Letter to the Editor - Budget hurts nation's nature health

Dear Editor:

I read the Republican administration’s budget proposal for 2021 — https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/budget_fy21.pdf . It cuts programs essential to our health, economic well-being and communities.

Please support the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Land and Water Conservation Fund, also the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

With our growing population, for example, we need more outdoor recreation spaces as funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund; there is zero money for this popular program in the proposed budget. We also need to protect wilderness areas that in turn protect our wildlands, wildlife, watersheds, carbon storage, the diversity of life and landscapes, and other wilderness values, such as solitude free of mechanical interference.

With the recent drastic decline in birds, over 25 percent of the total bird population, on top of previous declines that had shifted the baseline embarrassingly low, we need more funding for bird habitat and conservation.

We also need public radio, public television, public libraries, public schools, public arts and public humanities, so the people, we the people, have access to information about our environment, our government and our choices as responsible citizens.

Having clean air, clean water, a healthy environment is basic to having equal opportunity. If people are sickened by where they live, work, or play, they cannot compete equally in education, employment, the economy or politics.

Please fight for a healthy environment. It is essential for our health, economic well-being and communities.

Sincerely,

Anne Millbrooke

Bozeman