June, in brief

Key news from June:

• The Biden administration issued an executive order establishing a 20-year mineral withdrawal around New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon. The withdrawal will protect a 10-mile buffer surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, removing the threat of oil and gas drilling in one of America’s most archaeologically-rich areas. It follows a two-year period in which the Interior Department studied the consequences of the withdrawal on energy production and held listening sessions to solicit feedback from Tribal leaders and members of the public. Almost 60 percent of New Mexicans say they support the creation of the 10-mile buffer zone, according to CWP’s 2022 Winning the West survey.
• Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley reintroduced a bill to protect more than 1 million acres of rugged wilderness in the Owyhee Canyonlands, while also giving ranchers more flexibility on grazing permits and transferring land in trust to the Burns Paiute Tribe. At the same time, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to finalize its management plan for more than 4 million acres across southeastern Oregon. The BLM plans include protections for more than 400,000 acres of lands with wilderness characteristics, while still allowing off-road vehicles on more than 40,000 acres near the town of Vale. Ranchers, hunters, and conservation groups have all praised the bill and the BLM plans.

• The Biden administration announced plans to direct $161 million into ecosystem restoration projects on public lands as part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which funds job creation in industries that boost U.S. competitiveness, rebuild infrastructure, strengthen supply chains, and help build a clean energy economy. The Bureau of Land Management will use the funds on 21 “restoration landscapes” across 11 Western states, for ecosystem restoration in the sagebrush-steppe, wetland meadows, and watersheds on former industrial timberlands. These landscapes were chosen based on ecological need as well as importance to local communities.

• The Bureau of Land Management removed a slate of Montana parcels proposed for a federal oil and gas lease sale following public concern that lease laws outlined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) were being ignored. The removal of parcels for leasing signifies long-overdue cooperation with internal guidance to reform the oil and gas leasing system. Following the passage of the IRA, the Bureau of Land Management issued Instructional Memoranda laying out how it would lease public lands for oil and gas drilling under the new law. Since issuing the Instructional Memoranda, the BLM has not consistently followed its own guidance as it offered parcels that had been nominated anonymously more than three years ago and proposed lease sales covering an order of magnitude more acreage than is required under law.
• 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, an area rich in historical and ecological significance that is within an hour’s drive of 18 million people. Expanding the monument would increase its size by roughly a third 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 designation by then-President Barack Obama. “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 Senator Padilla.

What to watch for in July:

• The public comment period for the proposed BLM conservation rule closes July 5.
• The Bureau of Reclamation is hosting public meetings and accepting comments about a long-term operating plan for the Colorado River.
• Will the Interior Department publish a draft rule to lock in reforms to the oil and gas leasing system?
• Will the Interagency Working Group report on hardrock mining be released?

Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage, a project of the Earth Island Institute, to talk about the Biden administration’s efforts to protect old growth and mature forests. They also touch on reducing wildfire risk through forest management. Dr. DellaSala is the author of over 300 science papers on forest and fire ecology, conservation biology, endangered species management, and landscape ecology.

Kate and Aaron are joined by James Kenna, a 40-year Interior Department veteran who wore a number of hats over his decades of public service, including a stint as the California state director at Bureau of Land Management. That gave him a front row seat to land management decisions that would shape America’s energy future. Now he’s weighing in on one of the most important proposals to come from the Biden administration: the public lands rule that would put conservation on equal footing with mining, drilling, grazing, and other uses of federal lands.

Kate and Aaron are joined by filmmaker John De Graaf to talk about his new documentary Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty. De Graaf has been producing and directing PBS documentaries for 45 years, 32 of which he spent at KCTS, the Seattle PBS affiliate. His new film recounts former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall’s life and illustrates the impact he had on conservation in the West. 

Report: What Biden’s proposed conservation rule would mean for America’s most vulnerable public lands

Center for American Progress
 

Arizona limits construction around Phoenix as its water supply dwindles

New York Times
 

How the Supreme Court made it easier to destroy wetlands and streams

High Country News
 

Colorado Supreme Court deals setback to stream access

Colorado Sun
 

Editorial: BLM rule puts conservation on equal footing with oil and gas on public lands

Denver Post
 

Lawmaker claims state authority in private-to-fed land sale, but legal experts disagree

WyoFile
 

Lithium companies trying to work around 150-year-old mining law

Nevada Current
 

Report: How high-amenity communities can avoid being loved to death

Headwaters Economics
 

The key to reducing wildfire smoke? More fire.

Missoulian
 

As national parks get crowded, more Americans look to monuments and wildlife refuges

The Conversation
 

“Until now, if people in the green and leafy Northeast looked at arid Western cities covered in smoke from wildfires, they could say, that can’t happen here, thank god. On Tuesday, it did...Americans elsewhere in the country who have experienced that threat mainly by scrolling in horror through amber Instagrams and dashcam footage of drives through walls of flame are beginning to realize how much farther the threat can travel.”

—David Wallace-Wells, New York Times