Dear Coalition members and allies,

I was honored to give the keynote address to Upwell last week, standing with champions for justice and ocean conservation at the outset of Ocean Month, Pride Month, and Great Outdoors Month. My message focused on the value of being in coalition. We are able to learn from one another, and lean on each other. As we continue to deepen our bonds and broaden our collective impact, I know so firmly that better days lie ahead. 

As Congress continues to push forward a historically damaging budget reconciliation bill, our Coalition members are educating communities about the imminent dangers the bill poses to nature, public health, and environmental justice. Coalition members have particularly been showing leadership on preventing the sell-off of public lands, and ensuring the public understands the dire potential costs to the common good because of the bill’s senseless giveaways to extractive industries. Read on for resources on this and more.

In solidarity, 

Shantha Ready Alonso and Team AtB4A

GET ENGAGED

Protect Historic Preservation Programs and Staffing. GreenLatinos invites your organization to sign on by COB June 13th to support full  historic preservation funding, staffing, and protections—essential for safeguarding the diverse stories, public lands, and professionals shaping our national heritage. The sign on link and letter is here. 

Join the Urban Parks and Greenspace Workgroup for the 3rd webinar of its 4-part series. On June 27, the AtB4A Urban Parks and Greenspace team will host a webinar covering tools, research, and other resources for public agencies and community organizations working to address urban heat and build climate resilience—especially in underserved and impacted communities. Register here. The workgroup has hosted 2 webinars to date: the April webinar invited national experts to provide an overview of the climate change’s challenges and impacts  and the May webinar featured community-based organizations working to combat extreme heat and weather in their communities and drive local solutions. 

Coalition members’ sharing & listening space on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. AtB4A Coalition is hosting weekly open conversation among coalition members. Drop in when you can. The goal among participants each week is to build mutual understanding and connect coalition members to one another. This is primarily a listening space, not a problem-solving space. However, we hope useful connections and ways forward emerge organically from these conversations. Sign up here to get the calendar invitation.

LATEST NEWS

“Big, Beautiful Bill” is none of those things for conservation. The Senate is in negotiations over a massive tax and spending bill completed by House Republicans that primarily cuts taxes, health care and government services. But the bill reaches into every facet of policy and society, not least of which is conservation. The House bill guts NEPA, opens oceans and lands to drilling and mining, and repeals much of the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Check out our blog for a summary of the House Bill as we gear up to pressure the Senate to strip these harmful provisions in their final product. In the latest developments as we go to press, the harmful Boundary Waters provision in the House version has been struck out, and a radical plan by Utah Senator Mike Lee to sell off over 3 million acres has been included in the Senate version. A fact sheet of resources is here. 

White House slashes both budgets and science. While we certainly expected unraveling of science and undermining of the agency resources at Interior given the first Trump term, the new scale of recent orders and budget proposals are truly radical. The proposed budget zeroes out the USGS ecosystem budget, and 75 percent of national monuments funds. One of the few bright spots from President Trump’s first term was fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the new proposed budget strikes that from the books. Also recently, an executive order purporting to restore scientific integrity was maligned by critics of the administration as “Orwellian.” “There's no reason to believe that this new missive is anything different than a continuation of the administration’s assault on science,” said former federal civil servant and founder of Next Interior Jacob Malcom.   

Interior urges public to report “negative” historical depictions.  A secretarial order sets timelines for land management bureaus to review, identify and remove, “images, descriptions, depictions, messages, narratives or other information (content) that inappropriately disparages Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), or, with respect to content describing natural features, that emphasizes matters unrelated to the beauty, abundance, or grandeur of said natural feature.” In response to the Order, the National Park Service has hung up signs asking the public to report “negative” depictions of U.S. history on public lands and waters. The Order creates fraught situations for park rangers and the public who are seeking to interpret and learn our complex history. Sites that are particularly in danger include the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Illinois and Mississippi, and the Springfield 1908 Race Riot sites where signage and depictions of historical inequities could be erased.  The Secretarial Order can be viewed here. 

Attacks on National Monuments The Justice Department issued a report saying the president has the right to revoke national monuments, even though no law contains this provision. In April, we saw an attack on the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, opening most of the Monument up to destructive commercial fishing. We recognized from the start that an attack on one monument is an attack on all, and a leaked version of a DOI strategic plan included monument rollbacks. (The new public DOI strategic plan does not.) We must stay vigilant ahead of any additional potential rollbacks, which could happen any time. Yet the omission indicates Tribes, elected local officials, and community advocates have the ear of the administration. Trump and Burgum know going after monuments is a bad, unpopular idea. Policymakers who seek to dismantle our monuments will talk about "monument objects" rather than living landscapes that communities depend on for their unique natural, spiritual and cultural heritage. Let’s maintain the pressure while we still have an opportunity to demonstrate that fact – before proclamations drop. 

Trump administration withdraws from Columbia River Basin Agreement. President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to unilaterally and abruptly withdraw the federal government’s support for the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, a comprehensive partnership to restore the basin’s imperiled salmon, steelhead and other native fisheries to health and abundance. A Seattle Times story is here. 

RESOURCE RADAR

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. 

Toolkit Equips for State-Tribal Collaboration. The National Caucus of Environmental Legislators partnered with Native Americans in Philanthropy in assembling a State/Tribal Environmental Policy Toolkit aimed at filling critical knowledge gaps about how states can and should uphold Tribal Sovereignty through natural resource and conservation decision making. Access the toolkit here. 

Digital Security for Non-Profits, June 26th Panel. Join Lauren Reagan, Civil Liberties Defense Center’s founder and Director of Litigation & Advocacy, and Michele Gretes, CLDC’s Digital Security Advisor,  for an empowering exploration of digital security best practices to keep you, your organization, and your movement spaces as secure as possible. Register here. 

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

Legal Support Fund Opportunity. A group of philanthropic institutions has opened applications for The Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI) Legal Support Fund. This fund is to support the response to legal and/or security threats aimed at reducing or eliminating your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, racial equity, or racial justice grantmaking and/or programming. Grants of up to $75,000 will be awarded later this summer. They are prioritizing organizations with budgets under $1M and organizations serving historically marginalized communities. Applications close June 30. Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/enSi9B-N

If you have events, training opportunities, or advocacy actions you would like included in future monthly newsletters, please contact our newsletter editor at tony@i-strategies.net.