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As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter entered home hospice care last Saturday, many historians, conservationists, and former officials are reflecting on his environmental achievements as president. Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University, told the Washington Post that President Carter will “go down, along with people like Theodore Roosevelt and [Franklin D. Roosevelt], as one of the greatest conservation presidents or environmental presidents of all time.”
In particular, Carter made a substantial impact in Alaska, using his executive authority under the Antiquities Act in 1978 to designate 56 million acres as federally protected. Shortly after losing the 1980 presidential election, Carter worked with Congress to pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), the landmark law that protected more than 100 million acres of Alaskan land, including national parks, national monuments and other sites.
Carter's actions prompted intense local protests at the time, as it was the most public land any president in U.S. history had designated as off limits to development. In the decades since, public support for protecting public lands has only continued to grow. The 2023 Colorado College Conservation in the West poll is evidence of this trend—84 percent of Western voters surveyed in the poll said they want to see more national monuments, parks, and wildlife refuges that protect historic sites or preserve recreational areas.
While President Joe Biden has made progress on restoring environmental protections that were removed during the Trump administration, he has a long way to go if he wants to leave a lasting conservation legacy that rivals the achievements of Jimmy Carter. The Biden administration must dramatically accelerate its land protection and rulemaking efforts if the president hopes to campaign on or leave a lasting legacy on America’s public lands in 2024.
Tribes file lawsuit challenging Nevada lithium mine approval
Three Native American tribes are joining environmental groups to seek an emergency court order to block construction of a Nevada lithium mine weeks after a federal judge directed the Bureau of Land Management to revisit part of its approval of the plans but allowed construction to go forward in the meantime. The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Burns Paiute Tribe and the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe joined together to oppose Canada-based Lithium Americas' proposal to develop the Thacker Pass lithium mine, an area that marks the location where ancestors of the Paiute and Shoshone people were massacred by the U.S. Cavalry in 1865.
“When the decision was made public on the previous lawsuit last week, we said we would continue to advocate for our sacred site PeeHee Mu’Huh. A place where prior to colonization, all our Paiute and Shoshone ancestors lived for countless generations,” said Arlan Melendez, Chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in a statement. “It’s a place where all Paiute and Shoshone people continue to pray, gather medicines and food, honor our non-human relatives, honor our water, honor our way of life, honor our ancestors.”
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I have never been happier, more exhilarated, at peace, rested, inspired, and aware of the grandeur of the universe and the greatness of God than when I find myself in a natural setting not much changed from the way He made it.”
