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A new report on the progress of the America the Beautiful initiative shows the Biden administration is already building a lasting conservation legacy. 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.
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 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 Jennifer Rokala, 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 series, including the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada, the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in California, and the proposed Castner Range National Monument in Texas.
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
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. 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.
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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.”
