Apr 22, 2024
The Honorable Deb Haaland, Secretary
US Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
CC: Tracy Stone-Manning, Director
Bureau of Land Management
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Dear Secretary Haaland:
On behalf of the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, we want to thank you, the Department of the Interior, Director Stone-Manning, and the Bureau of Land Management, for all your work to finalize a strong Conservation and Landscape Health Rule. We look forward to supporting implementation of the rule in a way that supports communities, especially those that are underserved, and that empowers increased conservation on the ground for those who rely on these public lands for recreation, sustenance, physical and mental health, and spiritual and cultural uses.
The America the Beautiful for All Coalition consists of more than 250 organizations across the country representing millions of individuals. It is comprised of leaders from frontline organizations, Indigenous and communities of color, health networks, legacy conservation, wildlife and ocean groups, hunters and anglers, and businesses, among others.
Since 2022, the Coalition has been supporting and advancing the administration’s twin goals of conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and implementing the Justice40 Initiative to ensure that at least 40% of new climate investments are made in disadvantaged communities.
This rule, once implemented, will modernize and rebalance the competing uses on BLM land, and prioritizes underserved communities. With more than 20 million unprotected acres within 10 miles of the most socially vulnerable and nature-deprived census tracts, BLM lands offer tremendous opportunity to close the “nature gap” and address longstanding inequities. We are thrilled to see that restoration and mitigation lease applications under the rule will be evaluated in particular for environmental justice benefits to communities overburdened by pollution. We urge the administration to ensure as well that community-led and Tribal conservation proposals get full consideration. We applaud this historic step of identifying conservation as a use of public lands, on par with other extractive and non-extractive uses. Further, while departmental guidance has asked for this, the explicit acknowledgement of the requirement to incorporate indigenous knowledge and consider opportunities for co-stewardship with Tribal nations who have stewarded the land since time immemorial is critically important.
Additionally, the framework this rule establishes greatly improves the tools and opportunities available to land managers and stakeholders to conserve intact landscapes, restore degraded landscapes, measure the overall health of landscapes, and better respond to climate change impacts. In particular, we hope that the rule will make it easier for federal land managers and state partners to leverage landscape restoration funding from both the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These funding sources give the administration the greatest opportunity to ensure that the Justice40 goals are being met from these investments.
We are ready to enthusiastically support the administration as it implements the rule: engaging with and supporting communities to tell their stories as they transition to a clean energy future, work to remediate the toxic legacy of extractive uses of nearby public lands, and seek to restore those degraded lands.
Thank you again for your continued service to our country, our public lands, and the communities that depend on these lands. We look forward to working with you and the agency to put the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule into action.
Signed,
Alaska Wilderness League
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
American Hiking Society
American Rivers
Apex Protection Project
Arte Sana
Bat Conservation International
Bayou City Waterkeeper
Bird School Project
Build A Better Planet
California Institute for Biodiversity
Californians for Western Wilderness
CalWild
CDTC
Center for American Progress
Center for Biological Diversity
Chicago Bird Alliance
Children's Environmental Health Network
Climate Change and Environmental Justice Allancei
Coalition to Protect America's National Parks
Colorado Youth Corps Association
Conservation Colorado
Conservation Lands Foundation
Conservation Voters for Idaho
Conservation Voters New Mexico
Corazon Latino
Defiende Nuestra Tierra
Dogwood Alliance
Earth Ethics. Inc
Earthjustice
Endangered Species Coalition
Environmental Droners
Friends of the Mariana Trench
Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
Friends of Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife
Gaviota Coast Conservancy
Grand Canyon Trust
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Green 2.0
GreenLatinos
Hartland Community 4 Youth and Families
Healthy Ocean Coalition
HG Conservation Solutions
Hispanic Access Foundation
Howling For Wolves
Idaho Conservation League
Illinois Environmental Council
Inland Ocean Coalition
Justice Outside
Kua'aina Ulu 'Auamo (KUA)
La Trenza
Latino Outdoors
League of Conservation Voters
Los Angeles Audubon Society
Los Padres ForestWatch
Michigan League of Conservation Voters
Milwaukee County Parks
Mountain Mamas
National Ocean Protection Coalition
National Parks Conservation Association
National Wolfwatcher Coalition
Native American Rights Fund
Nevada Conservation League
New Mexico Wildlife Federation
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE)
Northern California Council, Fly Fishers International
Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project
Ocean Alliance
Oregon Natural Desert Association
Oregon Wild
Patagonia
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Protect Our Winters
Protegete
Resource Renewal Institute
Rio Grande International Study Center
Rocky Mountain Wild
Sierra Club
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Tazama Trust
The Conservation Angler
The Last Plastic Straw
The Ocean Project
The Wilderness Society
Trust for Public Land
Tuleyome
Vamonos Outside
Voices of the Land
Washington Wildlife First
Western Nebraska Resources Council
Wild Farm Alliance
WildEarth Guardians
Wildlands Network
Wyoming Wildlife Advocates
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
ZB Consulting
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The full letter is available to download here.
