From: alra@governance.net Subject: MONSTER Heritage Area Land Grab MOVING -- We Must Kill It! Land Rights Network American Land Rights Association PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604 Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973 E-mail: alra@landrights.org or alra@governance.net Web Address: http://www.landrights.org Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003 MONSTER Heritage Area Land Grab MOVING -- We Must Kill It! Action Alert! Action Alert! Action Alert! This is it. This is a big issue. Stop S 1521. It appears they will use the Senate bill number in the House for this giant bill that lumps a whole lot of other bills into one bill. The original House bill was HR 280. There is a MONSTER Heritage Area land grab making its way through the Senate. By the time you read this, S. 1521 will probably already have passed the Senate. SO WE MUST STOP IT IN THE HOUSE! This is a unique time in Congress. They are now where they must move very fast. This has a lot of danger and also opportunities. They are trying to pass bills now by unanimous consent. So if one Representative objects the bill is dead. Now it is hard to get Members of Congress to object because they all want to get business done and get out of town. And they all want to appear reasonable. That said, if you can convince your Representative to object to S 1521, it is likely the bill will not go forward. Proponents may go to your Representative and try to offer him something he wants in exchange so he will remove his objection, so we need to get a number of Members of Congress to object to have a chance to stop S 1521. That is up to you. If you call, you have a good chance to win. Your Representative will rarely have as much power to stop bad legislation as he does right now. PLEASE CALL NOW. PLEASE TAKE ACTION BELOW. *** ACTION ITEMS *** 1. Call your own Representative and tell him to vote NO on S. 1521. Simply dial the Capitol Hill Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask for your Representative by name. When you speak to the staff person in charge of S 1521 (HR 280) ask for their fax number. 2. Call House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and tell him to vote NO on S. 1521 and use his clout to get his colleagues to vote NO as well. Heritage Areas are federal zoning! Heritage Areas are federal land grabs! Heritage Areas endanger property rights! Rep. DeLay's phone number is (202) 225-5951 or (202) 225-4000. PLEASE CALL NOW! His FAX number is (202) 225-5117. E-mail him at http://tomdelay.house.gov/. 3. Call House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo and tell him to do everything he can to KILL S. 1521. He has the power to do it. A simple no vote or objection from him would stop S. 1521 dead in its tracks. Rep. Pombo's phone number is (202) 225-1947. PLEASE CALL NOW! Chairman Pombo’s FAX number is (202) 225-5929. E-mail at >> resources.committee@mail.house.gov <<. 4. Call House Speaker Dennis Hastert and tell him to vote NO on S. 1521 and to encourage his colleagues to do the same. Speaker Hastert's phone number is (202) 225-2976 or (202) 225-0600. His Speakers office FAX number is (202) 226-1996. E-mail is >> speaker@mail.house.gov <<. Because of the shortness of time, FAX and phone calls are your most effective tool at this point. HERE’S WHY THIS IS SUCH A BIG DEAL We've fought too long and hard to allow Congress to put this one over on us. They couldn't pass a bill like this in the light of day. So they waited until the dark of night -- until the end of the year, when bad bills move too quickly for concerned citizens to voice their outrage. DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT! For those who don't already know, here's a quick recap on the danger of Heritage Areas: Heritage Areas implement federal zoning, plain and simple. Proponents of these disasters can spin it any which way they want. The truth is that federal money for Heritage Areas is administered through the National Park Service to radical preservation and conservation groups that are hell-bent to lock away anything and everything within the Heritage Area that they see fit. In fact, in the actual Heritage Area bills, local greens ARE DIRECTED to lock away and preserve everything in sight. Only this time, with National Heritage Areas, the Park Service formally teams up with local greens to take away YOUR private property rights. Here's an example from S 1521, just one of the many Heritage Area nightmares. Similar language can be found in EVERY ONE of the other bills: Section 106b(1) of S 1521 states that the "Management Plan" (which is to be drawn up by greens and the Park Service) must include: "An inventory of the resources contained in the core area of the Heritage Area and any other property in the Heritage Area that is related to the themes of the Heritage Area and that should be preserved, restored, managed, or maintained because of its significance." Will your property be deemed "significant" to the Heritage Area? How about your street or your block? Once an area becomes a Heritage Area, local control over zoning and land use can be dramatically impacted. To read more on the dangers of Heritage Areas, go to: http://www.americanpolicy.org/prop/natllandgrab.htm. Representatives and Senators think Heritage Areas are simply convenient little bundles of pork that they can carry back to their districts. While that would be bad enough, HERITAGE AREAS ARE MUCH WORSE. They empower the Park Service bureaucrats to control land use in YOUR COMMUNITY, and dump money on local GREEN beneficiaries to enact whatever radical environmental or preservation agenda that is nearest and dearest to their hearts. Local citizens are often SHUT OUT of the process. Property rights can be completely SHUT OUT of the process. Green edicts will rule the day -- and those edicts will have the muscle and backing of the National Park Service. **NOW, the bill we MUST stop at all costs is S. 1521. Feast your eyes on this monster. Here's what S. 1521 will do: It will DOUBLE the money for each of the following Heritage Areas AND reauthorize their existence for another 23 years! Remember Heritage Areas land grabbers' claims that these things are only "temporary" and that federal funding and Park Service oversight would eventually "sunset." NOT TRUE. S 1521 will give DOUBLE the money and DOUBLE the time to greens and the Park Service to DOUBLE their destructive influence over YOUR property rights and YOUR local community's right to make its own land use decisions! Here are the Heritage Areas: National Coal Heritage Area in WEST VIRGINIA (this are would also be ENLARGED by S. 1521 to swallow other neighboring counties) Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area in NEW YORK Civil War Heritage Area in TENNESSEE Essex National Heritage Area in MASSACHUSETTS Steel Industry American Heritage Area in PENNSYLVANIA Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor in OHIO BUT WAIT -- THERE'S MUCH MORE! The S. 1521 beast would also create FIFTEEN NEW HERITAGE AREAS! Heritage Areas that could NEVER pass during a regular congressional session – only at the end of the year when no one's watching. The FIFTEEN new National Park Service fiefdoms would be: National Aviation Heritage Area in OHIO Oil Region National Heritage Area in PENNSYLVANIA Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area in GEORGIA Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area in CONNECTICUT Atchafalaya Trace Heritage Area in LOUISIANA Gullah/Geechee Heritage Corridor in GEORGIA and SOUTH CAROLINA Western Reserve Heritage Area in OHIO Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area in New Mexico Gulf Coast National Heritage Area in MISSISSIPPI Champlain Valley National Heritage Area in VERMONT and NEW YORK Enduring Struggle for Freedom National Heritage Area in KANSAS Great Basin National Heritage Route in NEVADA and UTAH Southern Campaign of the Revolution Heritage Area in SOUTH CAROLINA National Mormon Pioneer Heritage Area in UTAH French Colonial Heritage Area in MISSOURI BUT WAIT! -- THERE'S EVEN MORE! S. 1521 would also extend authorization and money for the following Heritage Areas: Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor in MASSACHUSETTS and RHODE ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA National Heritage Corridor ILLINOIS and MICHIGAN Canal National Heritage Corridor AND MORE! S. 1521 would create a National Historic Site within the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area in PENNSYLVANIA. Why is this so noteworthy? Because Heritage Area land grabbers claim that Heritage Areas are not national-parks-in-waiting or future national historic sites. WRONG. As units of the Park Service, Heritage Areas are PRIME targets for Park Service land acquisition and future parks, landmarks, historic sites, WHATEVER PARK SERVICE BUREAUCRATS WANT. HELP STOP S. 1521. ***PLEASE SEND THIS URGENT ALERT TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE!*** -- To unsubscribe from this mailing list; please visit http://governance.net and enter your email address.