Public Lands Project 2029, Part 2: New Conservation Systems and Additional Reforms
This is the second in a series of two Public Lands Blog posts that propose a Public Lands Project 2029. Part 1 recommended reforms of existing federal land conservation systems and the agencies that administer them. Part 2 recommends new federal land conservation systems and additional reforms.
Figure 1. Voter ignorance and apathy will mean the demise of the nation’s public lands. Voter knowledge and enthusiasm can mean the preservation of the nation’s public lands for the benefit of this and future generations. Source: Vote.gov.
Last week, we recommended reforms to existing federal land conservation systems and the agencies that manage them. This week, we recommend new federal land conservation systems and additional reforms so as to better administer the nation’s public lands for the benefit of this and future generations. These reforms and new conservation systems should be detailed in a Public Lands Project 2029 to counter and correct some of the damage done by Project 2025.
New Overarching Land and Water Conservation Systems
(Proposed) National Desert and Grassland System
Congress should establish a National Desert and Grassland System for generally tree-free federal public lands currently administered by the BLM. Units of the National Desert and Grassland System would be analogous to units of the National Forest System. At the same time, Congress needs to strengthen protections for these lands above and beyond what is now required in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Generally forested BLM lands should be transferred to the National Forest System. BLM lands in interior Alaska should be transferred to the National Wildlife Refuge System.
See Public Lands Blog posts “A National Desert and Grassland System” (2016) and “The Forested Estate of the Bureau of Land Management” (2022)
(Proposed) National Heritage Areas System
Several national heritage areas (NHAs) exist, but they are not systematically protected. NHAs are not part of the National Park System, but the National Park Service plays the federal role in their protection. A National Heritage Areas System would also afford more public recognition, which would effectively result in more protection.
Of course, more NHAs are also a good idea.
See Public Lands Blog post “National Heritage Areas: Combining the Conservation of Nature, History, and Culture with Local Economic Development” (2017)
New Underlying Conservation Systems
(Proposed) National Wildlife Corridors System
Wild animals migrate. Roads and development impede migration. A National Wildlife Corridors System would facilitate safe migration and genetic transfer between areas where wildlife species congregate during different parts of the year. National wildlife corridors would include both federal and nonfederal lands. Acquisition of lands from or interests in lands (easements) from willing sellers would be encouraged.
See Public Lands Blog post “A Solution to Corridor Collisions: A National Wildlife Corridors System”
(Proposed) National Recreation Area System
Several national recreation areas (NRAs) exist, but they are not systematically protected. A National Recreation Area System would afford more consistent and stronger protection for NRAs and would also afford more public recognition, which would effectively result in more protection.
Of course, more NRAs are also a good idea.
See Public Lands Blog posts “A National System of National Recreation Areas” (2016) and “Pathbreaking Legislation to Conserve the Smith River Watershed” (2019)
National System of Marine Protected Areas
By executive order, President Clinton administratively established a National System of Marine Protected Areas. It has stumbled along ever since. It is time for Congress to codify the system into statute and, at the same time, strengthen the system.
(Proposed) National Areas of Critical Environmental Concern System
Areas of critical environmental concern (ACECs) are quasi-congressional creatures on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. These creatures are being strangled by bureaucratic ineptness and/or hostility. The statutory basis for ACECs should be strengthened, including: (1) prohibition of all forms of mineral exploitation; (2) consistent direction as to how ACECs are to be administered; and (3) prohibition of diminishing or eliminating ACECs without an express act of Congress.
Of course, Congress should direct the BLM (or its successor, the National Desert and Grassland Service) to establish more ACECs where necessary.
See Public Lands Blog post “BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern: Crown Jewels Open to Theft” (2017)
(Proposed) National Riparian Conservation System
Water is life. Congress should establish a National Riparian Conservation System that would, among other things: (1) provide a protective buffer of two site-potential tree heights or 200 feet, whichever is larger, along every water body on lands administered by the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management (or its successor, the National Desert and Grassland Service); (2) prohibit new roads; (3) prohibit vegetation removal; and (4) prohibit all forms of energy and mineral exploitation.
(Proposed) National Roadless Area Conservation System—NOT!
In almost every Congress since the administrative establishment of the Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule during the last days of the Clinton administration in 2001, legislation has been introduced to codify the administrative rule, which is subject to change by a later administration into statute (which is also subject to change by a later Congress, although the only thing harder that achieving an act of Congress is achieving another act of Congress to undo the first act). But the administrative rule is not worth codifying into statute, as it merely prohibits new roads (with a few loopholes), has loopholes for logging, and allows mineral exploitation, off-road vehicles, livestock grazing, and other harmful activities.
The legislation could be strengthened, but then a protected roadless area would essentially be a wilderness area, which is the much better end point for Forest Service roadless areas. Roadless areas are wild in fact and should be wild in law by establishing them as wilderness areas.
(Proposed) National Surface Drinking Water Reserves System
Congress should establish a system of reserves to protect surface drinking water. The drinking water reserves would be not only on federal public lands but also on nonfederal lands. Management of nonfederal land drinking water reserves would be by local drinking water providers, with the federal government providing technical assistance, funding for land acquisition, and other matters.
See Public Lands Blog posts “Protecting Drinking Water Sources, Part 1: Water Quantity, Quality, and Timely Release” (2023) and “Protecting Drinking Water Sources, Part 2: Suggestions for Improvement” (2023)
(Proposed) National Older Forest Conservation System
Congress should create a National Older Forest Conservation System that would include both (1) all remaining mature and old-growth forest on lands administered by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and (2) other forestlands necessary to ensure the return of mature and old-growth forest to historic levels across the landscape and over time. Older forest stands must be protected not only from logging but also from roading and other activities harmful to their natural function.
More National Monuments
Most national monuments have been proclaimed by presidents, with authority explicitly delegated by Congress in the Antiquities Act of 1906. The next president should use that delegated authority like President Jimmy Carter did in 1978. Wanting Congress to act, Carter first threatened proclaiming tens of millions of acres of national monuments in Alaska (and then proclaimed them!) to urge enactment of what would become the Alaska National Lands Act of 1980.
Congress should strengthen the Antiquities Act of 1906 by (1) ensuring that no later president can diminish a national monument, as such should be the purview of Congress; and (2) restoring the ability of the president to establish national monuments in Wyoming and Alaska.
See Public Lands Blog posts “Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument: Safe from Big Timber, Threatened by the BLM (2024), “The Proposed Sutton Mountain National ‘Monument’” (2021), and “Many National Parks Arose From National Monuments” (2017)
Other Needed Public Land Reforms
Limit Mineral Exploitation
The Mining Law of 1872, the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the Materials Act of 1947, and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 (and I’m sure others) all need to be replaced with a modern and rational Mineral Resources Act. In general, the new mining law would (1) place important natural, scenic, historical, recreational, and other areas on federal public lands off-limits to mineral exploitation; (2) allow federal land managers to say no to mining on public lands if it is not in the public interest; (3) end the claiming system for hardrock minerals and convert it to a discretionary leasing program; and (4) rather than charge a royalty for hardrock minerals, sell the public lands that are going to be mined to the highest bidder, with the proceeds used to acquire nonfederal lands of higher conservation value near the mine sacrifice area.
See Public Lands Blog posts “The Hard Case of Hardrock Mining Reform (Part 1): Where Done, If It Cannot Be Done Right, Then Do It the Least Wrong” (2019), “The Hard Case of Hardrock Mining Reform (Part 2): Conservation Areas in Which to Just Say No” (2019), and “Keep It in the Ground” (2016)
Retire Grazing Permits
Any forage that goes through domestic livestock comes at the expense of native wildlife. Livestock on public lands degrades water quality and recreation opportunities. The voluntary relinquishment of federal grazing permits on federal public lands is ecologically imperative, economically rational, fiscally prudent, socially just, and politically pragmatic. It’s been done in some places by act of Congress, but the option should be widely offered.
See Public Lands Blog post “Retiring Grazing Permits, Part 3: Future of the Voluntary Retirement Option” (2023)
Rein In the Fire-Industrial Complex
The fire-industrial complex needs reining in. “Fighting” wildfires costs huge amounts of money, endangers firefighters (both acutely on the front line and chronically as a result of breathing in all those smoke particles that are not breathed out), and doesn’t meet the objective of fewer or no fires (which is the wrong objective anyway). The federal response to wildfires that threaten infrastructure should be to help defend buildings from igniting, by (1) encouraging local governments to prevent building in the path of fire; (2) encouraging local governments to require fireproof buildings; and (3) allowing wildfires to burn on federal public lands, where they have ecological and hydrological benefits. (Weather changes extinguish all fires of any size anyway.)
The federal government should maintain a rapid-deployment force of firefighters that can be pre-deployed and deployed where necessary during an increasingly long fire season. The federal firefighting bureaucracy should be under the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Department of Homeland Security, and not federal land management agencies.
See Public Lands Blog posts “Speaking Truth to the Fire-Industrial Complex” (2019), “Defensible Space: The Best and Only Hope for the Homeowner In or Near a Forest” (2018), and “Smoke Happens” (2018)
Ban Off-Road Vehicles
Congress should limit to on-road use any motorized vehicles operating on the nation’s public lands.
Rationalize the Road System
Roads harm wildlife, degrade water quality, and are expensive to build. The nation’s public lands have enough roads and no more should be built. In fact, the nation’s public lands have too many roads that are expensive to maintain. No longer needed roads should be decommissioned to become hydrologically invisible to the watershed and no longer an impediment to wildlife. Some might be converted into trails. Necessary roads should be improved where necessary to make them hydrologically invisible.
See Wallowa County Chieftain column “It's Time to De-road the National Forest System (1997)
Conserve Darkness
Congress should enact a statute banning or limiting the use of artificial light on federal public lands, in order to conserve and restore dark skies.
See Public Lands Blog post “The Conservation of Darkness” (2024)
Favor Beavers
Beavers rock! The nation’s public lands have a shortage of dams—not those made of concrete but those made by beavers.
This largest rodent on the continent, which can weigh 65 pounds, is by no means a mere riparian rat. By damming streams and creating wetlands, beavers enrich their ecosystem and watershed far out of proportion to their numbers. Because the beaver modifies its environment to make a living and coincidentally creates habitat for numerous other species, it is what biologists call a keystone species. Bringing in more beavers can help ecosystems adapt to climate change and can help the climate directly.
Congress should ban the trapping of beavers on federal public lands except in cases where their removal would protect vital infrastructure from loss. Lest certain states start shouting that it is the state, not the federal government, that regulates wildlife, this action would not be federal government regulation of wildlife but simply the federal government as the landowner not wanting beavers to be trapped on the lands it owns.
See Public Lands Blog posts “Leave It to Beavers: Good for the Climate, Ecosystems, Watersheds, Ratepayers, and Taxpayers” Part 1 and Part 2 (2018)
Job #1: Putting the Foundations Under the Wish List
This Public Lands Project 2029 wish list is neither comprehensive nor detailed. It does not include necessary and desirable reforms of federal agencies and statutes that affect public lands such as (1) converting the Endangered Species Act into an Endangered Ecosystems Act, or (2) converting the National Environmental Policy Act (all process, no substance) into a National Environmental Protection Act (mostly substance, little process). However, it is a start.
That great American conservationist Henry David Thoreau commanded in Walden or, Life in the Woods (1854), “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
As details of Public Lands Project 2029 are fleshed out and legislation is drafted, the public lands conservation community must mostly concurrently work to bring about the political conditions to allow such legislation to be enacted into law after the next consequential national election, we hope in 2028. The public lands conservation community must reinvent itself to focus on electing good people who can then do good things for the benefit of this and future generations.
See Public Lands Blog posts “The Public Lands Conservation Movement: Mis-organized for Job #1” (2018) and “WTF Now?” (2024)
Bottom Line: Between now and 2029, the conservation community needs to reorganize its operations to expand its political power so as to be able, should the opportunity arise, to greatly advance the conservation of public lands and waters in the United States.