The Biden administration released the “Year One Report: America the Beautiful”, highlighting progress made toward President Joe Biden’s 30×30 initiative to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s oceans and lands by 2030.
“This first annual America the Beautiful report is by no means comprehensive of all the efforts underway across the federal family—let alone the country—but it provides a snapshot of how the Biden-Harris administration is kicking off a decade-long effort to conserve and restore the lands and waters we cherish as Americans,” wrote the leaders from the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
The report focuses on work the federal government, Tribes and stakeholders are undertaking around six areas: creating more parks in underserved communities; supporting Tribally led conservation and restoration priorities; expanding collaborative conservation of fish and wildlife habitats and corridors; increasing access for outdoor recreation; rewarding voluntary conservation efforts of fishers, ranchers, farmers and forest owners; and creating jobs by investing in restoration and resilience.
Some of the points among the six areas are efforts to conduct Tribal consultations, advance Tribal co-stewardship of federal lands and waters, and strengthen Nation-to-Nation relationships. The report noted the preservation of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, the expansion of the Bears Ears National Monument, proposed protections of roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California.
The report included efforts the Department of the Interior (DOI) is making to enhance wildlife corridors for elk, mule deer and pronghorn in the West; create regional and federal partnerships to combat invasive species; and restore grasslands, wetlands and fish habitat.
Among the efforts to incentivize farmers and ranchers on voluntary conservation efforts, the report notes the expansion of the Conservation Reserve Program and the enrollment of 2.8 million acres, $75 million through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program’s Alternative Funding Arrangements, $94 million of Forest Legacy funds and partnerships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Year One Report references the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which would fund new and existing efforts to “improve the care of lands, waters and wildlife across the country” and the Great American Outdoors Act. The report notes DOI’s Office of Policy Analysis showed the $1.6 billion investment in the Great American Outdoors Act would generate 19,000 jobs and generate $2 billion in local economies.
According to the American Stewards of Liberty (ASL), a nonprofit founded in 1992 by western ranchers to protect property rights, the total costs for projects mentioned in the report are $58 billion. However, ASL notes it does not consider costs associated with the Conservation Reserve Program, grants to nonprofits and national monument expansions.
ASL critiqued the report’s “lofty narrative and high-sounding principles,” stating it is a “laundry list of primarily small-sized actions, while still failing to address the most pressing questions Americans have about the program.”
ASL also criticized the Year One Report for failing to define what “conserving at least 30 percent” of America’s lands means. ASL cited that Page 7 of the report states, “It does not include a numerical summary of how much land is currently protected, conserved, or restored in the United States; the development of the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas will enable that reporting to occur in future annual progress reports.”
At the time of the America the Beautiful announcement, the DOI released a fact sheet stating that according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 12 percent of lands are “permanently protected,” and 23 percent of oceans are “strongly protected.”
The Biden administration announced on Jan. 4 the America the Beautiful interagency working group (IWG) will seek comments to develop the atlas with input from stakeholders, including Tribes, states, scientists and the public. The IWG is seeking what data sources and technical sources should be used in the atlas. Additionally, the IWG will consider what “stewardship actions should be considered, in addition to permanent protections, to capture a more complete picture of conservation and restoration in America.”
The administration will hold three 90-minute listening sessions on Jan. 13, 19 and 21. Written comments can also be submitted before March 4. For more information, you can visit www.doi.gov/priorities/america-the-beautiful.
The second section of the Year One Report provides a survey developed with interagency federal scientists to provide a “foundation on which to build future discussions, analysis and reporting.” It looked at the land cover change to give perspectives on land-based trends and reviewed fish and wildlife habitats and populations. It noted that human and energy developments are the most significant drivers of landscape change, and climate change indirectly changes the landscape. The report also cited 1,268 species are listed as endangered, and 394 are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The White House fact sheet stated that 50 Tribal leaders and hundreds of locally elected officials had expressed support for the program since the America the Beautiful announcement. The report highlights states’ efforts on their version of the 30×30 plan, including California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and New York.
“In leveraging the historic infrastructure investments and continuing to forge strong working partnerships with states, Tribes, local communities, and other key stakeholders, America is already capitalizing on this tremendous opportunity to honor the lands and waters we know and love and to build a better America,” the report concludes. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
