** Bernhardt approves road through threatened tortoise habitat
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Friday, January 15, 2021
Mojave Desert Tortoise. Photo: USFWS Pacific Southwest Region Flickr ([link removed])

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt personally signed off on a controversial highway project ([link removed]) in Utah that will cut a 4-mile corridor through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, bisecting protected habitat for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with Bureau of Land Management on the project review and is expected to issue an "incidental take permit" ([link removed]) that would exempt the killing, harming, or harassing of a certain number of desert tortoises due to the construction of the highway.

Critics of the decision ([link removed]) point out that sections of the conservation area were purchased using funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and that there are alternative routes for the highway that would avoid the conservation area entirely.

Todd Tucci, an attorney representing conservation groups who oppose the road said in response to the decision ([link removed]) , "This is the beginning, not the end, of the fight to protect the world class recreation, open space and Mojave Desert tortoise habitat provided by the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. We look forward to convincing President-elect Biden (and a court, if needed) that Secretary Bernhardt's plan to punch a four-lane highway through this desert paradise will not protect, restore, and enhance these irreplaceable recreation and conservation values."


** Podcast: Inside the Trump administration's destructive final days
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In the latest episode ([link removed]) of the Center for Western Priorities’ podcast, The Landscape, Jenny Rowland-Shea ([link removed]) of the Center for American Progress joins CWP’s policy director Jesse Prentice-Dunn to look at the barrage of environmental damage being unleashed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in the waning days of the Trump administration, as well as the tools the Biden administration may use to stop it.
Quick hits


** Settlement reached for Gold King Mine spill with Navajo Nation, state of New Mexico
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** BLM New Mexico acquires private land to create protected elk migration corridor
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Bernhardt approves controversial Utah road through threatened tortoise habitat
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Scientists warn of "ghastly future" for not taking seriously the threats posed by biodiversity loss & climate change
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The Guardian ([link removed])


** Trump administration finalizes rule to lower royalties for drilling on public lands and offshore
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Tribal resistance at the forefront of objections to land swap approval for controversial Arizona copper mine
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Huffington Post ([link removed])


** Podcast: Inside the Trump administration's destructive final days, and tools Biden can use to stop the damage
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The Landscape ([link removed])


** William Perry Pendley's illegal stint at BLM undermines first-of-its-kind backcountry conservation area in Montana
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High Country News ([link removed])
Quote of the day
This is a blatant attempt to reopen loopholes for the oil and gas industry and allow them to skirt royalty payments owed to American taxpayers for publicly owned resources. It’s just an open and shut case of delivering benefits to the oil and gas industry at the expense of the American people."
—Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities ([link removed])
Picture this


** @NatlParkService ([link removed])
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In honor of the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., NPS sites will have free admission on Monday, January 18, 2021. Commemorated on the third Monday of January, it is also a day of service across the country. Learn more at: [link removed] ([link removed])
#FindYourPark ([link removed]) , #MLKDay2021 ([link removed])

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