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The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee's subcommittee on public lands, forests, and mining heard a slate of pro-conservation legislation yesterday. The bills considered include protections for the Dolores River, the Thompson Divide and additional areas of Colorado, Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands, and the Olympic National Forest in Washington. The subcommittee also heard testimony on a bill that would discourage speculative leasing of public lands that are unlikely to ever produce oil and gas.
“It’s great to see so many conservation bills moving in the Senate. Western voters consistently say they want their elected officials to protect the most vulnerable landscapes, and these bills would do just that. Chairman Manchin and Majority Leader Schumer should quickly advance these bills out of committee and to a floor vote,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala.
While these bills are moving in the Senate, they face an uphill battle in the House. The House Natural Resources Committee, which will hear these bills or their House companions, are focused on eroding protections for public lands rather than creating them.
“If Congress isn’t going to do its job for the West, President Biden should be ready to step up and use the Antiquities Act to protect American landscapes, as he’s already done at Camp Hale, Avi Kwa Ame, and Castner Range. Westerners want to see public lands protected, and they don’t care whether it’s Congress or the president doing the job,” Rokala added.
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Most people think about elk and moose and pronghorn and mule deer and they see them in places like Yellowstone... They don't recognize that, yeah, they're there in the summertime. But in the wintertime, they're often on private working lands.”
