President-elect Biden today nominated Rep. Deb Haaland to serve as Secretary of the Interior. The Department of the Interior manages the country’s national parks and approximately 450 million acres of public lands, oversees wildlife and other conservation efforts, and upholds Federal trust responsibilities to Indigenous communities.
The Trump administration tomorrow is expected to finalize a rule to circumvent establishing habitat protections for endangered and threatened species. The rule follows a string of other efforts and rollbacks to weaken the Endangered Species Act under the Trump administration.
Reno, NV-- A broad coalition of conservationists, Native Americans, sportsmen and women, elected officials and others are celebrating the Congressional vote today that denies the U.S. military its long sought-after expansions of two major facilities in Nevada, at the Fallon Naval Air Station and the Nellis Test and Training Range.
The Trump administration opened bidding today in the first auction of California federal public lands to oil companies in eight years. Despite community opposition and ongoing legal disputes, the Bureau of Land Management put over 4,000 acres in Kern County up for sale for oil drilling and fracking.
In the final text version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released today, Congress has denied the Defense Department’s request to seize more than 1.7 million acres of land in Desert National Wildlife Refuge and other public lands for military bombing ranges. The decision comes after Tribal Nations, conservationists and communities joined to push back on the proposal.
HARRISBURG, PA -- Responding to robust public input, the National Park Service announced plans to make the park experience more inclusive and welcoming for all visitors through its final visitor use management plan for Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and Middle Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River. The plan will allow for free entry, enhance trails, expand picnicking areas, and improve accessibility for those with disabilities.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Friday, the Department of the Interior unveiled “descriptions” of proposed projects to be prioritized under the Great American Outdoors Act. The details ranged from confusing to entirely unhelpful and were immediately met with bipartisan criticism from members of Congress.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Trump administration today published a final rule containing rollbacks undercutting the role of science, transparency, and broad public input for decisions involving projects proposed on national forest land. The new rule will pave the way to increased logging, road, and pipeline construction.
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.
The US Forest Service issued notice for a Final Record of Decision today eliminating the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. The decision opens vast swaths of irreplaceable old-growth temperate rainforest to clearcut logging, jeopardizing the subsistence culture of Indigenous communities, the forest’s role in fighting the climate crisis, and already imperiled wildlife.
DENVER— Climate groups filed new legal claims today challenging the federal government’s 1.7 million-acre resource-management plan (RMP) to expand fossil fuel development in southwestern Colorado, saying it should be overturned because it was approved during William Perry Pendley’s unlawful tenure directing the Bureau of Land Management (“Bureau”).
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Over the weekend, the Huffington Post published a story on the newly-appointed deputy assistant secretary of fish, wildlife and parks at the Department of the Interior and connections to racist and white supremacist writings.