Great Outdoors Colorado, the lottery-funded program to preserve natural resources, has awarded a second $1 million grant to fuel conservation efforts on privately-owned lands, which make up the majority of all lands in Colorado.

Amy Beatie, executive director of Keep it Colorado, a coalition of local land trusts, said the funds will help ensure the state's landscapes stay protected into the future, and protect things Coloradans love.

"Protect our iconic landscapes, working farms and ranches, our outdoor way of life," Beatie outlined. "All of those things can't occur if 60% of the lands in the state of Colorado are not at the table."

Beatie pointed out the new funds will help make the state's farmlands, lands along streams, lakes and rivers, wildlife habitat and important cultural heritage sites more resilient in the face of bigger and more frequent wildfires, flash floods, drought and other climate disruptions.

The coalition's ten-year road map aims to double the number of acres conserved, and to double the engagement of Coloradans in conservation.

Beatie pointed out private landowners who sign up to protect their property from future development through a conservation easement can see a big financial boost by trading tax credits for cash. And she noted owners maintain ownership and do not have to leave their property or stop using the land to earn a living.

"One of the coolest things about conservation easements is that you can still use the land," Beatie stressed. "So for example, the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust focuses on sustainable working farms and ranches. Their farmers and ranchers keep farming and ranching."

The new funds will help add capacity for local land trusts doing conservation work across the state. And to ensure all of Colorado's communities have a voice in conservation, Beatie added the land trusts will also invest resources in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion goals.

"That's from internal to the organizations, making sure that their own staff is diverse and inclusive," Beatie explained. "And also looking across the sector at ways that we can re-enfranchise those that may have been disenfranchised from conservation."

Indigenous water protectors and allies met at Michigan's Straits of Mackinac last week, to spotlight the dangers of the 71-year-old Line 5, deemed North America's riskiest crude oil pipeline.

Headlined by the nonprofit Oil and Water Don't Mix, the protests featured two main events: The "Pipe Out Paddle Up" in St. Ignace which showcased a flotilla against Enbridge's Line Five oil spill risk, followed by the "Water is Life Festival" in Petoskey, celebrating local music and advocacy for ending Line Five's threat.

Nichole Keway Biber, Michigan organizer for Clean Water Action, a member of the Oil and Water Don't Mix coalition, explained Indigenous people have been given stewardship over the waters.

"Also really critical to us having lived relationship to our culture and what our teachings are and our instructions are," Keway Biber explained. "So much of that is to protect and oversee the water and the wildlife."

Keway Biber emphasized the events focused on the preservation of the Indigenous way of life. Enbridge has maintained Line Five's safety is exclusively regulated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Keway Biber noted there are many individuals, both from Michigan and beyond, who treasure and deeply value the Great Lakes but remain unaware of the significant threats posed by Line Five.

"They may not know we're constantly just a moment away from this catastrophic kind of ruination of those precious fresh waters," Keway Biber stressed. "It's powerful for them to first and foremost here about it from people who are committed to protecting the water and the people and the wildlife."

Enbridge moves up to 540,000 barrels of light crude oil, light synthetic crude oil and liquefied natural gas through Line Five.

The Biden Administration issued an executive order in 2022 to strengthen and protect America's forests and old-growth trees.

Old-growth trees have grown and survived beyond the traditional age of harvest.

The Sierra Club and other environmental groups are pushing for more clarity from federal agencies on their strategy for protecting old-growth forests.

Illinois Environmental Council Conservation Director Lindsey Keeney said those agencies manage forests with various goals in mind.

"We trust our evidence-based science partners to decide what sort of management practices make sense within each of these forested areas," said Keeney. "Whether that is removing diseased trees through logging, using prescribed fire as an invasive species treatment, or other conservation practices, to manage those forests."

The council acknowledges that forest stewardship practices are so fragmented that invasive species encroach on the trees.

The agency says the best way to help preserve old-growth trees is through logging and other forms of restoration to keep these threats in check.

A new Sierra Club report says research confirms mature trees reduce carbon emissions - but also remain at risk for wildfires, disease, climate change, and invasive species.

Keeney said forested sands in Illinois do a great job capturing and holding carbon.

Many local economies thrive, she acknowledged, because of forest management activities - including in the sustainable forest product sector.

"We are the Prairie State, but we are definitely a forested state too," said Keeney. "Even up in Chicago, the Forest Preserve systems have really healthy forests. Downstate all the way through Central Illinois, we have forests that are protected by our land trust organizations. And then we have the Shawnee National Forest down at the bottom third of our state."

A U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service analysis reports Illinois has nearly 4,900,000 acres of forestland.

It says wildfires disturb 3,700 acres of forestland in Illinois every year. And weather impacts nearly 8,500 acres of forestland in the state.




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Climate and environmental activists along the Texas Coast are celebrating after receiving favorable news from an insurance company covering liquefied natural gas terminals.

Melanie Oldham, director of the group Better Brazoria Clean Air and Water, said after a meeting with members of their front line community, Chubb Insurance denied coverage for the expansion of one project and they are hopeful the same will be true for a planned plant expansion in Freeport.

"They said keep track of all the operational problems of Freeport LNG and we will keep looking at them," Oldham explained. "And we're hoping Chubb takes the lead and stops insuring these LNG's."

The plant in Freeport is the second-largest in the United States. It was shut down for several months in 2022 following an explosion, which federal investigators said was caused by inadequate operating and testing procedures, human error and fatigue.

Oldham lives about four miles from the Freeport plant and multiple petrochemical companies. Two oil export projects are also proposed for the area. She pointed out the community of around 13,000 people suffers from many illnesses due to the hazardous chemicals released from the plants.

"We have 65% Hispanic, Black, White, Asian; very low-income community," Oldham noted. "I'm a health care professional, I helped Texas Department of State Health do a cancer cluster study here in 2018. We have eight types of cancers higher than to be expected. COPD, it just goes on and on."

Oldham and others said further permitting of oil and gas infrastructure on the Gulf Coast would quadruple gas exports and likely cause hurricanes to hit the region even harder and they are calling on the Biden administration to permanently ban such facilities.


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