First, how to find your elected officials:

If you’re looking to write to your elected officials in Congress, it’s important to begin by finding an official government website first, which means the URL will need to have “.gov” not “.com” or even “.org.”  

Here’s an official Congress database for finding your elected officials:  https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

• If you’re writing to express concerns, don’t bother with elected officials outside your district. Or, as the American Planning Association (APA) says, “The first thing your representative wants to determine is if you live in his or her district… Representatives and staff do not have any obligation and little time to read messages from people who are not constituents, so it is vital that you make it clear that you live in the district.” (Tip #1 according to the APA)

Second, how to draft a short but effective message:

Did I mention it needs to be short? Two-to-three short paragraphs. If it’s snail mail, keep it to under a page.

For more tips on effective letter-writing, check out the helpful links below.

12 great tips for writing effective emails to elected officials:

https://www.planning.org/advocacy/toolbox/emails.htm

Six great tips for writing effective “snail” mail to elected officials (although note that as of this blog post date, the ACLU.org web article concludes with an incorrect link to direct people to Congress—but the hyperlink isn’t a .gov website, so it won’t take you to Congress’s real webpage. Likely a mistake on their part, but it’s worth noting!)

https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

Why All the Fuss? What you should know about H.R. Bill 1 and its devastating proposals for the National Parks

These days, the most consistent advice that I keep hearing about effective political advocacy is that it’s not about venting or going viral on social media, it’s actually, “Communicate to your elected officials – a little can go a long way, whether it’s an email or snail mail or phone call.”  

Of course, while there are many important issues and concerns to bring up with our representatives, this is a conservation-themed blog, so for the sake of this post I’m going to specifically focus on H.R.1 because of its significant consequences for public lands, including national parks.

The timing of the budget cuts is especially painful because it’s the start of summer season, when many people are traveling to visit the national parks. The parks will struggle with handle the millions of visitors with skeletal staffing, funding and resources to maintain the land.    

That’s just one of the proposals that would impact public lands. I highly recommend that everyone reads up on the many devastating proposals for America’s national parks and public lands.

You can read the full text of the H.R.1 bill here:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text

In case you don’t know what “Public Law 117-169” was, it refers to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed by the House and Senate. Hundreds of millions of dollars went towards funding the National Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management.  

Let’s write a better chapter together

I’m going to write to my elected officials and ask them to stand up for the national parks by not supporting this bill.

I especially keep thinking of future generations: What kind of world do we want the people who come after us to inherit, if we do nothing to protect our parks from massive budget cuts? What will overflowing trash bins and other evidence of poor maintenance make America look like to her millions of yearly park visitors, many of whom from abroad, as well as domestic? (Again, budget cuts pose just one of the threats to public lands in the current bill. Please do read up on some of the others!)

Hope is not a feeling, not something based on circumstances. Too often it gets lumped together with optimism. But on the contrary, as my favorite government teacher, Sharon McMahon, would say, hope is a choice. In my case, I want my hope for a better future to move me to action. In this case, it means writing my elected officials. Because I want future generations to enjoy the parks, too.