public-lands

December 6, 2019

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Today, Utah youth gathered at the Capitol and in Ogden to demand strong and immediate action on climate as a part of the Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike. Organizers estimate more than two-hundred participated in the two actions throughout the state to call for bold protection of lands as a solution for mitigating climate change. 

November 20, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the House Natural Resources Committee took up legislation to designate new wilderness in California, Washington, and Colorado. Included in the bills passed out of committee are the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act (H.R. 2199); San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act (H.R. 2215); Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act (H.R. 2250); Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (H.R. 2642); the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2019 (H.R. 2546); and the Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act (H.R. 1708).

November 19, 2019

WASHINGTON,D.C. -- Today the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the Restore Our Parks Act (S. 500), the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act (S. 1081) and the Conservation of America’s Shoreline Terrain and Aquatic Life (COASTAL) Act out of committee.

November 13, 2019

Denver, CO-- Today, the Bureau of Land Management announced it will defer all acres up for auction in its December oil and gas lease sale in Colorado due to a court-ordered preliminary injunction. On Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from easing safeguards on sage grouse habitat land-- blocking hundreds of thousands of acres from fossil fuel development in Western states. 

November 13, 2019

Las Vegas, NV-- Yesterday, the Sierra Club joined with members of the Western Shoshone Nation and community members to rally and demand the Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management halt their oil and gas lease sales-- one that took place yesterday and upcoming sales through the year-- that target hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in the state for drilling. The November sale originally included over 500,000 acres of land for sale, but the agency downsized the average significantly due to political pressure.

November 12, 2019

In an interview with the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Acting Bureau of Land Management Director William Pendley made clear his ambitions to remove the “acting” from his title and assume the role of BLM director.

November 6, 2019

LAS VEGAS, NV -- On Tuesday, November 12th, the Sierra Club and partner organizations will host a rally to denounce the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to allow oil and gas development across Nevada and especially in the watersheds that drain into our Southern Nevada’s community waters. 

Visuals: People with signs, mock oil derrick, and oil spill 

WHO: Speakers include: 

Sierra Club Organizer Christian Gerlach

November 4, 2019

LAS VEGAS, NV -- On Friday November 8th, the City of Mesquite Nevada Mayor Al Litman, the Moapa Band of Paiutes, local businesses and the Sierra Club will host a press conference to denounce the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to allow oil and gas development in local Southern Nevada community waters. 

WHO: Speakers Include:

City of Mesquite Mayor Al Litman

Moapa Band of Paiutes Former Chairman Greg Anderson 

Founder of Most Digital Justin McAffee

October 30, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO— Conservation groups today sued the Trump administration to challenge its Oct. 4 decision to allow fracking and drilling on 725,500 acres of public lands and mineral estate across California’s Central Coast and the Bay Area.

October 31, 2019

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.— The Trump administration today announced a proposal to open more than 1 million acres of public lands and minerals in central California to oil drilling and fracking. The plan, first floated in draft form in April, would end a more than five-year moratorium on leasing federal public land in the state to oil companies.

October 30, 2019

Washington, DC -- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two key conservation measures: the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act (H.R. 2181), which would ban new leasing on federal lands within a 10-mile buffer zone surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act (H.R. 1373), which would make permanent a moratorium on new uranium mining on one million acres of public lands north and south of the Grand Canyon. 

In response, Sierra Club leaders from New Mexico and Arizona issued the following statements:

October 29, 2019

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today issued a proclamation recognizing the 25th anniversary of the California Desert Protection Act. The proclamation celebrates the many contributions protected desert lands make to the local economy and quality of life. Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose Supervisorial District 5 is home to important protected desert lands, brought forth the proclamation.