Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** How climate change makes prescribed burns even harder
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Monday, May 9, 2022
A prescribed burn at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Steve Segin, USFWS ([link removed])

Even as fire managers emphasize the need for more prescribed burning to reduce fuel loads between fire seasons, climate change is making it harder for them to find safe windows for the burns. The New York Times ([link removed]) looks at the challenges land managers face in places like Boulder County, Colorado, where an exceptionally dry and windy spring has prevented the mountain parks department from carrying out any major planned burns.

In California, winter rains have become shorter but more intense, giving grass and brush more time to grow then dry out before the fall.

“I don’t think people realize that we’re actually at a point where, some of these fires, we cannot put them out,” Lenya N. Quinn-Davidson, director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, told the Times. “We really need to be thinking in different ways about how we do things.”

Quinn-Davidson is part of a program training a new generation of prescribed fire leaders. But she stressed that because so many fires take place on national public land, only large-scale prescribed fire projects—and similarly large policy changes—will be able to address the problem.


** Two corner crossing cases down, one to go
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A prosecutor in Wyoming has asked a judge to dismiss a second criminal case ([link removed]) against four hunters who were found not guilty of trespassing ([link removed]) by crossing from public land to public land at a corner of the Western land "checkerboard." The prosecutor said that since the facts of the second case, which dated back to 2020, were essentially the same as the case that resulted in acquittal, "a dismissal would be in the interest of judicial economy," according to WyoFile ([link removed]) .

That leaves a civil trespassing case ([link removed]) which was brought by the billionaire private landowner, but was transferred to federal court at the request of the hunters. The hunters argue that Wyoming law violates the federal Unlawful Inclosures Act, which broadly prohibits landowners from blocking access to public property.
Quick hits


** Biden's 30x30 plan could boost overlooked National Conservation Lands
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E&E News ([link removed])


** A Trump-tied PAC enters the 30x30 disinformation game, deletes social media history when discovered
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HuffPost ([link removed])


** Colorado River managers to draw down Flaming Gorge to keep turbines spinning at Lake Powell
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WyoFile ([link removed])


** More human remains discovered as Lake Mead continues to drop
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KLAS ([link removed]) | Sacramento Bee ([link removed])


** Strong winds complicate wildfire fight in New Mexico
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Scientists study how wildfires impact snowmelt and Western water supplies
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])


** BLM brings back former senior official to lead Alaska state office
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Hatchery program releases 250 endangered fish into Colorado River
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Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” We were surprised to learn that following fire the amount of stored snowpack is significantly reduced. The amount of total snow stored is less and it’s melting earlier.”
—Portland State University Assistant Professor Kelly Gleason, Colorado Sun ([link removed])
Picture this


** @nationalparkservice ([link removed])
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To all of the moms and mother figures in our lives: Thank you for all that you do!

When I was stuck, you always gave the mom-entum I needed to get going again. Moms are important to all animals, like this mama moose helping her baby cross the Colorado River at @rockynps ([link removed]) .

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