environmental impacts of major projects on public lands and to accept input from the public in that review.

It's the reason the government has to assess the potential damage of an oil rig near a park, or how a road might sever an important migration route. It keeps the government and industries from shutting out the public and cutting corners when it comes to protecting parks.

NEPA is the reason US Highway 93 now has wildlife crossings and loops around the Ninepipes wetlands south of Glacier.

But a new proposal from the administration would undercut NEPA by limiting public input and allowing companies to essentially conduct environmental reviews themselves. Worse still, the changes would redefine which projects need environmental reviews in the first place and ignore indirect or cumulative impacts of a project -- like downstream pollution and climate change.

Send your message now to the White House's Council on Environmental Quality. Tell them: Keep parks protected and don't dismantle NEPA!

Bedrock environmental laws like NEPA play a huge role in safeguarding every one of America's national parks.

Thank you for standing up for the laws that protect our parks.


Tucker Johnson
Natural Resources Analyst

Photo: Glacier National Park
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