Speak Out to Protect Public Lands

Swamp Cedars proposed National Monument. Credit Patrick Donnelly

Swamp Cedars proposed National Monument in White Pine County, Nevada. Photo courtesy Patrick Donnelly.

By Christian Gerlach, Our Wild America Organizer in Nevada.

The Bureau of Land Management/Department of Interior has just announced on the National Federal Register a series of virtual listening sessions and a formal 60-day comment period on the 30x30/American Conservation & Stewardship Atlas. The virtual listening sessions are coming up later this month. It is very important that a range of diverse pro-conservation perspectives are represented in these listening sessions as the need to protect public lands from climate change and make them part of the solution to climate change grows.

The speaking spots are on a first come, first serve sign up process. While you probably will not be able to speak, it would be great to get some eyes and ears these meetings if you are able to join. They expect 15-20 speakers per session. The link to the livestream can be found here.

The Bureau of Land Management Zoom registration links can be found here:

Protecting 30% of Nevada’s public lands, forests and waters reap benefits for communities, biodiversity and the climate. Public lands, waters and forests are spaces that protect the health of people, wildlife, and the planet. These places are under threat and are disappearing. Every year in the United States, we lose a million acres of nature to development. The existential threat of climate change and one million species at risk of extinction around the world, we need bold actions like what scientists tell us is needed. In order to combat extinction and climate change, we need to protect 30% of the US’s lands and waters by 2030 and eventually 50% by 2050.

We have a moral and societal duty to stop the climate crisis for and for future generations. Conserving more nature will make our communities healthier and safer, both now and in the future. We are thankful for Assembly Joint Resolution 3(AJR3) from the 2021 Nevada Legislative session taking a strong step towards stopping the climate crisis.

Nevada’s 2021 Legislature supported and passed AJR3, a resolution that earned Nevada thanks and recognition in a recently released progress report highlighting the work the Biden-Harris administration did in 2021 to support conservation efforts nationwide. The “America the Beautiful” initiative calls on local and voluntary support to help sustain healthy communities, power local economies, and combat climate change. Nevada is noted in the report as having been the first state in the country to pass a resolution declaring support for the initiative. The resolution also calls for collaboration between federal, state, local, and tribal agencies, and urges these agencies to consider the environmental needs of disadvantaged communities.

To reach the ambitious goal of protecting 30% of public lands, forests, and waters by 2030, Nevada will have a huge role to play with it’s large amount of public lands. Some 56,262,610 acres of Nevada are managed by the Federal Government in trust for the public and corporate interests, about 80.1% of the state’s total 70,264,320 acres. The federal government will need to use all conservation measures available to sombat the ongoing climate crisis, including tools like new National Monuments, like the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, expanding or creating Wildlife Refuges, creating to Conservation and Recreation management areas, designating new Wilderness Study Areas, and designating Nevada’s 63 Wilderness study areas into official wilderness areas.

The America the Beautiful Initiative or 30x30 will need to prioritize conservation efforts working with partners like Tribal Nations, counties, towns, cities, and private landowners. Currently some 11 million acres, or 15% of Nevada is composed of protected lands, making up 4% of the national total of protected lands. Nevada has 63 Wilderness Study Areas scattered throughout the state, which if they were designated wilderness would go a long way to permanently protecting almost 2.5 million acres. And if you do not think that the public lands of Nevada are under real threat, check out this report from the Congressional Research Service that shows that between 1990 and 2018 Nevada lost 6.2% of public lands, some 3,749,878 million acres.

We would like to individually recognize you, our volunteers, for your efforts in submitting and writing letters to the editor, opinion editorials, and public comments last year on the topic of protecting 30 percent of public lands by the year 2030. Thanks to the Toiyabe Chapter volunteers and leaders like you that have put in so much work in the last year, Nevada was the first in the Nation to pass a state resolution in support of 30x30. Volunteer leaders including and definitely not limited to: Janet Carter, Misty Haji-Sheikh, Susan Potts, Nick Christenson, Ashley Forman, Denise Rohrer, Lisa Ortega, Vinny Spotleson, Teresa Crawford, Teresa Bell, Justin Mcaffee, Connie Howard, Rory Lamp, Laura Richards and so many, many others that we could go on to list them indefinitely.

All of your collective efforts had a huge impact on pressuring Nevada State legislators to move forward on the state resolution to protect 30 percent of Nevada's Public Lands by the year 2030. It has been an honor and a pleasure to get to work with you all and we are so hopeful for what we can accomplish in 2022. Be on the look out soon for an email and or petition to submit comments in support of 30x30 and the America the Beautiful Initiative.

So please sign up for the virtual listening sessions that the Department of Interior will be livestreaming on their Events page. Interested parties who would like to share verbal comments during these sessions must register in advance using the links below, as speaking order will be determined by registration queue:

 Please donate today to help the Toiyabe Chapter protect your public lands in Nevada, Lake Tahoe and the Eastern Sierra.