Local leaders across the West are encouraging President Biden to solidify his legacy in conservation history.

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


** Can Biden stick the landing on national monuments?
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Tuesday, December 17, 2024
View of Mount Shasta from the proposed Sáttítla National Monument in California. Photo by Bob Wick, used by permission.

Local leaders across the West are encouraging ([link removed]) President Joe Biden to solidify his legacy ([link removed]) in conservation history by designating more national monuments. According to a recent E&E News article ([link removed]) , there are at least nine proposed national monuments across the West that are ripe for designation.

In California, the proposed Sáttítla National Monument ([link removed]) includes 200,000 acres in the northeast part of the state. The effort to protect Sáttítla is led by the Pit River Nation, which continues to use the area's resources for food, water, and spiritual connection. If designated, it would protect the Medicine Lake Highlands, a volcanically-formed landscape known to the Tribe ([link removed]) as a "spiritual center." In the Southern part of the state, the proposed Chuckwalla ([link removed]) and Kw'tsán ([link removed]) National Monuments would together safeguard over a million acres. If designated, Kw'tsán National Monument would protect the homelands of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe.

And in Colorado, the proposed Dolores Canyons National Monument ([link removed]) would bring much-needed protections ([link removed]) for 400,000 acres of land that is rapidly growing in popularity among recreationists.

“President Biden has a very strong record on conservation, and he has been supportive of many of these campaigns as they have progressed, as has Secretary Haaland,” said ([link removed]) Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association. “It’s not necessarily quantity, it’s quality, and making sure places waiting to get protected, get protected.”

President Biden establishes Frances Perkins National Monument in Maine

Yesterday, President Biden designated ([link removed]) Frances Perkins National Monument, honoring the nation’s first female Cabinet secretary and an architect of the New Deal. The monument, which protects 57 acres along the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, Maine, comes a decade after the site was first recognized as a national historic landmark.


** Quick hits
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New wildlife refuge in Southern Maryland is the Chesapeake Bay’s first in over 25 years

Baltimore Banner ([link removed])

Opinion: The new Trump administration could have huge impacts on public lands. Here’s how that might play out

Colorado Sun ([link removed])

Utah lawsuit could affect public lands in Colorado and beyond

Public News Service ([link removed])

How the renewable energy boom is remaking the American West

Inside Climate News ([link removed])

Biden creates Frances Perkins Homestead National Monument in Maine

USA Today ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Maine Morning Star ([link removed])

Colorado regulators identify hundreds of oil and gas sites where contamination data was falsified

Colorado Newsline ([link removed])

President Biden seeking nearly $2.3 billion in disaster assistance for National Park Service

National Parks Traveler ([link removed])

Opinion: The trouble with the ultra-rich's environmentalism

TIME ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” We would all like to see the most optimal management of public lands. And I think that's really where we ought to focus our efforts, and really giving them the resources they need."

—Aaron Kindle, director of sporting advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation, Public News Service ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
This big guy must have been triple-dog dared to lick it.

‘Stuck! Stuck! Stuuuuuck!’

Here’s hoping your weekend is full of fun, laughter and absolutely no sticky situations! 🦬

Photo by @theodorerooseveltnps ([link removed])

#bison ([link removed]) #christmasstory ([link removed]) #winter ([link removed])

Alt Text: Close-up of a frosty bison, nicknamed Flick, licking a cold metal post with its tongue stuuuuuck to the surface.

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