On PUBLIC land across the West, millions of non-native livestock remove and trample vegetation, damage soil, spread invasive weeds, spoil water, deprive native wildlife of forage and shelter and may even contribute to global warming. Unfortunately, old federal law prohibits closing grazing allotments which would benefit fish, wildlife and watersheds.

The House of Representatives’ H.R. 3432, the Rural Environmental Vitalization Act (REVA), opens up a new opportunity for stakeholders to come together and utilize an innovative, free-market tool to resolve natural resource conflicts.

Grazing permit retirement is a voluntary, non-regulatory, market-based solution to public lands grazing conflicts. Permittees determine if and when they want to retire their grazing permits. Permittees and third parties separately agree how much a permittee will be paid for relinquishing their permit. And federal agencies facilitate the transaction by immediately retiring grazing permits received from a permittee. The Rural Economic Vitalization Act caps the total number of grazing permits that may be retired each year at 100.

This is a win-win-win for ranchers, the environment, and taxpayers. Let’s pass this bill so that we can finally take some common sense steps to ensure healthy public lands.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

Below is a list of House members that we’ve invested the most effort on. All of them have been visited at least once in the past year ~ some of them twice.

1 – POPVOX LEGISLATIVE CAMPAIGN– register if you haven’t done so already and vote to ENDORSE this bill. Your vote is automatically passed along to your representative and will urge him/her to pass this critical bill:  https://www.popvox.com/orgs/wolfwatcher/_action/4028

2- CALL CAMPAIGN –  Phoning will probably have a bigger impact than an email and we request that you take a moment of your time to call them. 

TALKING POINTS:  Please endorse H.R. 3432 – the Rural Environmental Vitalization Act because the bill opens up a new opportunity for stakeholders to come together and utilize an innovative, free-market tool to resolve natural resource conflicts.   It will help to ensure healthy public lands in a manner that supports all stakeholders – conservationists, ranchers and taxpayers.

Lynn Woolsey (CA-06): 202-225-5161

George Miller (CA-07): 202-225-2095

Anna Eschoo (CA-14): 202-225-8104

Lois Capps (CA-23): 202-225-3601

Adam Schiff (CA-29): 202-225-4176

Henry Waxman (CA-30): 202-225-3976

Diana DeGette (CO-01): 202-225-4431

John Larson (CT): 202-225-2265

Joe Courtney (CT): 202-225-2076

Rose DeLauro (CT): 202-225-3661

Kathy Castor (FL): 202-225-3376

Ted Deutch (FL): 202-225-3001

Colleen Hanabusa (HI): 202-225-2726

Mike Quigley (IL): 202-225-4061

Andre Carson (IN): 202-225-4011

John Yarmuth (KY): 202-225-5401

John Olver (MA): 202-225-5335

Niki Tsongas (MA): 202-225-3411

John Tierney (MA): 202-225-8020

Ed Markey (MA): 202-225-2836

John Sarbanes (MD): 202-225-4016

Chris Van Hollen (MD): 202-225-5341

Dale Kildee (MI): 202-225-3611

Betty McCollum (MN): 202-225-6631

Emanuel Cleaver II (MO): 202-225-4535

David Price (NC): 202-225-1784

Robert Andrews (NJ): 202-225-6501

Frank Pallone (NJ): 202-225-4671

Rush Holt (NJ): 202-225-5801

Tim Bishop (NY): 202-225-3826

Steve Israel (NY): 202-225-3335

Gary Ackerman (NY): 202-225-2601

Gregory Meeks (NY): 202-225-3461

Jerrold Nadler (NY): 202-225-5635

Yvette Clarke (NY): 202-225-6231

Nydia Velazquez (NY): 202-225-2361

Carolyn Maloney (NY): 202-225-7944

Nita Lowey (NY): 202-225-6506

Paul Tonko (NY): 202-225-5076

Bill Owens (NY): 202-225-4611

Marcy Kaptur (OH): 202-225-4146

Betty Sutton (OH): 202-225-3401

Tim Ryan (OH): 202-225-5261

Suzanne Bonamici (OR): 202-225-0855

Kurt Schrader (OR): 202-225-5711

David Cicilline (RI): 202-225-4911

Peter Welch (VT): 202-225-4115

Rick Larson (WA): 202-225-2605

Jim McDermott (WA): 202-225-3106

Ron Kind (WI): 202-225-5506