Pearisburg, VA-- Today, community members joined hands to resist the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines-- both cutting through national forests and protected lands.The event is one of many around the country standing up for protection of public lands today. The protest came just days before Secretary Zinke will release his final recommendations on the future of the country’s national monuments Secretary Zinke is currently reviewing 27 of the country’s protected monuments, threatening their protected status, and that of public lands nationwide.
In response, Kirk Bowers Public Lands Director at Sierra Club Virginia Chapter issued the following statement:
“Once again, Virginians urged Zinke to keep public lands in public hands -- and to keep them open to the public, not closed to greedy energy companies and natural gas pipelines.
“Virginia’s public lands are the life force of a thriving outdoor economy and capture years of our nation’s history. Unfortunately, they’re under threat two-fold: The Trump administration’s intent to roll back protections national monuments and other public lands, and dirty fuels infrastructure being proposed by out-of-state companies.
“This administration’s efforts to remove critical land and wildlife protections is part of an extreme political agenda which is detrimental to our communities, the economy, and wildlife.”
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