May 25, 2017
President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 budget released May 23 will have a negative impact on wildlife, ocean protection and public land resources in Southern California and across our nation.
A few highlights:
--Elimination of royalties paid from offshore oil drilling to federal government (these monies are used to purchase national parklands and state and city grants for local parklands).
--Elimination of the federal Marine Mammal Commission, which works to protect marine mammals under the federal Endangered Species Act, including marine mammals in the coastal waters of Southern California.
--Eliminating federal regulations on the use of longline drift nets in ocean waters. Longline drift nets entangle and kill hundreds of marine mammals every year including Southern California's coastal waters and beyond.
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--Major reduction in funding for U.S. Forest Service, including Los Padres, Angeles and other national forests.
--Funding for creating roads on national public lands, which are now currently in roadless protection areas such as national conservation areas and wilderness areas.
--25% reduction in federal Endangered Species Act protections. This will impact recovery programs such as the California Condor Recovery Program in Southern California and beyond.
--Elimination of six climate change programs, redirecting those monies to fossil fuel development on public lands.
--Acceleration of mining and oil and gas drilling on public lands, including Los Padres National Forest in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
--National park land acquisition funding has been frozen, as has other land acquisition programs of the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service.
--Proposed budget also directs the Department of Interior to look at privatization of national wildlife refuges, which would mean managing America's wildlife by private companies.
The House Committee on Natural Resources, which oversees and will hold hearings on the portion of the proposed 2018 budget that involve Department of the Interior programs and agencies, ocean related agencies, drilling and mining, wildlife and national park and other national public lands and climate change programs. The committee has not yet announced the public comment time for their portion of the federal budget.
The federal budget is the most powerful tool any presidential administration has to protect the environment, positively or negatively. Sierra Club wants to make sure all America's public lands, wildlife, ocean waters, climate change programs are fully funded.
Jim Hines is chair of the Sierra Club California/Nevada Wildlife Team and co-chair of the Wilderness Team.