WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, President Joe Biden officially declared June 2021 as “Great Outdoors Month.” The annual recognition began in 1998 and has since expanded into a month-long celebration of America’s outdoors. This year’s celebration comes with the additional recognition of the importance of the outdoors in promoting mental and physical health and protecting the outdoors and our landscapes as we work to address the climate crisis and the extinction crisis.
Today, California Senator Alex Padilla announced introduction of legislation, co-sponsored by Senator Feinstein, that will protect and increase access to over 1 million acres of public lands and more than 500 miles of rivers throughout the state. The Protecting Unique and Beautiful Landscapes by Investing in California (PUBLIC) Lands Act is complementary to a package of bills that passed the House of Representatives in February, which were championed by Representatives Carbajal, Chu, and Huffman.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The annual National Park Week returns from April 17–25. The event celebrates our national parks and encourages everyone to get outdoors and explore the history, culture, and landscapes of these treasured places. The event kicks off Friday, April 16 with a Twitter chat for a conversation about National Park Week, ways to recreate responsibly, connected conservation, and other outdoors topics.
The Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) unveiled a list of legislative and administrative priorities for the Biden-Harris White House focused on connecting children, youth and families with the outdoors and calling on the administration to build a legacy of outdoors for all. So far, nearly a dozen environmental groups, businesses, and nonprofit organizations, including Sierra Club, REI, and the YMCA of the USA, have endorsed the document and its four topline recommendations.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Acting Secretary of the Interior Scott de la Vega rescinded a Trump-era secretarial order that effectively eliminated the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) program. In one of its final acts under former President Donald Trump, the Department of the Interior quietly eliminated the ORLP program, which uses funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to support parks and greenspace projects in cities, urban areas, and historically underserved communities, directing resources where they were most needed.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order to advance conservation, agriculture, and reforestation. Key to this order is the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps. Inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, the new initiative aims to offer well-paying jobs to younger Americans to work conserving and restoring public lands, waters, and forests, increasing carbon sequestration, protecting biodiversity, improving outdoor access, and addressing climate change.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued a secretarial order that thwarts the ability to pursue projects funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund on national public land. Some of the language of this order was drawn from amendments to the original bill that were rejected in the legislative process. This is the administration’s second attack on GAOA in as many weeks, after the Department of the Interior broke the law by failing to submit required paperwork to Congress by a November 3 deadline.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Members of Congress were left wanting yesterday, November 2, after the Department of the Interior failed to produce a list of projects by a deadline stipulated in the recently passed Great American Outdoors Act. The law, which was signed into law in August, requires Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to submit lists of priority projects, including one for projects to be funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The deadline lapsed without the Department producing the list.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, October 28, the Department of the Interior announced plans to extend the 2019-2020 Every Kid Outdoors pass into 2021. The move comes after environmental and youth recreation groups launched a campaign for the department to extend the pass for fourth graders and families that could not visit public lands and waters due to closings instigated by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Last week, reports emerged that the new acting director of the National Park Service, Margaret Everson, told regional directors that staff shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic should not limit public access to national parks. The Trump administration has repeatedly encouraged Americans to travel to national parks during the pandemic.