Interior

 

Interior Department Fielding Nominations For Committee To Replace Derogatory Names. According to AZ Mirror, “The U.S. Department of the Interior is moving forward on its plan to replace derogatory names of places on federal lands and is seeking nominations for members of the new Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place-Names. This comes nearly two months after Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland declared ‘squaw’ to be a derogatory term and directed the National Park Service to create a committee to remove offensive names from federal geographic features. The committee is responsible for identifying geographic names and federal land unit names that are considered derogatory and they will solicit proposals on replacement names. ‘Too many of our nation’s lands and waters continue to perpetuate a legacy of oppression,’ Haaland said in a press release. ‘This important advisory committee will be integral to our efforts to identify places with derogatory terms whose expiration dates are long overdue.’ There are currently more than 660 federal land units that contain the term, according to a database maintained by the Board on Geographic Names. In Arizona, there are 67 that are tied to various geographic features like summits, valleys, streams and reservoirs.” [AZ Mirror, 1/11/22 (=)]

 

BLM

 

BLM's Former Top Cop Plans Whistleblower Complaint. According to Politico, “The Bureau of Land Management’s former top law enforcement official quietly accepted a reassignment to a new position at the Interior Department but plans to file a federal whistleblower complaint alleging his immediate supervisor interfered with internal investigations. Eric Kriley was removed as director of BLM’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security and placed on administrative leave last fall (Greenwire, Oct. 25, 2021). Katherine Atkinson, Kriley’s Washington-based attorney, confirmed to E&E News that Kriley is currently working as a supervisory criminal investigator with Interior’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. But she said Kriley plans to soon file a whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel after he said he reported to senior Interior officials ethical violations and ‘improper influence’ over OLES by BLM Deputy Director of Operations Mike Nedd. ‘I was removed from my position as the bureau director of law enforcement … two weeks before the end of my one-year probationary period — allegedly for poor performance,’ Kriley said in a statement to E&E News delivered by Atkinson.” [Politico, 1/11/22 (=)]

 

Republicans Rip Biden's Bid To Scrap Expansion Of Drilling In Alaska. According to The Washington Times, “The Biden administration delivered another hit to domestic oil-and-gas production amid soaring energy prices by reversing the Trump-era move to open up millions of acres to drilling in Alaska, drawing rebukes Tuesday from outraged Republicans. The Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that it would shelve the Trump administration’s 2020 plan to expand leasing on the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), a move that would close off development on about 7 million acres by reverting to the 2013 management plan. ‘This decision reflects the Biden-Harris administration’s priority of reviewing existing oil and gas programs to ensure balance on America’s public lands and waters to benefit current and future generations,’ said the agency in a statement. … Cheering the policy reversal were environmentalists who said opening the region to drilling would worsen climate change. ‘This is an important reversal of one of the most damaging decisions to come out of the Trump administration’s final days,’ said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities. ‘Former [Interior] Secretary David Bernhardt committed a spree of regulatory vandalism on his way out the door, and it’s taken a full year to reverse that damage.’” [The Washington Times, 1/12/22 (=)]

 

FWS

 

Op-Ed: USFWS Must Reject Gianforte’s Political Grizzly Bear Petition. According to an op-ed by Mike Bader in Missoulian, “Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to remove Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE), the area within and near Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. This petition should be rejected by USFWS. Here’s why. The petition is not based upon the best scientific and commercial information available. In fact, its key provision of declaring the NCDE to be a genetically distinct population segment is devoid of any scientific backing or supporting data whatsoever and is not in accord with the Distinct Population Segment Policy. It is built entirely on numbers using questionable methods. Let’s be clear, the petition is a transparent political power grab and a vehicle to begin hunting of grizzly bears no matter the levels of other mortality sources. If delisted there will be hunting of grizzly bears with mortality exceeding sustainable levels. Forget science-based management. We can see the potential future of state management of grizzly bears by taking a look at the current wolf slaughter, which has wiped out entire packs of Yellowstone wolves. By fencing bears into undersized recovery zones with a wall of mortality, the state is attempting to create distinct population segments through permanent isolation. The state’s plan allows for the NCDE grizzly population to fall more than 27% before remedial actions are even considered. That’s an invitation to the extinction vortex, where rapid population decline cannot be reversed by management.” [Missoulian, 1/11/22 (+)]

 

NPS

 

Greens Challenge NPS On Ranching At Point Reyes. According to Politico, “Conservation groups are asking a federal court to upend the National Park Service’s decision to allow private ranches and dairy farms to continue operations in Point Reyes National Seashore, arguing the agency is in violation of numerous environmental laws. The Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California yesterday challenging an NPS management plan issued last fall. In an update to a 1980-era management plan for the park, which sits about an hour north of San Francisco, NPS last fall announced it would allow more than 20 families currently operating ranches or dairy farms under special leases or permits at the park to renew those leases for an additional 20 years. At the time, an Interior official touted the decision as ‘a model where wilderness and ranching can coexist side by side’ (Greenwire, Sept. 14, 2021). But in their lawsuit, opponents assert that NPS officials discounted concerns ‘about the impacts of ranching on the environment and public enjoyment.’ ‘NPS largely ignored these comments, along with overwhelming public opposition, and prioritized ranchers’ commercial interests over public needs,’ the lawsuit states.” [Politico, 1/11/22 (=)]

 

States

 

Covid-19 Outbreak Delays Second Bundy Trial. According to Politico, “A surge in Covid-19 infections in Idaho will delay anti-government activist Ammon Bundy’s return this week to a state court — where he had been scheduled to face a second jury trial on misdemeanor charges stemming from his protests last year of public health mandates aimed at curbing the pandemic. Ada County Magistrate Judge Kira Dale announced yesterday at a pretrial hearing that Bundy’s jury trial — scheduled to begin Thursday — would be delayed due to the current coronavirus outbreak in the state, along with other, unrelated trials set to begin this week. Under an order from the Idaho Supreme Court, trials and grand juries are prohibited from convening when a county’s seven-day average of confirmed or presumed cases of Covid-19 exceeds 25 individuals per 100,000. Decisions are made 10 days ahead of scheduled court dates. The average in Ada County as of Dec. 30 was 23.8 cases per 100,000 individuals, according to a statement from the Fourth Judicial District of Idaho. Bundy is facing his second jury trial on charges he incurred while protesting public health mandates aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus in the Gem State.” [Politico, 1/11/22 (=)]

 

 

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