Washington, DC-- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Protecting America’s Wilderness Act (PAW)-- a bill to protect more than 1.4 million acres of wilderness, conserve critical habitat, and safeguard thousands of miles of rivers across the United States. The package includes designations for new Wilderness areas, Wild and Scenic rivers, forests and other protections across California, Colorado and Washington.
Salt Lake City, UT-- Today, the Trump administration’s Interior Department released final resource management plans for the reduced Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In 2017, President Trump illegally announced intentions to eliminate 2 million acres of public lands from the national monuments. The action is still being challenged in court.
Washington, DC-- Today, the House of Representatives hosted a hearing on the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act-- a bill that would permanently protect more than 200,000 acres of the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota from copper, nickel and precious metals mining. The legislation would safeguard the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from toxic sulfide-ore copper pollution.
Washington, DC-- Tomorrow (1/29), the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on several wildlife conservation bills-- including the Protect America’s Wildlife and Fish in Need of Protection Act (PAW and FIN Act) that will undo the Trump administration’s recent rollbacks to the Endangered Species Act.
Reno, NV-- Today, Nevada Sen. Cortez Masto introduced a bill to eliminate the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) practice of leasing low and no potential public lands for oil and gas drilling.
Las Vegas, NV-- On Martin Luther King Day, conservation organizations and members of the Las Vegas community will join for a day of service at Ice Age Fossils State Park to remove debris, remove invasive weed species, and help restore the public landscape. The 315-acre park-- a unique part of the Mojave Desert-- contains preserved traces of mammoths, camels, bison, horses, sloth and dire wolves.
FT. LAUDERDALE-- Gov. Ron DeSantis today announced that the state will purchase 20,000 acres in Broward County from Kanter Real Estate. The state’s action follows tremendous public opposition to plans by Kanter to drill for oil on the land, which is part of the Everglades Protection Area. The area is vital to the region’s water, Everglades restoration and endangered species.
LOS ANGELES— Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today challenging the last step in the administration’s plan to allow oil drilling and fracking on more th
Washington, DC-- Over the holidays, it was revealed that the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior (DOI) will remove “sexual orientation” from the agency’s anti-discrimination guidelines. The change could have an effect on both LGBTQ people applying for jobs at DOI, as well as existing employees seeking to report discrimination internally. The decision could lead to more workplace discrimation.
Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), along with Representatives Steven Horsford (D-Nev.-04), Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01), Mark Amodei (R-Nev.-02) and Susie Lee (D-Nev.-03) today announced the Desert National Wildlife Refuge and Nevada Test and Training Range Withdrawal and Management Act. The legislation protects 1.3 million acres of Wilderness and makes progress toward embeddingTribal considerations into land management. However, the legislation does allow for limited military expansion to address national safety and security needs.