Seattle, WA-- Sierra Club joined with allies in a large call-to-action for protection of public lands and the Puget Sound. Attendees called on Secretary Zinke to stop his attack on National Monuments and our publicly owned places. The day-long rally and hike featured key voices from Congresswoman Jayapal’s office, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office, and Patagonia. The event came just days before Interior Secretary Zinke is set to release final recommendations for the designation status of 27 national monuments. Washington public lands advocates joined in unison with others at events around the country standing up for protection of public lands today.
In response, Alex Craven from Sierra Club Washington Chapter issued the following statement:
“Washington has a lot of work to do in order to maintain healthy, thriving public lands. Moving backwards in terms of opening lands for drilling and development is not only illogical but extremely dangerous for natural landscapes that make our state a prime tourist destination.
“Clearly-- by the diversity of attendees today-- our public lands are far too important culturally, economically and historically to lose their protection and be opened for dirty fuels business.
“Our lands unfortunately face multiple threats: continued fossil fuel extraction, severe pollution issues, lack of federal support from this administration and threats of deep budget cuts to departments that work to protect and manage these lands. Our state simply can’t afford losing such valuable places.”
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