** December, in brief
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Fall transitions to winter at @GreatDunesNPS ([link removed]) in Colorado. Passing storms dust the mountains and dunes with snow and cast dramatic shadows over the tallest dunes in North America. Photo: @Interior ([link removed])


** Key news from December:
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* The White House released a first-year progress report ([link removed]) on President Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative ([link removed]) . The report recaps the administration’s actions to protect and restore nature, increase access to the outdoors, and engage in meaningful consultation with Tribal nations. The administration also announced ([link removed]) it would launch a public comment period in early 2022 to gather input on the forthcoming American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas. Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala said in a statement
([link removed]) , “In 2021, the America the Beautiful initiative set the stage for these bold conservation efforts. In 2022, we look forward to the president’s vision becoming a reality.”
* West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said he won't vote for the Build Back Better Act ([link removed]) , a roughly $2 trillion package of legislation that touches on everything from poverty to climate change. Despite the legislative setback, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote in the Senate on the bill in January ([link removed]) . Meanwhile, lawmakers are calling on President Joe Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland not to wait on Congress to reform drilling on public lands. "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,” said
([link removed]) Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal.
* The Bureau of Land Management announced details ([link removed]) of the agency’s return to its Washington, DC headquarters. The agency will fill approximately 30 vacant positions in Washington, while establishing a Western headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado. Center for Western Priorities' Executive Director Jennifer Rokala called the decision "the end of an error ([link removed]) ," and noted the damage to the agency done under the Trump administration. “America’s public lands are at the center of the fight to slow climate change and the biodiversity crisis. Protecting our lands for future generations will take a concerted and coordinated effort across the entire government, which is why the Bureau of Land Management’s leadership must be located in our nation’s capital,” said Rokala
([link removed]) .
* The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling ([link removed]) in a massive lease sale, though it previously claimed it was legally obliged to hold the sale. The sale, held on November 17 just days after the climate summit in Glasgow, was the largest ever ([link removed]) auction of oil and gas parcels, offering up more than 80 million acres of the gulf and locking in decades of carbon emissions.
* Three of the states that depend on the Colorado River announced a voluntary agreement ([link removed]) to withdraw less water from the drought-stressed river. The lower basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada will work with the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation to provide millions in funding over the next two years to support conservation, efficiency, and reduction measures as part of a plan to boost the level of Lake Mead, the country's largest reservoir on the border of Nevada and Arizona. In August, Reclamation declared a first-ever shortage on the river, triggering mandatory cuts for Arizona and Nevada starting next year.
* The Bureau of Land Management has approved two large-scale solar farms in California ([link removed]) as part of a big push by the Biden administration to permit at least 25,000 megawatts of onshore renewable energy projects by 2025. The BLM announced it also plans to approve a third large-scale solar project early next year. The three solar farms will be the first inside of a special permitting zone in California, called the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) ([link removed]) area ([link removed]) , which was created under the Obama administration and covers 10.8 million acres of federal land. The land in the DRECP was analyzed for development under Obama, and sensitive wildlife habitat within the area was identified and protected, allowing for expedited
permitting.
* A new study projects that in about 35 to 60 years, mountainous states may be nearly snowless for years at a time ([link removed]) . The Western United States has already lost 20% of its snowpack since the 1950s, and stands to lose another half (or more) later this century ([link removed]) . A lack of snow will also have obvious impacts on winter recreation and communities across the West ([link removed]) .
* President Biden signed an executive order compelling the United States government to become carbon neutral by 2050 ([link removed]) . The order directs the government to utilize its billions of dollars of purchasing power to upgrade federal buildings, create a fleet of electric vehicles, and change the government's electricity buying practices.
* A Colorado mountain has a new name: Mestaa’ėhehe ([link removed]) . The peak is renamed for Owl Woman ([link removed]) , an influential Cheyenne translator who helped maintain peaceful relations between local Native American tribes and new settlers before her death in 1847. A petition to change the name from "Squaw Mountain" was approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names ([link removed]) . In November, the Interior
Department officially recognized ([link removed]) the word "squaw" as a derogatory and offensive ethnic, racial, and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women, and established a federal task force to find replacement names for geographic features on federal lands bearing the term.


** What to watch for in 2022:
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* The Interior department has hinted at a desire to increase royalties, fees, rents, and bonding requirements for oil and gas leasing and production on federal land. The department is also looking at safety regulations for offshore oil rigs as well as regulations for renewable energy transmission.
* After laying the groundwork in 2021, there are numerous conservation opportunities around the country for the Biden administration to ramp up their America the Beautiful campaign and assist community-led efforts to protect special places like the Avi Kwa Ame ([link removed]) and Castner Range ([link removed]) national monument proposals in Nevada and Texas, and the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary ([link removed]) proposal off California's central coast.

Best Reads of the Month


** The West went through climate hell in 2021 but there's still hope
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])


**
How ‘Dark Sky’ designations are giving Western communities new tourism appeal
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Washington Post ([link removed])


**
Historically excluded, tribes want a say in Colorado River Policy
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Colorado Public Radio ([link removed])


**
New Mexico educators say 'Stop using us for oil and gas PR'
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The Paper ([link removed])


**
Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico helped billionaire avoid paying taxes for 14 years
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ProPublica ([link removed])


**
Tracy Stone-Manning's plans for rebuilding the BLM and tackling the climate and nature crises
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Outside ([link removed])


**
2021 was a game-changing year for trees
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Vox ([link removed])


**
Opinion: It's time to stop betting Wyoming's future on Wyoming's past
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])


From the Center for Western Priorities:


** More Postcards from the Road to 30
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The Road to 30: Postcards ([link removed]) campaign travels to Nevada, California, Oregon, and New Mexico

The Center for Western Priorities released four new Postcards ([link removed]) from our multimedia series telling the stories of everyday Americans and the places they want to conserve for future generations.

In southern Nevada, the Fort Mojave Tribe is leading the effort to protect a new 380,000-acre national monument, Avi Kwa Ame ([link removed]) . The proposed monument would encompass Spirit Mountain, which is sacred to tribal members, and protect some of the most biologically diverse land in the Mojave Desert.

Along the California coast, the Chumash tribes and a local coalition have been working for decades to establish the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary ([link removed]) to protect 140 miles of vulnerable coastline. This is the country's first tribally-led and nominated marine sanctuary, and it would ban offshore oil, natural gas extraction, seismic testing and pollution off California’s central coast.

The area that comprises the Greater Hart-Sheldon region ([link removed]) is one of the most remote and ecologically intact regions of the lower 48 and is home to an array of plant and animal species, including pronghorn. Scientific research has revealed a critical pronghorn migration corridor in the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem between the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Oregon and the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada.

The 570-acre Valle de Oro Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico ([link removed]) was born out of a community’s desire to protect their neighborhood from polluters. When the Valley Gold dairy farm shut down in 2010, a coalition of neighbors got together to petition the federal government to buy the farm and turn it into a wildlife refuge, in order to preserve open space and keep industrial development out. Valle de Oro is the first urban wildlife refuge in the country, as well as the only wildlife refuge with an explicit environmental justice mandate.

Explore all of these stories of iconic places that deserve to be conserved, told in documentary style short films, podcast episodes, digital interactives, blogs, virtual panel discussions, and more at www.RoadTo30.org/postcards ([link removed]) .

More postcards are on the way in 2022, so check back soon ([link removed]) !
Visit the website & browse the stories ([link removed])
The story of Valle de Oro: The Southwest's first urban wildlife refuge ([link removed])

The folks behind Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge ([link removed]) outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico come on The Landscape ([link removed]) to talk about how the first urban wildlife refuge in the Southwest came to be. We’re joined by refuge manager Jennifer Owen-White, Friends of Valle de Oro president David Barber, and Los Jardines Institute co-coordinator Richard Moore for this episode, which is part of our Road to 30: Postcards series ([link removed]) .
Everything you wanted to know about gas prices but were afraid to ask ([link removed])

What’s going on with gas prices, and is the Biden administration to blame? Aaron, Kate, and Jesse are joined ([link removed]) by Brad Handler of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, who explains why gas prices spiked this summer, and what comes next.
Quote of the month


** "Secretary Haaland should immediately finalize rules to stop oil and gas companies from wasting methane on public lands. Interior must stop sweetheart deals for drillers and raise royalty rates on leases. The department should begin a full review of the climate impacts of oil and gas leasing to ensure these new rules cannot easily be erased by a future administration. And the Biden administration must do everything it can to ramp up renewable energy production on our public lands. I hope that Congress will one day pass laws to slow the climate crisis. Until then, it’s up to the administration to take every action possible, as quickly as possible."
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** —Center for Western Priorities' Executive Director, Jennifer Rokala ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Picture this
Spectacular #winter ([link removed]) scenes at Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in northern #Idaho ([link removed]) . @USFWS ([link removed]) photos: Sara Straub [link removed] ([link removed]) . @USFWSPacific ([link removed])

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