News
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate voted in veto-proof numbers to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which protects the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in southern Nevada for the next 25 years. This bill is the result of several months of negotiations between the two chambers of Congress in conference, and keeps the previous military boundaries within the Desert NWR intact.
Today, the Bureau of Land Management stated that they are going to hold a lease sale for oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on January 6, 2021. Ever since the creation of the Arctic Refuge 60 years ago, oil and gas companies have been lobbying for access to this protected land. This step to hold a lease sale is the formal opening of the Arctic Refuge for development for the first time in history.
Recent changes to the Clean Water Act regulations have resulted in a legal redefinition of wetlands that are under the jurisdiction of the United States. The new definition does not include seasonal wetland habitats which are the bulk of the wetland habitat in the proposed mining area. This now means that Twin Pines Minerals LLC no longer needs to obtain a Clean Water Act, Section 404 permit from the federal government and no further environmental analysis of the proposed mine will be required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The lame-duck Trump Administration is expected to issue a “request for nominations” to purchase leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as soon as Monday. Even with oil prices at record lows and with the results of the recent Presidential election clear, this Administration is charging forward with plans to fast-track oil and gas development before they leave office in 68 days.
Each year during the second week of October we celebrate our nation’s unique and wonderful national wildlife refuges with National Wildlife Refuge Week. In a non-COVID year, our wildlife refuges would be full of visitors this week--festivals, guided nature walks, and educational presentations in the Visitor’s Center. This year, we celebrate our nation’s refuges as individuals, with quiet moments on these special lands.
Salt Bayou is a 139,000-acre landscape that includes freshwater to estuarine marsh, coastal prairie grasslands, tidal flats, creeks and basins, and associated fish and wildlife species. Salt Bayou is the largest contiguous estuarine marsh complex in Texas. Hurricane Laura made landfall just 20 miles to the east in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The wetland habitats in the Salt Bayou provide foraging and nesting habitats for numerous species of birds along one of the most important migratory flyways in the world, as well as essential nursery habitat for ecologically, commercially, and recreationally important species of fish and invertebrates.
During National Wildlife Refuge Week we celebrate the National Wildlife Refuge System and the diversity of imperiled species that call it home, reveal critical threats to refuges and their wildlife and look to the future of America's public lands network dedicated to our wildlife in our new report with Defenders of Wildlife, Finding Refuge.
The Interior Department’s Office of the Inspector General has completed its audit of the Refuge Friends program and released its final report. The Refuge Association and the Coalition of Refuge Friends and Advocates have responded to this report with a letter to Interior Secretary Bernhardt expresses our dismay at the report.
