DENVER – Un plan del Bureau of Land Management (Buró de Administración de la Tierra, BLM por sus siglas en inglés) está siendo ampliamente criticado por anteponer los intereses de empresas petroleras y gaseras, a los de los propietarios, la vida silvestre y la salud del Parque Nacional Mesa Verde.
Conservacionistas, propietarios de tierras y funcionarios locales coinciden en su preocupación sobre el Plan para Administrar el Recurso de Tres Ríos, elaborado por el BLM. Este plan abre hasta el 90 por ciento de los 800 mil acres administrados por el Buró al desarrollo de petróleo y gas, en el sur oeste de Colorado.
Chris Saeger, directora del Western Values Project (Proyecto de Valores del Oeste), dice que la decisión del BLM no incluyó la adecuada opinión del público.
"Lo que hizo el BLM en este caso fue abrir miles de acres de tierra al desarrollo de petróleo y gas – potencialmente a expensas de la agricultura, a expensas de los y las deportistas, y de todos a quienes les importa el aire limpio y el agua limpia."
El Buró de Administración de Tierras (BLM) se negó a la solicitud del Condado de La Plata para contar con un Master Leasing Plan (Plan Maestro de Arrendamiento de tierras), el cual Saeger opina que debería haber incluido las voces de granjeros y rancheros en los desarrollos que podrían impactar su sustento. En los condados de La Plata y Montezuma, la agricultura aporta 22 mil empleos y más de 800 mil dólares en ingresos directos.
El BLM creó unos parámetros regionales para la calidad del aire, pero los detractores del plan dicen que no queda claro cuándo ni cómo se aplicarán tales medidas. El aire en la región está apenas por debajo del nivel de ozono considerado dañino, algo que usualmente sólo se ve en zonas urbanas.
Tom Pittenger, defensor en el grupo Park Rangers ofr Our Lands (Guardaparques por Nuestras Tierras), dice que el plan del BLM no protege la calidad del aire en el Parque Nacional Mesa Verde.
"Pensamos que lo que se necesita es un equilibrio entre el desarrollo de los recursos y la conservación. No creemos que el plan, como llegó, cuide ese equilibrio en absoluto.:
El BLM sostiene que siguió todas las leyes y regulaciones aplicables, y dice que consideró toda información de recursos y las aportaciones del público antes de tomar una decisión final.
Vea el documento (en inglés) de la decisión en www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/sjplc/land_use_planning.html.
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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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