The Trump administration is at it again, this time taking a wrecking ball to America’s bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is the only law that requires the federal government to consider the environmental impacts of its decisions and gives the public a voice in those decisions.

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages livestock grazing on 155 million acres of federal public lands in 11 western states, has proposed grazing regulation revisions that will have significant environmental impacts across the west. The BLM’s proposed changes to livestock grazing regulations could affect nearly 5 million acres of Wilderness.

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Wilderness Watch is urging the U.S. Air Force to drop its proposal for up to 10,000 F-16 fighter jet “sorties” a year over America’s (and the world’s) first Wilderness—the Gila—and seven other Wildernesses in southern New Mexico—the Aldo Leopold, Apache Kid, Withington, Bosque del Apache, Sierra de las Uvas, Broad Canyon, and Robledo Wildernesses. The area’s wild character would no doubt be harmed by the invasion and noise of these countless military overflights.

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The U.S. Air Force (USAF) is proposing to expand its military training airspace over Wilderness in the Owyhee Canyonlands of southwestern Idaho with low-level flights by supersonic fighter jets known as F-15E Strike Eagles. Such activity could shatter the area’s natural sounds, ruin the wilderness experience for visitors, and stress native wildlife.  Read more...

The National Park Service in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service has prepared a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on a plan to translocate grizzlies into the rugged North Cascades in Washington. The Forest Service is a cooperating agency, though it appears that agency’s input in the DEIS is minimal. Wilderness Watch is urging the Park Service to consider natural recovery options for the grizzly population.

 

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released a draft environmental assessment for public input on its proposal to increase visitor use in fragile areas of the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness in Arizona, most specifically the Wave and Coyote Buttes North. These areas are almost exclusively day use, being only a few miles hike roundtrip.

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Wilderness Watch is voicing concern over a destructive and unnecessary road proposed across a wide swath of the southern Brooks Range in Alaska. The 211-mile road to the so-called Ambler Mining District would facilitate huge mining operations that would benefit a private Canadian company at the expense of Wilderness and wildlife. 

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