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February 7th, 2022It’s now been a year since President Biden issued his Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Among other things, the order placed a pause on oil and gas leasing on federal public lands and committed the United States to a ten-year goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
At the time, SUWA called the leasing moratorium “a common sense and desperately needed step to right the ship and chart a more thoughtful, climate conscious path forward as our nation Builds Back Better.” Not surprisingly, Utah Governor Spencer Cox and pro-drilling groups such as the Western Energy Alliance immediately launched an aggressive campaign claiming the pause would have devastating effects on Utah’s rural economy.
So what actually happened? In short, those dire predictions proved wildly inaccurate.
To learn just how inaccurate they were and why, we invite you to scroll through our story map, The Pause on New Oil & Gas Leasing in Utah: One Year Later (and share it with friends).
Click image to view story map
For far too long the BLM has wrongly elevated oil and gas leasing and development as the primary use of our nation’s public lands, threatening our climate, wild places, cultural heritage, and the continued existence of thousands of species. This unbalanced approach must stop now. Our wild places—and the climate crisis—demand no less.
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January 31st, 2022Great news! Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland urging her department to designate new wilderness study areas as part of the Biden administration’s goal of protecting 30 percent of public lands and waters by 2030. That crucial goal simply isn’t possible without the robust participation of the Department of the Interior, which is the nation’s largest land manager. And with the climate and extinction crises wreaking havoc on our world, the time to act is now.
Joining Sen. Durbin on the letter were six other senators: Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).
If any of these senators represent you, please click here to thank them now.
“Our remote lands are overlooked sometimes in conversations about addressing the climate crisis, but their contributions will be crucial. Public lands not only support complex ecosystems, but also can sequester carbon and make areas more resilient to the impacts of climate change,” the senators wrote in their letter.
“More than 29 million acres of public lands are in need of protection. For years, DOI has not utilized its ability to protect these lands, leaving places like the Vermillion Basin in Colorado, Granite Range in Nevada, the Bodie Hills in California, Hatch Canyon in Utah, Otero Mesa in New Mexico, and the Owyhee Canyonlands in Oregon without proper protection for their unique resources. Without proper protections, these lands face many threats that could jeopardize wilderness-quality values the Bureau of Land Management stated these lands have.”
To read the full text of the letter, click here.
As the senators rightly point out, protecting public lands is one of the key ways we can help mitigate the climate crisis. We are extremely grateful to them for connecting the dots, and for reaching out to the Interior Department with solutions.
Thank you.
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January 20th, 2022Read More »Our e-newsletter with the latest on redrock wilderness news and events.
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January 19th, 2022What happens when new land protections and wilderness are designated? While every land management journey is different, one thing’s for sure: the devil’s in the details.
The latest episode of Wild Utah looks at this process through 663,000 acres of land recently designated as wilderness through the 2019 John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, Congress passed the Emery County Public Land Management Act. Among other things, this act created 17 new wilderness areas, the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area, and three Wild and Scenic segments on the Green River.
As a result of these new designations, there are a lot of details to consider. And because the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) must update its management plan for each of the affected areas– which includes input from the public– it’s a process that will take well over a year to complete.
So, what’s the importance of this process? What do we want to see happen in following through with these new wilderness protections? And when and how do we contact the BLM about all of this to make our voices heard? SUWA Wildlands Attorney Judi Brawer joins us in this highly informative episode that we can all look to as a guide.
Take action after this episode!
Thank you to our show supporters!
Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Thank you for your support!
Become a SUWA member today and support the Wild Utah Podcast
Subscribe to Wild Utah on your favorite podcast app!
wildutah.info/Stitcher
wildutah.info/Apple
wildutah.info/SpotifyTheme music is by Haley Noel Austin, with interlude music by Larry Pattis.
Dave Pacheco is the host of Wild Utah.
Post studio production and editing is by Laura Borichevsky.
A transcript of this episode is available here. -
December 15th, 2021On December 4th, the state of Utah issued a multi-million dollar contract bid, furthering their plans to file a lawsuit challenging the restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court.
The state was clearly not listening to the people.
Two days prior, on December 2nd, Tribal and Indigenous community leaders, in addition to people from across Utah, protested at the state Capitol to discourage the irresponsible misuse of state tax dollars.
Tune into the latest episode of the Wild Utah podcast to hear each of the speakers from that night, recorded live at the Capitol:
- Malcom Lehi, Councilman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition
- Timothy Nuvangyaoma, Chairman of the Hopi Tribe
- Davis Filfred, Co-Chair of Utah Diné Bikéyah
- Olivia Juarez, Latinx Community Organizer for SUWA
- Brooke Larsen, Utah community activist, organizer, & writer
Take action after this episode!
Resources:
Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Statement on Bears Ears National Monument restoration
SUWA Statement on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument restorations
Learn more about SUWA’s stance on Bears Ears here
Learn more about SUWA’s stance on Grand Staircase-Escalante here
Highlights in the News:
KSL: Utah AG’s Office picks national law firm to assist in potential monuments lawsuit
Thank you to our show supporters!
Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Thank you for your support!
Become a SUWA member today and support the Wild Utah Podcast
Subscribe to Wild Utah on your favorite podcast app!
wildutah.info/Stitcher
wildutah.info/Apple
wildutah.info/SpotifyTheme music is by Haley Noel Austin, with interlude music by Larry Pattis.
Dave Pacheco is the host of Wild Utah.
Post studio production and editing is by Laura Borichevsky.
A transcript of this episode is available here.
