HELENA, Mont. – A broad coalition of conservationists, sportsmen and political leaders is speaking out against a move in Washington, D. C., to replace a long-standing program that uses oil and gas royalties to conserve land, with one that diverts much of the royalty money for other purposes.
Last week, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on the proposed Protecting America's Recreation and Conservation (PARC) Act as a potential replacement for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The latter program expired in September when a small group of congressional Republicans blocked a vote.
Dave Chadwick, who heads the Montana Wildlife Federation, said the PARC Act would essentially gut the LWCF, a program that has been in place for 50 years.
"It has broad bipartisan support in Congress," said Chadwick of the LWCF. "It's really just being held up by a small fringe that has an ideological problem with public lands, despite the many benefits that public land provides for those of us who live in the West."
Just since 2005, Montana has received almost $240 million for projects through LWCF programs. Over the years, it has helped fund 800 local parks and sports fields, and has contributed funds to about 70 percent of Montana's fishing access sites.
The PARC Act would limit the government's ability to buy land, including isolated, private parcels surrounded by federal land. It also would set aside 20 percent of the royalty revenues to retrain oil and gas workers as the economy converts to clean energy.
To John Gale, conservation director for the group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, conservation money should not be siphoned off for that purpose.
"We think the time is now to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund as it exists now – and then, fully fund it," Gale said.
The entire Montana congressional delegation has indicated support for the LWCF.
Alan Rowsome, The Wilderness Society's senior director of government relations for lands, is optimistic that the LWCF will win out, and be permanently reauthorized.
"I think that there is a political will and momentum building, with bipartisan members of Congress who want to see this done," said Rowsome. "And that should hopefully be helpful and important to keeping this on the agenda, and having it be a part of the conversation for a legislative victory, moving forward."
If nothing is done, the monies that were once set aside for conservation will simply be returned to the U.S. Treasury's general fund.
The House Committee on Natural Resources is expected to hold another hearing, but has not yet set a date.
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Crews have been ramping up wildfire resilience projects to thin out brush and dead wood in California's giant sequoia groves, clearing twice as many acres in 2023 compared with 2022.
The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition is trying to avoid a repeat of the disastrous mega-fires of 2020 and 2021 - which killed about 20% of large mature trees in their native Sierra Nevada range.
Joanna Nelson, Ph.D. is the director of science and conservation planning with the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League.
"We remove fuel," said Nelson, "we get to a safe place to do prescribed burning and to do cultural burning - which is always led by Indigenous people, which is another practice of taking care of the forest and reducing wildfire risk."
Sequoia National Park is just one part of California's giant sequoia groves, which stretch over 26,000 acres.
A new report shows that in 2023, the program treated nearly 9,900 acres in 28 groves - and more than 14,000 since 2021.
Crews have also planted 542,000 native tree seedlings in severely burned areas over the past two years.
Nelson said the groves must be re-treated about every 8 to 10 years.
"The cost of inaction is loss of giant sequoias in their native range," said Nelson. "And big fires that spread because of the fuel continuity. We risk further loss of trees that are anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 years old if we do nothing."
The groves have built up quite a bit of dead wood fuel because, until the last few decades, it had been national policy to suppress almost all fire - which led to intense firestorms that incinerated entire groves of old-growth trees.
It is now understood that judicious use of fire can clear out the understory and be beneficial to the forest.
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The Bureau of Land Management has proposed expanding the public land available for solar power production in 11 states, including Montana.
The BLM's Western Solar Plan builds on a version first released in 2012 and focuses on harnessing the potential in Western and Plains states most amenable to solar production.
Nick Fitzmaurice, energy transition engineer for the Montana Environmental Information Center, said the expanded plan reflects the country's growing demand for solar energy.
"It's projected that 700,000 acres of solar development are going to be needed to meet future clean goals, and in the range of about 5,000 of those acres are going to be in Montana," Fitzmaurice explained. "It's a small part of the picture but important that all our open land that is able to contribute to solar can do so."
The Wilderness Society released a statement supporting the proposed Western Solar Plan expansion. The BLM is taking public comment on it until April 18.
The BLM has already done an environmental impact statement, which can sometimes be a stumbling block for such projects.
Fitzmaurice pointed out Montana was not part of the first Western Solar Plan. He thinks adding the state and having the BLM involved in siting the facilities will be crucial as Montana takes advantage of its alternative energy opportunities.
"It's really important that BLM gets ahead of this," Fitzmaurice asserted. "As these applications for development come in, they are able to be sited and put in locations that will minimize the impact on this important public land resource that we have."
Fitzmaurice added the plan proposes solar facilities be built near existing power transmission lines but not near culturally sensitive areas of Montana. Critics of the proposal said additional solar development could threaten wildlife species and habitat.
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The remote landscape of southeastern Oregon is receiving additional protections.
The Bureau of Land Management has finalized its resource management plan for the southeast corner of the state and it includes protections for parts of the Owyhee and Malheur Rivers and canyon lands in the region.
Michael O'Casey, deputy director of forest policy and Northwest programs for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said it's an exciting announcement, which will protect sensitive landscape from activities like surface development and road building.
"When that landscape is impacted, it's really hard to bring it back and restore it," O'Casey pointed out. "And so, it's really important to protect the places out there that are healthy and intact and resistant. And resilience is a term that we use, to stresses from climate change or whatever else."
O'Casey noted the plan still allows for traditional uses of the land like hunting and fishing. The BLM's final resource management plan for the district covers four-point-six million acres of public land.
O'Casey stressed the agency deliberated for years on this decision.
"This planning process was initiated in 2010 and so it's been 14 years in the making," O'Casey emphasized. "The good news is that, even though it's been a really long time, was that there was a really robust public comment process throughout this."
O'Casey added appointing the Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council in 2014 was an important part of public involvement. The council was made up of a wide variety of area people including grazing, energy and conservation interests, who made recommendations for management in the region.
Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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