Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** What counts toward the global 30x30 goal?
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana. Photo: Bob Wick, BLM ([link removed]) .
Last month's global biodiversity conference in Montreal established a goal of protecting 30 percent of the world's lands and waters by the end of the decade. The United States is not a signatory to the 30x30 agreement, but President Joe Biden had separately committed the United States to the same goal nearly two years prior. Now with the broad goal in place, the hard work begins of defining what counts as "protected."
Blanca Begert at Grist takes a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities ([link removed]) around the definition of conservation. The hardest line to draw may be around mixed-use or working lands, which allow some amount of grazing or forestry.
Helen O'Shea, a land-use expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explained ([link removed]) that “There’s habitat value to be found in all sorts of lands, but the 30×30 effort is about creating a system that’s protected and ecologically representative. A connected system that’s going to link up areas that are solely being looked at for conservation purposes.”
An interagency working group led by the Interior Department has been tasked with calculating and defining these different types of protection in the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, which was a cornerstone of President Biden's initial America the Beautiful executive order. But the administration missed its self-imposed deadline to release a draft of the Atlas by the end of 2022, and the Interior Department has gone silent on when it might be released.
** Klein to lead offshore energy agency
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Elizabeth Klein, a top aide to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, will take over as director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ([link removed]) this month. President Biden had planned to nominate Klein as the Deputy Interior Secretary at the start of his term, but changed course in the face of opposition from oil-friendly senators, including Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin.
At BOEM, which does not require Senate confirmation, Klein will oversee offshore oil as well as renewable energy development plans. Under outgoing director Amanda Lefton, the agency held record-breaking lease sales for future offshore wind development.
Quick hits
** Oil and gas are back and booming
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Wall Street Journal ([link removed])
** Interior Department sets up office to oversee abandoned well cleanup
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Reuters ([link removed])
** Once-targeted Interior aide named offshore energy chief
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E&E News ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed])
** Top brands boycott Outdoor Retailer as trade show returns to Utah
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | Axios ([link removed])
** Conservation group plans to sue over protection of Nevada flower
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Las Vegas Sun ([link removed])
** Arizona Governor Hobbs talks water management, launches groundwater council
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KTAR ([link removed])
** Proposed Range of Light National Monument would link Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
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Outside ([link removed])
** Opinion: Scientist who led climate change protest at conference fired by national lab
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New York Times ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” She’s gotten a complete bum rap. Liz Klein is a pragmatic, can-do problem solver.”
—Former White House official David Hayes, The Washington Post ([link removed])
Picture this
** @mypubliclands ([link removed])
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Did you know...The Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (we know - It's a mouthful to say! 😆) in southern Idaho hosts seven different species of owls.
They nest in areas from the cliffs above the Snake River to underground burrows in the sagebrush steppe (like this Burrowing Owl). Their prey includes insects, rabbits and snakes.
Owls and other raptors are non-game species and are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
If you visit this special area, make sure to keep your eyes peeled for owls!
📸 Jim Shane
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