National
BLM document reveals ambitious NEPA overhaul. “Last summer, the Interior Department gave its bureaus 30 days to decide how they would streamline environmental reviews of energy production, infrastructure build-out and other major actions on public lands. The Bureau of Land Management has moved aggressively on its list of priorities, which are listed in a Sept. 27, 2017, report obtained by E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act. Many more changes are still to come.” [E&E News, 8/14/18 (=)]
Oil and gas leasing, climate change head to 10th Circuit. “A high-stakes battle over how the Bureau of Land Management analyzes climate change is heading to a federal appeals court. BLM filed a notice of appeal yesterday of a district court's recent decision scrapping oil and gas leasing plans in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico.” [E&E News, 8/14/18 (=)]
Wildfire
Exclusive– Ryan Zinke: ‘Environmental Terrorist Groups’ Play Role in Western U.S. Wildfires. “U.S. Department of Interior Secretary (DOI) Ryan Zinke told Breitbart News Saturday that ‘environmental terrorist groups’ are, in part, responsible for the deadly wildfires in the Western United States. Wildfires have charred hundreds of thousands of acres and caused loss of life, including six firefighters. Zinke said, while it is true that wildfire seasons have grown dryer and hotter, the underlying cause of the fires themselves is because of the ‘fuel load’ of dead timber and other combustible matter littering forests.” [Breitbart, 8/13/18 (-)]
Secretary Zinke Says Climate Change Is Not Responsible for California Wildfires, Blames Environmentalists. “Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on Sunday said that ‘extreme’ environmental groups are contributing to the rise of wildfires in the West. During a visit to parts of California that have been devastated by wildfires, he blamed environmentalist and their attempts to lessen logging in forests for the deadly blazes. He also said that climate change had nothing to do with the increasing frequency and intensity of the fires.” [Time, 8/13/18 (=)]
It’s Official: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Is An Ostrich About Wildfires. “Zinke traveled to California on the taxpayer’s dime to learn about the wildfire threat and tour the damage. It would be a shame if he left without looking at the actual facts.” [HuffPost, 8/13/18 (+)]
Environmentalists outraged as Ryan Zinke says California fires have nothing to do with climate change. “Environmentalists criticized Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Monday for blaming the wildfires raging through California on forest management and claiming that climate change has not played a role in the blazes. Zinke, on a two-day tour of areas devastated by the Carr Fire in Redding, Calif., downplayed the importance of managing global warming in addressing the fires on Sunday. ‘I’ve heard the climate change argument back and forth,’ Zinke said in an interview with a local television station, KCRA 3. ‘This has nothing to do with climate change. This has to do with active forest management.’ Conservation groups said that Zinke and the Trump administration are purposely ignoring climate change for political reasons.” [Washington Examiner, 8/13/18 (=)]
Zinke wants to talk about trees, not climate. “Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke acknowledges that drought, hotter temperatures and longer fire seasons are fueling the blazes devastating this region and other parts of the state. But he doesn't think climate change is central to that discussion. ‘There's a lot of reasons for these fires: You have a longer fire season, you have a drought, you have higher temperatures, and then you have a fuel load and the density of burnable material is unprecedented in a lot of areas,’ he said yesterday at a news conference at the Forest Service's smokejumper base in Redding, where about 1,000 homes have been destroyed by the Carr Fire.” [E&E News, 8/14/18 (=)]
State and Local
Montana lawmakers, conservation groups ask Congress to reauthorize fund. “With fewer than 50 days until funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund expires, Montana U.S. Sen. Steve Daines told a group in Helena on Monday he wants to see the funding made permanent so the cycle of uncertainty around the program ends.” [Helena Independent Record, 8/13/18 (+)]
BLM removal plan worries Wyo. mustang board. “A Bureau of Land Management plan to remove 17 wild horses from a Wyoming herd has drawn pushback. Removing so many young horses could threaten the herd’s future, said board members of the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center in Lovell. BLM’s Billings Field Office announced its proposal early this month and plans to start taking away horses Sept. 2. The animals, ages 1 to 4, would be removed through bait and water trapping. Nancy Cerroni, the mustang center’s board president, said she would like to see the plan modified.” [E&E News, 8/13/18 (=)]
Park Service backs off proposal to hike rafting fees. “The National Park Service has axed a contract proposal that would have raised the franchise fees charged to companies that run popular rafting trips through the Grand Canyon. The higher proposed fees had provoked a backlash from contract holders and lawmakers. ‘The fact that these payments come out of gross revenues, rather than net profits, means that a concessionaire is required to make these payments, even if it means operating at a loss,’ the Congressional Western Caucus wrote to the Interior Department and the Park Service last spring.” [E&E News, 8/13/18 (=)]
Jump in visitors creates smelly problem in Mont. Forest. “Rising numbers of visitors to Custer Gallatin National Forest in Montana are creating a poop problem, as officials look for cost-effective ways to deal with more and more human waste. The forest has spent more than twice as much this year on pumping out toilets and having the waste taken away as it did in 2013. The total costs for this year are expected to reach $85,000, said Beartooth Ranger District outdoor recreation planner Jeff Gildehaus. ‘It’s something really unanticipated how fast the costs have gone up,’ Gildehaus said. ‘It cuts into other things, like hiring people or buying supplies.’ The forest might increase campground fees to make up for the added expense, Gildehaus said.” [E&E News, 8/13/18 (=)]
Op-Ed, Editorial, and Analysis
Op-Ed: WSA bills are a unilateral wrecking ball. “Dear Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte: Maybe you think there’s an access problem with Montana’s Wilderness Study Areas? By the age of two, my daughter had listened to elk bugle in the Big Snowies Wilderness Study Area (WSA), nearly drowned in wildflowers on July 4th at the farthest headwaters of the Missouri in the Centennials WSA, watched the alpine larch turn gold in the Sapphire WSA, and walked across the natural bridges in the Terry Badlands WSA. Maybe you think these are lands of no use? Right now, Montanans are casting flies into blue-ribbon trout streams that are still cold despite the heat, thanks to intact headwaters safeguarded by Wilderness Study Areas upstream. This fall, the 800,000-plus acres of public land on the chopping block in your three bills (S 2206, HR 5148, and HR 5149) will be full of everyday Montanans working to fill their freezers during one of the longest hunting seasons in America.” [Montana Standard, 8/13/18 (+)]
Op-Ed: Hunters, anglers support Land and Water Conservation Fund. “It's time to take this political football out of the hands of ideologically driven politicians. Time is running out. A bill needs to pass by Sept. 30. If you value public spaces afforded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, make your voice heard and contact your elected officials.” [Duluth News Tribune, 8/13/18 (+)]