From the Executive Director:

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the Republican-led budget reconciliation bill H.R. 1, the worst assault on nature, environmental justice, and community health that we have seen in our generation. The President and Republican lawmakers have set in motion an aggressive leasing schedule for harmful mining, logging, and drilling hundreds of millions of acres of public lands and waters. 

We know our Coalition members come from diverse walks of life, yet we are sharing an experience of pain and extreme whiplash upon the passage of H.R. 1. It’s heartbreaking to witness the abrupt, dramatic turn away from the progress we made in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Read more on our community’s reactions to the final bill, reflections about what happened, and what’s next.

In an odd and unexpected turn of events, the Trump Administration made two other announcements relevant to our Coalition the day before they signed the budget reconciliation bill into law. It is astounding that on one hand, the Administration is pushing the worst environmental agenda in history, while at the same time they are making announcements to cast their administration in a positive light on environmental issues. This is not an accident. The Administration’s environmental agenda is wildly unpopular, and we cannot allow our communities to be fooled. The Executive Order “Making America Beautiful Again by Restoring Our National Parks” appears to require people to identify whether they are U.S. residents (which may include immigration status) to pay entrance fees.  The Order also revokes Obama’s Presidential Memorandum of January 12, 2017 (Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Our National Parks, National Forests, and Other Public Lands and Waters), which, although never fully implemented, cast a vision for equitable conservation that many members of our Coalition (vis a vis Next 100) helped shape for the Obama Administration. July 3rd also marked the establishment of the President’s Make America Beautiful Again Commission. The Commission emphasizes voluntary actions over and above regulation. Conservation-as-convenient is a recipe for the most rich and powerful to get disproportionate access to greenspace while taking away the rights of communities near extractive industries.

Some will say to be patient and wait for a better political tide. We simply cannot wait and don’t have that luxury. Safe drinking water, healthy air, safety from climate-fueled disasters like floods and wildfires, and the ability to spend time outdoors all depend on a stable climate and healthy ecosystems. The America the Beautiful for All Coalition is a meeting place for people working proactively for thriving nature and communities. We are moving forward enacting hope as a verb.

In solidarity, 

Shantha Ready Alonso and Team AtB4A

GET ENGAGED

Clinton-Era Roadless Rule on the chopping block. The administration is rolling back a landmark conservation rule from the Clinton era that prevents roadbuilding and logging on roughly 58 million acres of federal forest and wildlands. While the administration offers up the fig leaf that that action is being done to address wildfire prevention, conservation groups know this is about opening these wild areas to unchecked timber harvesting and could endanger clean drinking water for millions. The roadless defense coalition is urging us to call our representatives and both senators and ask them to oppose and condemn this latest attack on public lands and to co-sponsor the Roadless Area Conservation Act (which would codify the 2001 Roadless Rule). We will also have more calls-to-action ramping up in the days ahead. But for now, let’s work those phones!

• – House cosponsors; House office phone numbers: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• – Senate cosponsors; Senate office phone numbers: https://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf

77 Organizations Urge Support for Historic Preservation. A recent sign-on letter sent to appropriators in the U.S. House of Representatives urged support for the Historic Preservation Fund, National Historic Preservation Act, and staff of preservation offices across federal agencies. Our shared national heritage including the diverse histories of Indigenous communities, communities of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, women, territories, rural and urban areas alike are embedded across public land, water and the ocean. Historic preservation recognizing both triumphs and injustices is a nonpartisan issue that touches every community. It is central to telling America’s full story to future generations and to building stronger, more resilient communities. GreenLatinos invites Coalition members to a consortium of historic preservationists working at federal, state and local levels to ensure equal representation of all people at the parks, trails, monuments and other places preserving and interpreting American history. This is just the start! Contact pedrohernandez@greenlatinos.org and oliviajuarez@greenlatinos.org to get involved on next steps. 

Stand with American Samoa in Opposition to Deep Sea Mining. Right to Democracy and the America the Beautiful for All Coalition have united in support of American Samoa's right to protect its ocean and seabed from destructive deep seabed mining. The organizations have drafted a petition to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, backed by residents and diaspora from the five U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Read our press release here, and if you claim residency or part of the diaspora in the U.S. Territories, sign this petition. (If you do not call the territories home, we invite you to sign this petition instead.)

Pledge to stop the attacks on our national monuments. The Washington Post says that the Trump administration has a short list of six national monuments they’re considering slashing: Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon (AZ), Ironwood Forest (AZ), Chuckwalla (CA), Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks (NM), Bears Ears (UT) and Grand Staircase-Escalante (UT). Please join the nearly 150 other organizations and businesses who have already signed onto this letter supporting national monuments. The letter will remain open until/if actions are taken by the administration or congress so please help spread the word and share the letter far and wide if you have already signed on.

RESOURCE RADAR

The State of Public Opinion on Public Lands. Join the Environmental Polling Consortium on August 5 at 1:00 ET and our partners for a deep dive webinar into the current state of public opinion research on public lands related policies and issues. This webinar is open to anyone in the climate and environmental space and best suited for those working on public lands policy and communications. This is an hour long webinar followed by a 30 minute Q&A. Register here. 

Draconian Agency Cuts by the Numbers. CAP has released a new column on the reckless cuts to funding and staff for America’s national parks, forests, and public lands. This new analysis finds that Trump’s proposed 2026 budget would decrease funding for public land agencies (NPS, BLM, USFS, USFWS) by more than a third of 2024 levels- meaning a nearly $4 billion cut to national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness and recreation areas, and more. Trump’s 2026 budget proposal also slashes employment by 30% across public land agencies, compared to 2024. In fact, the number of visitors per park or national forest  is proposed to go up nearly 75% since 2011. If Trump's budget proposal becomes reality, it will have severe consequences for the millions of Americans who love and visit parks and public lands each year. FY26 Appropriations negotiations are actively underway–we will keep you updated ed on opportunities to take action! 

Free Mentorship Database Coming. The Greditor here.een 2.0 Mentorship Database will launch in September. This free database will allow environmental job seekers and the current workforce to connect with mentors to learn more about their work, seek advice on workplace challenges, establish long-term mentoring relationships, and more. Mentors can also use the database to connect with others!  If you are interested in becoming a mentor in the database, click here. If you know someone interested in accessing the database as a mentee, please share our Mentorship Database with them as well!

New park equity resources. UCLA just released the Shade Equity Map in partnership with American Forests. With it, one can discover how much shade is available by Census block group at three different times of the day, and see what share of shade is cast by trees versus buildings. Meanwhile the Trust for Public Land recently released their new park scoring for the 100 largest cities. Research shows that people living in cities with better park systems are more likely to have friendships with people of different economic backgrounds. A lack of access to parks means fewer opportunities to make meaningful connections. The report is here. 

Free Legal Assistance. Lawyers for Good Government has a Fund Protection Clinic to provide essential legal assistance to organizations whose federal funding is at risk due to funds being withdrawn or wrongly held back for grantees of EPA, DOE and USDA. (Interior is not mentioned.) The fund’s intake form is here. 

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