Protecting America’s Public Lands
Roughly 300 million acres of American lands, most in the West, are set aside as public lands and maintained using taxes paid by all Americans. These lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and National Wildlife Refuge System are by charter supposed to be managed for multiple uses including recreation and provision of wildlife habitat and clean water sources. Increasingly, however, they are run for the benefit of extractive industries and with little regard for the preservation of the rare wildlife or iconic natural beauty for which they are famous.
With the help of conscientious range management specialists, scientists, law enforcement officers and other workers within these agencies, PEER is uncovering how our precious national heritage is being sold to the highest bidder, often under the direction of poorly qualified and illegally appointed political appointees.
Environmental and public health risks are being ignored by regulatory agencies and decisions heavily influenced by profit-driven industries.
REPORT | The Biden Administration’s Bureau of Land Management
As the Biden administration nears its halfway point, there are both encouraging signs of progress and plenty of room for growth when it comes to conserving public lands. Stronger leadership from the Biden administration and within federal land agencies is critical to act on both the climate and biodiversity crises. No public lands agency more epitomizes the challenges and opportunities ahead than the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – the country’s largest land manager at more than 245 million acres.
Mapping Rangeland Health
Our interactive BLM Rangeland Health Standards Evaluation Data (2020) on MangoMaps is based on data from 2020, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. PEER worked with a former BLM contractor to analyze what these records reveal about the condition of our public lands and BLM’s discharge of its duties to safeguard them.
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NEWS FROM PEER
Peace Bridge Illegally Evaded Full Environmental Review
Assessment of U.S./Canada Crossing Expansion Violates Federal Data Quality Law
Park Service Circles Wagons on Indian Burial Mounds Debacle
No Officials Punished in 10-Year Building Spree Defacing Effigy Mounds Monument
Yellowstone Struggles With Rising Tide of Plastic Waste
New Initiative to Reduce Visitor Plastic Bottle Use to Avoid Need for a Sales Ban
Refuge Oil & Gas Drilling Regulations on Very Slow Track
After Years, Fish & Wildlife Service Still Unprepared to Propose Specific Safeguards
EPA Faults Bay State South Coast Rail Plan
Several “Outstanding issues” Continue to Pose Legal Hurdles for Stalled Rail Line
New Jersey Bull’s Island Tree Harvest on Fast Track
Plan Confines Visitor Access to “Safe, Managed, Pedestrian Pathway”
Documents Undergirding Pinelands Pipeline Plan Unavailable
Facts behind Key Economic and Environmental Findings Kept from Public Hearing
Tahoe National Forest Wins Court Protections
Court Rules to Restrict Motorized Off-Road Vehicles
Denali Wolf Population Cratering Without State Buffer
Plummeting Sighting of Wolves Threatens Big Cash Tourist Draw for Alaska
Gas Pipeline Poised to Carve Through New Jersey’s Pinelands
Pinelands Commission Scrambling to Contain Fallout from Behind-the-Scenes Moves
Bay State South Coast Rail Plan Powered by Magical Thinking
Key Ridership, Cost, Impact and Alternative Analyses Divorced from Real World
Missouri Park Water Systems Court Contamination
State Ignores Its Own Water Tower Standards as Whistleblower Hearing Nears
National Park Rangers Ask Public Not to Shoot Messenger
Open Letter Calls for Reforms to Prevent Future Closures
Urges Public to Direct Anger at Congress to Force Parks Reopening
GE Crop Ban Did Not Crimp Refuge Agriculture
Nearly Same Acreage Planted; Some Farmers Switched to Less Damaging Crops
Agreement Paves Way for Eldorado Forest Trail Designations
Compromise Reopens Some Trails, Closes Some and Requires Restoration for Others
Exxon Valdez Recovery Remains Stuck in Limbo
Federal Judge “Dismayed” over Slow Pace of Promised Preliminary Work
Fatal Gulf Rig Explosion Still Unresolved Months Later
Black Elk Blast Killed Three; Agency “Cannot Estimate” Investigation Completion
Groups Push to Fix Flaws in National Park Wilderness Directive
Fixed Mountain Climbing Anchors, Widened Road Corridors among Problems Cited
Big Rollback of California Desert Protection
BLM to Open 49,300 Acres of Algodones Dunes Plan to Off-Road Vehicles
New Petroglyph Pact Better Protects Monument
National Park Standards and Management Extended to City-Owned Lands