Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Lawmakers call on Biden to expand San Gabriel Mountains National Monument
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Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Los Angeles skyline in the foreground with San Gabriel Mountains in the backdrop. Source: USDA USFS Flickr ([link removed])

California Representative Judy Chu and Senator Alex Padilla are asking President Joe Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to add 109,167 acres to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument ([link removed]) , an area rich in historical and ecological significance that is within an hour’s drive of 18 million people.

Expanding the monument ([link removed]) would increase its size by roughly a third ([link removed]) and would also give the U.S. Forest Service greater ability to protect natural resources and manage crowds in areas left out of the 2014 monument ([link removed]) designation by then-President Barack Obama. The San Gabriel Mountains watershed provides Los Angeles County with 70 percent of its open space and roughly 30 percent of its water.

In a June 8 letter to President Biden the lawmakers stressed the need for the president to act in the face of congressional inaction to consider conservation measures. “Our request would establish better protection for more areas of the San Gabriel Mountains for conservation and improve public access to a range that has served as a glorious backdrop to the downtown L.A. skyline in countless advertising campaigns and postcards,” said ([link removed]) Senator Padilla.


** BLM Restoration Landscapes: Arizona's Sky Islands
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In celebration of the Bureau of Land Management's announcement of $161 million to fund Restoration Landscapes ([link removed]) , Look West is highlighting landscapes across the West each day. Today's landscape—the 21st and final—is Arizona's Sky Islands, a mountainous region with a higher concentration of biodiversity than almost anywhere in the West. Restoration investments will reduce fuel loads, improve groundwater management in the San Pedro River drainage, protect critical wildlife migration corridors, and support recovery of threatened and endangered wildlife. The BLM will spend almost $9.6 million to restore more than 650,000 acres.
Quick hits


** Interior Secretary Deb Haaland reflects on tenure and tradition amid policy changes
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** California lawmakers call for expansion of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])


** Actor Kevin Costner and crew team up with southern Utah tribe to protect, preserve while filming on reservation
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St. George News ([link removed])


** Retired Navajo coal miners are suffering from black lung disease
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Daily Yonder ([link removed])


** Lawsuit challenges California oil leases on NEPA grounds
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Bloomberg Law ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Mormon Church works to help save the Great Salt Lake from drying up
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Spring Creek fire in Colorado grows to 3,000 acres
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9News ([link removed])


** Opinion: Permitting reform is the key to clean energy
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” BLM’s proposed rule seeks to curb one of the largest threats to agriculture in Montana: climate change. BLM’s mandate to facilitate a sustained yield for the cattle industry is at risk if grass can’t grow for livestock to eat because of extended drought, unpredictable floods and devastating wildfires.”
—Derf Johnson, Deputy Director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, Daily Montanan ([link removed])
Picture this


** @BLMWyoming ([link removed])
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Summer is officially here! Find your happy place on Wyoming's #PublicLands ([link removed]) .

📸: Tim Kramer captured this scene on public land south of Lander.

#YourPublicLands ([link removed]) #RecreateResponsibly ([link removed])

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