Since the announcement of the 30×30 plan—or what the Biden administration calls the America the Beautiful initiative—questions and concerns remain over the lack of details on the effort to preserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and oceans by 2030.
In an effort to clear the air, the Public Lands Council (PLC) hosted a panel of government officials to discuss what the plan could mean for producers and how California is implementing its version during their virtual annual meeting.
Chris French, deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), said there are six areas of focus in the America the Beautiful report related to the needs in managing the nation’s grasslands and forests and working with states and landowners on stewardship.
The six areas French outlined are: creating more space and outdoor opportunities for “nature deprived communities”; supporting Tribal-led conservation and restoration opportunities; expanding conservation wildlife corridors; incentivizing and rewarding voluntary conservation efforts; creating jobs by investing in restoration resilience; and increasing outdoor recreation.
French said the priorities align well with the priorities of USFS. The conservation goal of creating jobs for restoration and resiliency across national forests to withstand wildfires is the central focus of USFS, and this is what the agency is charged to do as part of the 30×30 plan. To achieve this effort, French said USFS is working with scientists, communities and states, focusing on areas of the highest priority and actions needed “to actually start to change what we’re experiencing.”
PLC Executive Director Kaitlynn Glover asked French how USFS Chief Randy Moore will prioritize resiliency and if the message resonated with the USDA on forest, grassland and range health.
French replied it is the priority of both USFS and USDA to work on forest resiliency “at least four times where we’re at right now.” French said USDA has been clear that working lands are a part of its long-term conservation goals that USFS wants to work on and part of America the Beautiful initiative.
Additionally, French said the 30×30 plan directs USFS to focus on wildlife corridors and access to public lands. French noted the agency had seen an increase in visitors to its parks by “almost 18 million visitors,” and there isn’t the infrastructure to allow visitors access to all areas. According to French, the 30×30 approach facilitates some of these opportunities, so people have a “connection” with public lands.
Nada Culver, deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), reinforced the need to address climate change and manage natural resources while creating jobs. Culver said the BLM, as a multiple-use agency, will implement the 30×30 plan by looking at resilience to climate change “through the land management planning process and the different management tools the agency has.”
Culver said one of the agency’s biggest areas of focus is how wildlife moves across private and public lands as instructed by Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3362, implemented under the Trump administration. BLM will work in conjunction with states and private landowners to get more information on supporting wildlife movement, Culver said. As an example, Culver noted the agency’s efforts working with Wyoming’s state migration strategy, which “builds on BLM’s history of working with partners on voluntary conservation.”
Culver highlighted BLM’s outcome-based grazing effort, which is currently a “smaller-scale experiment” to work on restoration and conservation to address climate and soils.
Culver noted there is managed grazing on 155 million acres of BLM land, and if the agency is going to look at conserving landscapes and making them more climate resilient, they will need to work with producers. Culver said wilderness grazing is “certainly part of how we manage lands for conservation for restoration and resilience.”
The agency is also looking at restoration and resiliency by working with the Civilian Climate Corps to create jobs and manage areas for recreation.
Culver also focused on one of the core principles in the America the Beautiful report: looking to science and building on existing tools and strategies. Culver noted many things currently work but questioned how BLM can build on those by working with stakeholders and looking at new science.
The panel also had Jennifer Norris, deputy secretary for Biodiversity and Habitat at the California Natural Resources Agency, for a different perspective. Through an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), California has a version of the 30×30 plan. The order is similar to the national plan to combat climate change and encourage biodiversity conservation through a collaborative effort, and Norris emphasized it is a voluntary effort.
Norris said they had spent the past year meeting with people about the challenges of conservation and some of the success stories they can build upon. The discussions also focused on the issues with climate change and biodiversity, what they mean and how to define them.
Norris said from their conversations, conservation comes “in all shapes and sizes,” from working lands and regional lands to other open spaces. There are opportunities to leverage that understanding to show people how their contributions to the environment are important.
Norris said livestock have been heavily impacted, as well as wetlands in the state, but noted there is “an amazing amount” of conservation on ranches through easements and long-term commitments.
Norris noted the state is looking at its own metric for measuring 30 percent, similar to the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas proposed by the federal government. The metric would look at where there is biodiversity in the state, projected changes under climate change and where people have access to open spaces.
“So we think that will provide us a really common language and a way to work together, as well as track our progress towards 30 percent,” Norris said.
The question presented to the panel was how all of those concepts would fit into the measurement of 30 percent.
Culver noted the interagency working group is working on the Atlas concept, and those concepts won’t “always perfectly match,” as the 30×30 initiative is broad. Culver said that many stakeholders had expressed a desire to work with the interagency working group on what counts toward the 30 percent and how to count it as the group works on the Atlas.
Glover expressed to Culver and French that the agencies’ focus has been recreation and access in the last few months. However, Glover said in conversations with the agencies that she is pleased they are considering resiliency and resource health. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
