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


** Meet the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade
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Thursday, September 5, 2024
Meet the groups and individuals derailing public land protection in the West; Source: Center for Western Priorities ([link removed])

In a new report ([link removed]) , the Center for Western Priorities identifies the groups and individuals working in tandem to derail good-faith efforts to protect public lands. The National Monuments Disinformation Brigade uses conspiracy theories and fearmongering to generate opposition to proposed national monuments and monument expansions.

The report ([link removed]) lays out the players and targets of the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade, using social media posts, press interviews, and more to expose their misleading statements, fearmongering, and extreme beliefs. The Brigade includes Ben Burr of BlueRibbon Coalition; Margaret Byfield of American Stewards of Liberty; Sean Pond and Aimee Tooker of Halt the Dolores Monument; William Perry Pendley, who wrote the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 chapter on the Interior department, and several others.

The groups that make up the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade ([link removed]) spread misinformation far and wide, drowning out good-faith discussions about monument designations and turning the nuanced process of land protection into a false binary of good versus evil. They also tie public land conservation to extremist conspiracy theories in order to activate opposition from people who would otherwise not engage on public lands issues.

“The groups that make up the National Monument Disinformation Brigade cannot point to evidence for their baseless claims about the impacts of national monument designations,” said ([link removed]) Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss. “It’s important for Westerners, reporters, and policymakers to see beyond the discord sewn by these groups and remember that conservation is overwhelmingly popular with Western voters and a net positive for the West.”


** Quick hits
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Colorado's fragile prairie ecosystem is at risk as Front Range development spills into the plains

KUNC ([link removed])

Haaland touts Arizona fish recovery as ESA success

Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])

In first-ever deal, mineral extractor will use less Great Salt Lake water—and pay less in taxes

Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])

Tribes fear federal solar plan could threaten proposed Bahsahwahbee national monument

Nevada Current ([link removed])

Giant Wyoming carbon capture project pulls plug for lack of clean power

Cowboy State Daily ([link removed])

Hotter, drier weather endangers California’s Joshua trees

Yale Environment 360 ([link removed])

Western governors push lawmakers on outdoor package

E&E News ([link removed])

Absolute tank of a moose turning heads in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains

Cowboy State Daily ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” As President Biden seeks to cement his conservation legacy, it’s important that discussion around new national monuments is based on facts and good-faith engagement with stakeholders and the public, not conspiracy theories and half-truths.”

—Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@saguaronationalpark ([link removed])
This stunning photo from our park’s visitor center shows a woman sitting in the arms of a saguaro cactus, holding a cup and intensely focused on one of the giant cactus’ arms. The woman is a pioneer scientist named Dr. Alice McLaughlin Boyle, and she is testing a treatment of penicillin to cure a disease believed to be killing saguaros at the park. The photo is undated but probably was taken at the end of the 1940s, when many saguaros were observed to be dying.

Alice Boyle was a brilliant scholar, mentor to many grateful students and, according to a 1985 issue of Arizona Land and People, “a determined fighter for professional equality with men – at a time when there was no organization to support her, only confidence in her qualifications.” Dr. Boyle received the very first PhD ever granted in Plant Pathology at the UA and went on to become a major professor there. Her PhD research focused on how bacterial diseases were carried between saguaros by a small, nocturnal moth. As professor she continued to study saguaros but also conducted research on diseases of pears, apples, and other agricultural plants.

We are not the first to salute this amazing woman! According to Arizona Land and People, Alice was named “Tucson Woman of the Year” in 1964.

(DS; 📸, NPS)

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