Public Lands Issues to Watch in 2020
Photo credit: Holly Mandarich
The new decade is starting off rowdy for public lands issues. From major rollbacks to clean water protections and public comment periods to the possibility of a big package of recreation bills, here’s everything we have our eye on in the coming year:
Stuff We Hope Will Happen:
Let’s start with the good stuff. With the popularity of last year’s public lands package (which we are still amped about), there is momentum to pass more good policy this year in the form of a recreation package, as well as some public lands funding bills. Here’s what could be on the table:
Funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF): Last year, we finally passed permanent reauthorization of LWCF (woot!). LWCF helps to create new parks and public lands. Although it is authorized to get $900 million each year, in practice it gets about half that, and the rest of the funds are diverted for other purposes. This year, we are advocating for a bill (S.1081/H.R.3195) that will honor the promise of the program and provide crucial funding to create parks, trails, and recreation infrastructure around the country.
Restore Our Parks and Public Lands (ROPA): While parks and public lands are getting more popular every year, Congress has repeatedly shortchanged the budgets for land management agencies, leaving them with a backlog of projects. ROPA would provide funding to address the maintenance backlog on National Parks and other public lands. The House bill (H.R.1225), which recently has moved through committee, would create a fund for restoring parks and public lands. Right now, the bill mainly applies to National Parks, and we are working to make sure that maintenance for National Forests is also covered.
Recreation Not Red-Tape Act (RNR): There’s lots to love in this bill, including improved permitting for outfitters and guides and a new way to protect public lands as National Recreation Areas. We’ve been working on this bill for years as a way to better protect the places outside that have valuable outdoor recreation. It also includes the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act, which will improve permitting for outfitters, guides, and nonprofit outdoor programs.
Rollbacks We’re Watching Closely:
The final year of any presidential term is a time when that administration works quickly to complete its agenda. We’re seeing rollbacks happen at a steady clip right now, and even though Congress is looking pretty good on the public lands front, we are working overtime to prevent bad stuff from happening everywhere else, including:
Taking Aim at the National Environmental Policy Law (NEPA): The administration recently announced its plans to alter how it implements NEPA, one of the foundational laws that ensures good environmental reviews and the chance for the American people to comment on any major changes to public lands and waters. The Forest Service has also proposed changes in how often it will offer public comment periods.
Rolling Back Clean Water Protections: Last week, the Trump administration finalized a new regulation that rolled back crucial clean water protections. The new regulations would allow pollution, wastewater, and contaminants to be dumped in seasonal streams and wetlands because apparently they’ve forgotten that water runs downhill. This will affect the drinking water for one in three Americans.
Oil and Gas Leasing: Our GIS team has been working to map the aggressive new oil and gas leases that could overlap with recreation on public lands. Right now, the administration is offering a lot of land for lease at rock-bottom prices, and the comment periods are short, so it’s an added challenge to track it, analyze it, and protest it in time. A new bill from Sen. Cortez Masto would require the BLM to study a parcel’s potential for development and end the practice of leasing lands with a low potential for development to speculators.
New Protections for Public Lands:
Although new legislative landscape protections are a longshot to pass in this Congress, we’re laying the groundwork now to protect important landscapes in the future. (If you remember, we worked to protect places like the Mountains to Sound Greenway for more than five years before the legislation was actually passed. Land protection is a long game).
Right now, we’re advocating for protections for a few priority landscapes. In California, we’re advocating for the Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act; the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act; and the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act. We’re also working to protect the Wild Olympics in Washington, the Colorado Wilderness Act, and the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. You can read more about these bills here.
Climate Solutions:
There is a lot that the outdoor community can do to fight climate change in the coming year. Public lands and waters are a crucial part of climate resilience, and Americans who love outdoor recreation can make a difference in supporting these solutions. We’re particularly motivated to build momentum around two bills:
H.R. 5435, the American Public Lands and Waters Climate Solution Act (Rep. Grijalva, D-AZ): Rep. Grijalva’s bill would direct land management agencies to manage public lands and waters to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
S. Res. 372 - A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Federal Government should establish a national goal of conserving at least 30 percent of the land and ocean of the United States by 2030 (Sen. Udall, D-NM): Sen. Udall’s resolution seeks to conserve 30% of America’s lands and oceans by 2030, an ambitious yet achievable goal that will both preserve special places and provide critical climate resilience.
You can expect to hear from us about these issues (and more) in the coming year. Our policy team weekly analyzes the policy landscape in D.C. and makes sure that you have meaningful opportunities to take action to protect the places you love.