Earth-Save

From a memo by the Land Trust Alliance:

The nearly $800 billion federal stimulus package passed by Congress last month includes over $15 billion for federal natural resource agencies:

• $145 million to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for the purchase of easements on and restoration of flood-prone farmland.
• $230 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, $1 billion to the Bureau of Reclamation, $5 billion to the Corps of Engineers and another $195 million to NRCS, for watershed restoration, including projects like dam removal, wetlands restoration and fish ladders on private lands.
• $250 million to the U.S. Forest Service for cooperative projects to benefit state and private lands, primarily hazardous fuels reduction and post-fire restoration.
• $290 million to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, $905 million to the National Park Service, $320 million to the Bureau of Land Management and another $950 million to the Forest Service, all nominally for projects on federal lands, but if your organization has properties adjacent to federal lands, there could be opportunities for partnerships on projects like habitat restoration and trail building.
• At least 3% of the $27.5 billion in state transportation funding will go to Transportation Enhancement projects which can include acquisition of scenic or historic easements, trail building and environmental mitigation.
• At least 20% of EPA’s $6 billion in Safe Drinking Water Act funding will be available for unconventional water quality projects which have included land conservation in the past.

Last December, the Sierra Club and a coalition of environmental groups filed suit to stop 77 oil and gas leases for drilling on 103,000 acres of Utah wilderness, much of it surrounding iconic treasures like Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Dinosaur National Monument and Nine Mile Canyon.  Last week, the Interior Department announced that it would cancel the leases.

"The Obama administration clearly understands that instead of allowing the oil industry to destroy places like Arches National Park," said Sierra Club Deputy Director Bruce Hamilton, "we should be investing in the kind of clean-energy-solutions that curb global warming and leave our natural treasures intact."

As reported by RedGreenAndBlue:  The original lease auction was held on December 9th amid intense protest from environmental groups, conservationists, outdoors enthusiasts, the National Park Service, and members of Congress.  Perhaps the most effective protest came from Tim DeChristopher, a University of Utah student who made winning bids on 13 of the 77 leases with no intention of paying the $1.8 million in bids.  The ensuing chaos creating by DeChristopher’s bids threw the entire process into doubt, and delayed the auctions long enough for the Obama administration to invalidate them.