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Farmers in Nebraska are pushing back against an anti-conservation campaign from the state's governor. Governor Pete Ricketts has been holding events filled with disinformation about the Biden administration's “America the Beautiful” initiative, which aims to protect 30 percent of America's land and water by 2030.
One of Ricketts' common themes is that voluntary conservation easements on farms constitute a “land grab”—and that message isn't landing well in his state. The Omaha World-Herald editorial board took Ricketts to task, noting that conservation easements “are a common tool found in every state,” and that “a cooperative approach is vital for Nebraska, given that the vast majority of the land is privately owned.”
The editorial calls out Ricketts' hypocrisy, which has turned him into a crusader against the rights of private property owners. “Using a conservation easement is an exercise of property rights,” the editorial board notes. “The law fully empowers property owners to make that choice.”
John Hansen, the head of the Nebraska Farmers Union, pointed out that Ricketts is doing the bidding of a far-right extremist group, American Stewards of Liberty, which has been spreading 30x30 disinformation across the country.
“The handouts that Governor Ricketts is using at these events and whose information he is using in his speeches are in a lot of instances wrong,” Hansen told Nebraska Public Media. “It's not accurate. It's not consistent with what it is that we already know but it's intended to, well, scare, spread fear, spread doubt, and to ascribe the very worst intentions of President Biden.”
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I am very encouraged that the 30×30 goal contained in the America the Beautiful vision does just what scientists are recommending by acknowledging that we have to address the loss of nature and climate change together. If we can restore whole ecosystems, then they will, in turn, cheaply and quickly absorb the carbon emissions that are the root cause of climate change and are wreaking havoc on the planet.”
