The Biden administration has denied approval for a project to build more than 200 miles of road in the Alaskan wilderness.
On this Earth Day, environmental advocates said the decision highlights how states like West Virginia could protect its own lands in the face of shrinking natural resources and pressure to open up protected areas to mining and other development.
Alex Johnson, interior Alaska director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the environmental degradation caused by building roads can be seen in parts of West Virginia, where coal hauling trucks rumble through areas of the Monongahela National Forest.
"We believe that it makes sense for people across the country, including the people of West Virginia, to understand that Northwest Alaska is not the place to build a massive mining industrial project," Johnson asserted.
A few years ago, the U.S. Forest Service issued a permit allowing South Fork Coal Company to haul oversized coal loads, cut trees, and regrade and widen forest roads, as well haul mining supplies and equipment along a gravel road linked to the North Fork Cherry River. Local groups recently sued the agency for failing to protect streams in the Cherry River watershed.
Johnson added this month's federal decision protects a vast, pristine landscape that is homeland to dozens of Alaska Native communities.
"This is a huge win for the largest national park landscape," Johnson observed. "With 16 million acres of contiguous wild roadless park lands and over 20 million acres of national park lands in Northwest Alaska that would have been affected if this road had been built."
The route proposed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority runs through the Ambler Mining Belt, rich in copper and zinc deposits. It would have crossed nearly 3,000 waterways.
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Groups that fight to protect public lands are criticizing the Trump administration's new review of all oil, gas and mining on public lands.
National monuments in California protect about 4 million acres of land.
New U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered a 15-day internal review of these sites, which conservation groups warn could be a first step toward altering their boundaries to allow fossil-fuel and mineral extraction. And yet, Daniel Hart, director of clean-energy and climate-resiliency policy at the National Parks Conservation Association, said this would do little to address the "energy emergency" recently declared by President Donald Trump.
"The timeline from starting a lease sale until oil and gas is pumping, and then refined and into the markets, is a long time," he said. "It would not immediately do anything to lower gas prices."
In the past, Carrizo Plain National Monument on the central coast has been eyed for oil and gas development. Other national monuments in California whose boundaries could be re-evaluated include the two newest, Chuckwalla and Sattitla, along with 13 others across the state.
Hart said these public lands are crucial for wildlife habitat and recreation. He pointed out that they pump billions of dollars into the outdoor economy.
"They protect both natural and cultural resources. They are a great place for our shared histories," he said. "But also, there's a public benefit: They support the outdoor recreation economy, especially in rural states."
Across the United States, 24 million acres of public land are already leased to oil and gas companies for fossil-fuel extraction, with more than 12 million acres under active drilling. The NPCA says key monuments outside of California that risk losing protections include Devils Tower in Wyoming and the Dinosaur and Hovenweep national monuments in Utah.
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As the Trump administration considers oil, gas and mining on lands owned by all Americans, including in national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act, advocates for public lands warn that some places protected for more than a century could be at risk.
Daniel Hart, director of clean energy and climate policy for the National Parks Conservation Association, says most Coloradans don't want federal protections stripped from places such as Dinosaur National Monument. He says time and again, millions of people have spoken out in defense of America's national monuments.
"They support the outdoor recreation economy, especially in rural states. Those communities nearby are heavily supported by the people who come in and out of these national monuments," he said.
The Trump administration's "Unleashing American Energy" order aims to solidify the United States as a global energy leader by removing what it calls burdensome regulations. Hart said unrestrained and speculative energy development could damage or destroy national monuments -- including Aztec Ruins, Bears Ears, Devils Tower, Hovenweep, Grand Canyon Parashant, Grand Staircase-Escalante and more.
The United States became the world's leading oil producer under the Biden administration, and Hart does not believe there is a need for opening up national monuments for drilling. Some 24 million acres of public lands are already leased to oil and gas companies for fossil-fuel extraction, yet just half are currently active.
"And some lease sales have gone without a bid over the past four years even. The oil industry didn't feel that they needed the land, or they had enough already," he added.
The National Parks Conservation Association is calling on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to take all national monuments off the table under the new order. Hart said even drilling on lands adjacent to protected areas can lead to industrial contamination of interconnected waterways.
"There's still streams and waters in the Southwest that are unusable by people and animals. That's also a problem with the wildlife, when we tear up their corridors with some of this development for energy," he concluded.
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An endangered bat species has been detected in southeastern Arizona.
Researchers say the discovery of the Mexican long-nosed bat in the Grand Canyon State expands the known range of these animals. They're important pollinators for desert plants such as columnar cactus and agave.
Kristen Lear, program director for Bat Conservation International's agave restoration program, said knowing that this endangered species has been found in Arizona opens up new avenues for research and conservation.
"Some of the work for the conservation of the species for the Mexican long-nosed bat are really two things," she said. "One is roost protection, finding the caves, the mines or wherever this bat is roosting along their migratory route and protecting those roosts. And then the second aspect is maintaining healthy foraging habitat."
Lear said the discovery of the tiny bat was made possible as project participants collected what's known as environmental DNA, or eDNA, by swabbing hummingbird feeders that bats also feed on. When bats feed, they leave traces of DNA behind through their saliva, which can then be analyzed.
As bats continue to struggle to survive because of disease and habitat loss, Lear said, it is important to study them using non-invasive methods.
Mexican long-nosed bats migrate annually from south-central Mexico to the southwestern United States, spending the summer months in southwest Texas and also in the bootheel of New Mexico. However, Lear said the bats' appearance in the Grand Canyon State could be a sign of the impacts climate change could be having on migratory practices.
"We're seeing more bat species using the edge of their ranges in areas that they aren't usually found," she said, "and so that could be what is happening here, is that climate change modeling with the agave plants, that are their food source, all of the modeling shows that that area is actually going to become more important for these bats in the future."
Lear said surveys have also increased in recent years, and it is possible the Mexican long-nosed bat has been in southeastern Arizona in low numbers but simply hadn't been detected yet. She said she wants to encourage Arizonans to plant native night-blooming plants, which attract insects for insectivorous bats to eat and agaves for nectar-feeding species, such as the Mexican long-nosed bat.
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