Reno, NV-- Last night, a leaked Department of the Interior report made public by the Washington Post unveiled the appalling truth behind Secretary Zinke’s public land recommendations. The document’s vague, yet startling recommendations call for a shrinking and fragmentation of Nevada’s Gold Butte National Monument. The recommendations signal a complete disregard for more than 2.8 million public comments -- 98% urging to maintain the current and future protections for national monuments across the country.
SEATTLE, WA--Last night, Washington Post revealed Sec.Ryan Zinke’s recommendations to alter national monuments around the country-- risking the value and preserved nature of public lands. Despite maintaining Hanford Reach National Monument, Zinke ignored 98% of the 2.8 million Americans who submitted public comments urging the preservation of public lands nationwide. Stripping safeguards for these places is an unprecedented act in American history. The decision puts public lands in key states up-for-grabs for potential drilling, mining and clear-cutting.
A leaked copy of Interior Secretary Zinke’s secret recommendation on national monuments shows the Secretary hopes to strip protections from public lands and waters across the country. Sites that could lose protections include Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Cascade-Siskiyou in Oregon, Gold Butte in Nevada, Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte in New Mexico, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts near Massachusetts and Rose Atoll and Pacific Remote Islands.
A coalition of national conservation groups including Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and Animal Legal Defense Fund filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today challenging border wall construction activities that threaten wildlife and public lands in San Diego and Imperial Valley, California.
The House Natural Resources Committee today will take up a series of anti-wildlife and endangered species bills. The extreme bills undermine the role of science in endangered species decisions, reduce government accountability and collectively gut the Endangered Species Act, one of the country’s most successful conservation laws.
The Sierra Club praised news today that President Obama will designate new national monuments recognizing the country’s civil rights history
WASHINGTON D.C.-- Today, new findings revealed the Environmental Protection Agency programs that will be most affected by the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts, including a 97% budget cut for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI).
Washington, DC -- Today, in a vote along party lines, Senate Republicans used the Congressional Review Act to scrap the Obama administration’s Bureau of Land Management’s Planning 2.0.
In response, Sierra Club Lands Protection program Director Athan Manuel released the following statement:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate voted to confirm Rep. Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Department of the Interior.
His confirmation will be followed by a rally today at noon outside the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. The rally will demonstrate people’s love of the outdoors and the fierce expectation that Secretary Zinke stand firm against those seeking to undermine the new Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Donald Trump will release a budget outline that will reportedly slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule. Voiding the rule undermines the management of public lands in Alaska, including not only national wildlife refuge lands, but also national park lands in Denali and other places.