** America the Beautiful report sets the stage for Biden's conservation legacy
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Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Secretary Haaland planting vegetation with youth at the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. Interior Department, Flickr ([link removed])

A new report on the progress of the America the Beautiful initiative shows the Biden administration is already building a lasting conservation legacy ([link removed]) . America the Beautiful is a broad framework for protecting 30% of America's land and water by 2030 that was introduced by the Biden administration in May ([link removed]) .

The first annual America the Beautiful progress report outlines many of the actions the administration as well as individual states have taken so far to achieve the goals of the initiative, which include not only protecting nature but also promoting environmental justice and increasing recreational access to our public lands. The report ([link removed]) includes some obvious conservation successes, such as the restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, and some less obvious ones, such as the creation of a program to give tribal communities more say in federal land management.

“In less than a year, President Biden has laid the groundwork for what could become his most lasting legacy—a conservation track record that rivals that of Teddy or Franklin Roosevelt," said ([link removed]) Jennifer Rokala ([link removed]) , executive director at the Center for Western Priorities. "If the administration follows through on the ambitious goals laid out in today’s report, President Biden would be able to point to millions of newly-protected acres across the country, driven by locally-led conservation efforts."

The Center for Western Priorities has highlighted a number of those efforts in our Road to 30: Postcards ([link removed]) series, including the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada ([link removed]) , the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in California ([link removed]) , and the proposed Castner Range National Monument in Texas ([link removed]) .

In all of these places, community leaders are calling on Biden to protect ecologically important and sacred lands and waters—exactly the kind of locally-led efforts America the Beautiful encourages. The stage is set, all Biden has to do is act.


** BLM seeks solar developers
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The Bureau of Land Management is offering up to 90,000 acres of public land in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada to solar developers, according to E&E News ([link removed]) . The "solar energy zones" on offer were all established by the Obama administration in 2012 as part of its Western Solar Plan and are therefore subject to a streamlined permitting process. Full development of the available leases would result in an estimated 17,179 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about six million homes.
Quick hits


** Water managers begin to accept Colorado River realities
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The Nevada Independent ([link removed])


** Biden administration lists conservation successes, but not acres
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The Hill ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Las Vegas considers banning almost all new grass
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Las Vegas Review-Journal ([link removed])


** The race is on in the West to secure water
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Bloomberg CityLab ([link removed])


** Interior restarts Obama-era hunting, wildlife advisory group
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Fire in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks finally contained
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | National Parks Traveler ([link removed])


** Coal mining union asks Manchin to support Build Back Better
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Inside the battle to buy a historic ranch and important estuary in California
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
Quote of the day
It is now incumbent on President Biden to keep his promise to us and to the American people by using the ultimate tool in his toolbox: the tool of executive actions, in every arena, immediately.”
—Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, E&E News ([link removed])
Picture this


** @p ([link removed]) rotectwildutah ([link removed])
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Few things are more striking than a dusting of snow in Utah's redrock canyons.⁠
⁠
#ProtectWildUtah ([link removed]) ⁠
⁠
📷: Bret Webster

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