** America’s wild places waiting in line for protection
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020
Olympic National Forest, USFS ([link removed])

After provisions that would protect more than 1.3 million acres of American wilderness were stripped from a must-pass defense spending bill this month, advocates for America's wild places are looking toward the next Congress. In the Los Angeles Times's Boiling Point ([link removed]) , Sammy Roth looks at places that would be designated under the Protecting America's Wilderness Act ([link removed]) .

The bill would designate more than 600,000 acres of new wilderness in Colorado, 132,000 acres in Washington's Olympic National Forest, and 550,000 acres in California's Central Coast and northern forests.

The wilderness bill was one of three major public lands provisions ([link removed]) that the House passed this year and added to the defense authorization bill, alongside the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act ([link removed]) , and the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act ([link removed]) , which would permanently protect 1 million acres of public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon from new uranium mining claims.


** Growing national parks
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While those major public lands bills await the next Congress, another bill that would expand Saguaro and Rocky Mountain national parks ([link removed]) passed the House on Thursday. The bill, which was championed by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva and Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, would add 1,232 acres of riparian areas, scenic views, and archaeological sites to Saguaro National Park, and connect the park to the nearby Sweetwater Preserve. The Colorado provisions would allow former astronaut Vance D. Brand to donate 40 acres to Rocky Mountain National Park ([link removed]) .
Quick hits


** Indigenous activists speak out against plans to import radioactive material to southeast Utah
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])


** Zinke’s official portrait a final slap in the face to Native American tribes
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HuffPost ([link removed])


** Trump team rushes to finish environmental rollbacks before Biden takes over
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Progressives push Biden for nominees; slim House majority could thwart Haaland bid
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Bloomberg ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | CBS News ([link removed])


** National Park Service faces growing infections, calls to close facilities
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E&E News ([link removed]) | DCist ([link removed])


** Congress demands answers after Bernhardt lets Myanmar poet go on oil buying spree
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E&E News ([link removed]) | Bloomberg ([link removed])


** Grijalva: Biden needs to go big on climate
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Politico ([link removed])


** Editorial: Two Colorado outdoor gems threatened by profit and passion
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Durango Herald ([link removed])
Quote of the day
For too long, ‘climate’ policy has been treated as a discrete bucket of ideas divorced from our wider reality. It’s now clear that our entire national policy portfolio—economic development, transportation planning, housing and urban renewal, agricultural practices, not to mention oil and gas drilling—is really about climate change and how we intend to deal with it. It’s not just the elephant in the room. It’s the whole room.”
—Rep. Raúl Grijalva
Politico ([link removed])
Picture this


** @usfws ([link removed])
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3 black-footed ferrets were released into the wild on private lands in NM, part of an effort to establish new populations throughout the interior west. Black-footed ferrets were believed to be extinct until one last colony was discovered in WY in 1981. Photo: Mark Brennan/USFWS

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