On June 2, 2023, the Department of the Interior announced a historic decision to administratively withdraw 336,400 acres of public lands in Chaco Canyon from future oil and gas leasing for 20 years. This action will prevent further oil and gas leasing on federal public lands within ten miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park…
In 2022, The Conservation Alliance provided a discretionary grant to The Big Bend Conservation Alliance (BBCA) to conserve 30 acres of grassland just outside of Marfa, Texas. This southwest Texan town has some of the state’s best rangeland with desert grasslands that are critical habitat for plants, animals, and climate resiliency. Until recently, residents in…
The Nestwood Forest spans Ross Mountain and Howard Canyon, just east of Corbett, Oregon, and is only half an hour’s drive from the Portland-Vancouver metro area. Until recently, this was the largest privately owned forest in the county and was at risk of being divided and developed. Over the last 20 years, Columbia Land Trust…
In June, 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a new plan to protect over 400,000 acres of public lands in the Owyhee Canyonlands in Southeastern Oregon. The proposed Southeastern Oregon Resource Management Plan Amendment is a guide for the management, maintenance, and enhancement of lands with wilderness characteristics for at least the next…
In May 2023, the Trust for Public Land announced that they successfully expanded the Otter Creek Wildlife Management Area in Wallingford, Vermont by 355 acres, protecting critical forestland, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities. The property includes 107 acres of wetlands, 100 acres of floodplain and 1.25 miles of the Otter Creek. The project was supported by…
In March 2023, the White House designated Castner Range National Monument to protect 6,600 acres in El Paso, Texas. Castner is located in a majority Latinx community near Franklin Mountains State Park where free access to open spaces has been limited for the surrounding low-income populations. The landscape is known for its array of Mexican…
In March 2023, the White House announced permanent protections under the Antiquities Act for Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. Located between the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Nevada/California border, Avi Kwa Ame, the Mojave name for Spirit Mountain, is now Nevada’s 4th national monument. Covering over 500,000 acres in southern Nevada, this monument…
In January, the USDA restored the Roadless Rule in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. This ruling protects America’s largest national forest from road construction and timber harvesting for over nine million acres of undeveloped land. It is estimated that the Tongass stores more carbon than any other national forest in the country, making this landscape…
On January 26th, Secretary Deb Haaland and the Department of the Interior announced a 20-year mining ban on federal lands around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This protection prevents the most-visited wilderness in the country from the negative impacts of copper mining on both the environment and the regional economy. The Boundary Waters is…
In late January, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its final determination to put in place Clean Water Act protections to finally end the threat of the Pebble Mine and similar mining activities from 309 square miles of the Bristol Bay watershed. After a thorough review, the EPA determined that the discharge from mining…
