Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities

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


** U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service creates four million acre Florida conservation area
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Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Florida wetlands. Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS/Wikimedia Commons ([link removed])

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced the creation of the Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area ([link removed]) , a four million-acre conservation area that extends across twelve counties in western Florida.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland made the announcement on Monday at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge ([link removed].) in Florida during a celebration commemorating the 121st anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System, a collection of 571 refuges and 38 wetland-management districts. The National Wildlife Refuge System was originally established in 1903 ([link removed]'s,birds%2C%20was%20designated%20as%20wilderness.) by President Theodore Roosevelt when he designated the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge on March 14.

The Interior department celebrated the announcement as the fourth new unit added to the Refuge System by Secretary Haaland ([link removed]) (the others include the Wyoming Toad Conservation Area, the Paint Rock River National Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee, and the Lost Trail Conservation Area in Montana). “The National Wildlife Refuge System plays an invaluable role in providing vital habitat for wildlife species, offering outdoor recreation access to the public, and bolstering climate resilience across the country,” Secretary Haaland said ([link removed].) . In addition, the establishment and expansion of National Wildlife Refuges is an important step toward
reaching the national goal of protecting 30 percent of America's lands and waters by 2030.

Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area ([link removed]) is home to Florida black bears, Everglade snail kites, Florida panthers, sand skinks, and more than 100 other threatened or endangered species.

2024 state legislative debrief: New Mexico

Now that New Mexico's state legislative session has wrapped up, Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby is out with a new blog post ([link removed]) highlighting the conservation and energy wins, losses, and unfinished business from this year's short legislative session. As Hamby writes in the blog ([link removed]) , "As is perennially the case in New Mexico, many bills are introduced but few succeed. With such short legislative sessions and an all-volunteer legislature (the only such state legislature in the nation), the majority of bills die in committee simply because they run out of time." Check out the blog ([link removed]) for more details about the 2024 New Mexico legislative session. This is the first blog post in an ongoing series of state legislative debriefs
for 2024, so stay tuned for more details and analysis in the coming months.


** Quick hits
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Cost of removing salmon barriers surges to $1 million per day, but the results are murky

Seattle Times ([link removed])

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service creates 4 million acre Florida conservation area

Daytona Beach News-Journal ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | CBS12 ([link removed]) | ABC25 ([link removed]) | Vero News ([link removed]) | Florida Politics ([link removed]) | Interior press release
([link removed].)

Nearly 900,000 acres of Montana public land stuck in access limbo

Montana Free Press ([link removed])

First federal oil and gas lease sale of the year shows changing dynamics around oil and gas

Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])

Colorado's proposed fossil fuel phaseout is likely to fail without big changes

Colorado Public Radio ([link removed])

Farmers accused of drying up the Great Salt Lake say they can help save it

NPR ([link removed])

Proposed Nevada power transmission line could interfere with sage grouse habitat

E&E News ([link removed])

National wildlife refuges face more budget cuts

New Mexico Political Report ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” “Salmon are our buffalo. It is intertwined within our culture. Our songs, our ceremonies, our subsistence coincide with the salmon. When salmon are not plentiful, we suffer.”

—Ed Johnstone, chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Seattle Times ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
Signs of early spring are at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico! While most of the sandhill cranes have headed north for the season, cinnamon and blue-winged teal are arriving from Mexico, Central America and South America, where they spent the winter.

Photo by Sue Croyle

#newmexico ([link removed]) #birding ([link removed]) #wildlife ([link removed]) #spring ([link removed])

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