Salazar Designates National Water Trail in Oregon

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science John Tubbs joined paddlers and kayakers at McCartney Park in Linn County to celebrate Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s designation of the Willamette River Water Trail as part of the National Water Trails System. The National Water Trails System is part of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative to establish a conservation and outdoor recreation strategy built for the 21st century and to reconnect Americans to the outdoors. The designation promotes America’s exemplary water trails and their contribution to environmental stewardship, outdoor recreation, and river conservation. The Willamette River Water Trail is one of nine National Water Trails designated by Secretary Salazar. The designation acknowledges not only the recreation values of the trail, but also the excellent stewardship of the state, local communities, and other partners who maintain the natural beauty and integrity of the Willamette River...more

Billionaire's land donation may spur preserve

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced recently a record-breaking donation from billionaire Louis Bacon that could jump-start a proposed government conservation project. Bacon, the founder of the $15 billion hedge fund group called Moore Capital Management, said he intends to place about 90,000 acres of unprotected land on the Blanca portion of his Trinchera Ranch in southern Colorado into a conservation easement with the government. It would be the largest single conservation easement ever donated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The land is in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains bordering the San Luis Valley and includes high desert shrubs, mountain grassland, alpine forest and the 14,345-foot Blanca Peak. The remaining portion of the 172,000-acre Trinchera Ranch is already protected by an easement administered by Colorado Open Lands. Easements do not transfer ownership of the land but restrict development by the landowner, who is eligible for a number of tax incentives. Bacon's donation will lay the foundation for the government's proposed Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area. In an email, Fish and Wildlife Service representatives said that if the plan moves forward, the conservation area will expand into Northern New Mexico. The government will work to persuade other private landowners in the area, such as billionaire Ted Turner, to form partnerships with the government similar to Bacon's...more

National Historic Park possible in San Luis Valley

Representatives from various organizations addressed two separate crowds during public meetings this past week in regards to designating a National Historic Park (NHP) in the San Luis Valley. Alan Ragins with the National Park Service facilitated the meetings. Alan Gilbert, with Secretary Ken Salazar's office, spoke on how the initiative got started and how the concept of a NHS in the Valley is linked to American Latino Heritage Initiative. "The purpose of a NHP is to tell a story about the area and preserve it," said Gilbert. Greg Kendrick and Chris Whitacre, also with the National Park Service, gave a 30 minute presentation on what a NHP is and is not, examples of some parks in other states and how they operate, and some identified sites in the Valley. Whitacre said that Salazar asked NPS to identify sites of America's Latino Heritage. Currently only four percent of all sites represent such heritage.  "This is a gap that needs to be addressed, as it's an integral part of our national history that needs to be represented," said Whitacre. Some possible sites identified by the two month study were as follows...more

Establishment of Everglades Headwaters NWR and Conservation Area

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – January 18, 2012 -

As part of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today accepted the first donation of land in south-central Florida to officially establish the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area – conserving one of the last remaining grassland and longleaf pine savanna landscapes in eastern North America.

The new refuge and conservation area – the 556th unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System – is being established with the support of local ranchers, farmers and landowners who are working cooperatively with Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve the wildlife values on their lands while retaining their right to raise livestock or crops, an approach championed by the Obama administration.

If fully realized, the refuge and conservation area will span 150,000 acres north of Lake Okeechobee. Two-thirds of the acreage, or 100,000 acres, will be protected through conservation easements purchased from willing sellers. With easements, private landowners retain ownership of their land, as well as the ability to continue farming or ranching the land. The easements would ensure the land could not be subdivided or developed.

“This is an outstanding example of the 21st century approach to conservation envisioned by President Obama when he unveiled his America’s Great Outdoors initiative last year,” Salazar said. “Working in close partnership with landowners, we are taking a major step to safeguard the long-term health of the Everglades in the Kissimmee Valley, while ensuring the area’s ranching and farming heritage and economy remain strong. Just as we have done in Kansas, Montana and the Dakotas, our locally-driven, cooperative approach to conserving the Everglades Headwaters will help grow a robust outdoor recreation economy for central Florida, while preserving ranchers’ rights to live off the land.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), which manages the National Wildlife Refuge System, is working closely with ranchers and other private landowners, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other state agencies, conservation organizations, users’ groups, Native American tribes and federal agencies in the creation of the new refuge and conservation area.

“We are inspired by the excellent conservation opportunities that exist here as a result of the efforts of our ranching community to protect working lands across generations," said Service Director Dan Ashe. “The extraordinary vision of our many partners will help protect significant wildlife species while supporting a way of life that is vital to our citizens. This effort will restore wetlands in the headwaters area, preserve working ranches, and support a healthy environment for central and south Florida, as well as increase opportunities to hunt, fish, hike, bird watch, and learn about the importance of this landscape.”

The establishment of the new refuge and conservation area is one of a series of conservation projects under the Obama administration to work locally with landowners, conservation stakeholders, and state, tribal and local governments to conserve vital habitat on working landscapes. These include:

• The million-acre Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area in Kansas – the first new unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System authorized under the Obama administration, which will help maintain the integrity of tallgrass prairie wildlife habitat, stream water quality and the agricultural heritage of the Flint Hills;

• The proposed Dakota Grassland Conservation Area, which will conserve prairie landscapes, wildlife resources and working lands in the Prairie Pothole Region, an area that supports more than half of the nation's migratory waterfowl; and

• The successful community-based conservation initiatives taking place in the Crown of the Continent, a vast and intact landscape that includes portions of northwestern Montana as well as British Columbia and Alberta.

The Everglades, which receives water from the Kissimmee River Valley, will benefit from the conservation and restoration of its headwaters through enhanced water quality, quantity and storage.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held six public meetings in 2011 to gather input on the proposal; collected written comments; and met with representatives of local, state and federal agencies, as well as Native American tribes.

Salazar announced the Service’s intent to evaluate this area in January 2011 and proposed to establish the new refuge and conservation area last September. During 2011, the Service received more than 40,000 comments on the proposal, the overwhelming majority of which expressed support.

Additional details on the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area are available here.

Press Release

The L.A. River Designated with Two Federal Initiatives

While it has been been public knowledge for a while, today Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa officially announced the selection of the Los Angeles River for President Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative as well as being designated an Urban Waters Federal Partnership site. A group of over a hundred river advocates and politicians were in attendance at North Atwater Park, adjacent to the river. With these designations the Glendale Narrows, a 9 mile stretch of the Los Angeles River, will be reviewed through a federal partnership with 11 agencies, including the Interior Department, to build parks, restore wildlife, and improve water quality. These agencies include: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Corporation for National and Community Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Transportation...more

With 11 federal agencies involved this must truly be an example of America's Great Outdoors right there in L.A.  On the other hand, having 11 federal agencies messing around could screw up anything, so why have so many involved?

"The value is in the partnership with the agencies, according to Melanie Winter, director of The River Project, as it will open up opportunities for funding. A challenge in revitalizing the Los Angeles River has been the burden of raising funds for acquiring property..."

Ah, now I understand.  The more feds, the better chance for funds to gobble up private property.  Good thinking L.A.

"In fact the Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to complete a study of the L.A. River and we were told that as of a few weeks ago, they advised river advocates that they had no money to complete that study."

Uh oh.  They need the study to lobby for more federal money.  In other words, they need federal money to create a piece of paper that will then allow them to get more federal money.  That is what America's Great Outdoors  is all about:  More money and land acquisition.

New version of civilian conservation corps planned

The Obama administration’s vision for an updated version of the Civilian Conservation Corps is a little closer to reality after Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack last week named members of a federal advisory committee that will help build the planned 21st Century Conservation Service Corps. 21CSC will empower young people — including low-income, under-served and diverse youth and returning veterans – with valuable training and work experience, while accomplishing important conservation and restoration work for America’s great outdoors, waterways and cultural heritage sites. The committee – composed of representatives of the nation’s conservation, service and workforce development groups along with representatives from federal agencies – will provide Salazar and Vilsack advice on a framework for the Conservation Service Corps’ organizational structure; certification criteria for Corps providers and members; strategies to overcome existing barriers to successful program implementation; partnership opportunities with outside organizations and pathways for Corps participants to pursue future conservation, community engagement and natural resource careers. Today’s announcement builds on the promise made to the American public during the America’s Great Outdoors listening sessions to take their recommendations and move them forward, as well as Secretary Salazar’s initiative to establish youth employment and education as a priority for Interior by creating the Office of Youth in the Great Outdoors...more

New report identifies nation's 101 top conservation projects

An Interior Department report released Thursday identifies 101 high-priority conservation projects across the nation as part of President Barack Obama's initiative to protect public lands, but it says most will have to find funding somewhere besides the U.S. government. The report outlines two projects in each state and one in the District of Columbia in various stages of development, ranging from the creation of an all-season trail system in Alaska's Denali National Park to the completion of a 32-mile trail through urban areas in central Florida. Representatives from all 50 states who were asked to identify specific projects in which the federal government could form partnerships as part of the America's Great Outdoors Initiative. Some could be completed within in a few years, while others would take several decades, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. Salazar said he didn't know the total cost, and the report says the federal agency won't be able to fund most of them, "given the fiscal constraints facing the federal government."...more

Interior secretary to include 2 New Mexico projects as part of 'Great Outdoors' initiative

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says two projects in New Mexico will be included in a 50-state report outlining proposals for reconnecting Americans to the great outdoors. The projects include the creation of an urban national wildlife refuge on Albuquerque's southern edge at the site of the old Price's Dairy and construction of a pedestrian bridge at the Aztec Ruins National Monument in northwestern New Mexico. The full report will be released in the coming weeks. It includes 100 projects nationwide that are part of the Obama administration's conservation and recreation agenda. The report is the result of meetings among Interior Department officials, governors, local and tribal representatives and other stakeholders. AP

Now we wait for the "crown jewels".

America’s Great Outdoors Progress Report

The Obama Administration today detailed how the President’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO) is opening up access to lands and waters, restoring critical landscapes, reconnecting Americans to the natural world, and supporting thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity. With the release of the 2011 America’s Great Outdoors Progress Report, 15 federal agencies outlined their combined conservation and recreation successes, including gains in youth employment, new trail designations, the creation of urban campgrounds, and historic investments in large landscapes such as the Everglades...more

The complete report is here.

America’s Great Outdoors Youth Chat with Sec. Vilsack and Sec. Salazar

Last month President Obama announced the final report of his America’s Great Outdoors initiative, featuring young Americans who are excited about conservation and ready to get involved in the outdoors. Your suggestions were clear. You want the outdoors to be relevant and accessible to everyone. You want jobs and more opportunities to learn in the outdoors. But most importantly, you want to help make it happen. Now, we want to keep the conversation going. Please join us on Thursday March 17th at 2:00 p.m. EST as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar answer your questions live at WhiteHouse.gov/live. Submit your questions in advance on the YouthGO YouTube or send them to YouthGO@ios.doi.gov. You can also submit questions live via the White House Facebook app.

Federal officials travel to California to reach out to off-roaders

Salazar Gets Stuck

Freed from the confines of Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Sunday kicked up his heels in the California desert, where he raced across undulating dunes in a souped-up sand rail. And, perhaps as a reminder of the gridlock he left behind on Capitol Hill, Salazar's vehicle became mired in the sand as he attempted to surmount a steep dune. The daredevil antics were driven by a serious intent: to reach out to a constituency often antagonistic to federal officials and their management of public lands in the West. To that end, Salazar and Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, toured Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area on a busy holiday weekend. The pair came to mend political fences by stressing that motorized recreation fits into the Obama administration's vision of America's Great Outdoors, a conservation and health initiative rolled out last week that is heavy on land preservation. "When we talk about the great outdoors, this is the kind of recreation we are talking about, " Salazar told a group of off-road enthusiasts, raising his voice to be heard above the deep rumbles and high-pitched whines coming from fleets of "sand toys" racing past near the town of Glamis...more

Salazar, Bloomberg Launch Great Urban Park Vision for New York City

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Director of the National Park Service Jon Jarvis joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to announce that, as part of President Obama’s America's Great Outdoors Initiative, the National Park Service will ramp up its collaborative efforts with the City of New York and local partners to expand outdoor opportunities, strengthen outreach programs to school children, improve connections among the national parks in New York harbor, and restore New York’s remarkable natural, cultural, and historic resources. The National Park Service’s Great Urban Park initiative for New York City is one of the major open space and urban park initiatives that the National Park Service will launch in cities around the country under President Obama’s America's Great Outdoors Initiative...more

Can We Afford The America's Great Outdoors Initiative?

Months in development, the America's Great Outdoors initiative is a broad road map drawn by the Obama administration to both reconnect Americans with the outdoors and outline how the country can preserve much of its natural landscape. But how timely, in light of current fiscal and political winds, is it? More so, couldn't many of its goals have been put in motion, or even accomplished, without this 111-page initiative that is "aimed at reigniting our historic commitment to conserving and enjoying the magnificent natural heritage that has shaped our nation and its citizens." Many of the issues raised in those pages -- a disconnect between younger generations and the American landscape, the need to protect through conservation and preservation parklands, forests, farms, rivers, and streams, and improved access to those lands -- are not new but rather have been debated over and over again. Don't overlook the fiscal realities: The National Park Service has a maintenance backlog in the neighborhood of $8 billion and the president's proposed FY12 budget for the agency, while overall providing a slight $138 million increase over current levels, would cut $81 million from its construction budget. In an effort to slow further growth of the existing backlog, the budget does propose $3.2 million for cyclic maintenance and $7.5 million for repair and rehabilitation projects, but the inequity is obvious. Politically, emboldened House Republicans anxious to blunt the federal deficit have shown no interest in coming close to fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a task that would take $900 million. The America's Great Outdoors initiative relies heavily on that full funding, which, proponents note, would come from royalties flowing from oil and gas leases on public lands...more

Montanans see their ideas in Obama outdoors initiative

"The same folks in different clothes," was how rancher Dusty Crary described the White House scene on Wednesday when President Barack Obama announced his America's Great Outdoors Initiative. Last June, Montana outdoors advocates and presidential Cabinet secretaries were swapping stories and barbecue on the Rolling Stone Ranch near Ovando, during the initiative's first national listening session. Eight months later, the Choteau rancher and fellow Montanan Denny Iverson went to Washington to see their ideas become the framework of a national policy. "We first had a get-together in the Interior Department and some chitchat with the secretary of agriculture and the secretary of interior, and Lisa Jackson of the EPA," Crary said in a phone interview from Washington. "Then we just walked over to the White House and got ushered through. Everybody just milled around in Green Room and Blue Room until the president came in." Crary got to stand next to Obama's podium as the president spoke about the initiative on Wednesday. In his address, Obama said grass-roots ideas were essential to good environmental stewardship. "I can't stress enough how that impresses me, that Washington is finally starting to get it," said Iverson, a Potomac rancher and logger who helps lead the Blackfoot Challenge. "They get out in the country and hear what people want, let us help and frame policy and funding so it works out there." They also met dozens of other outdoors enthusiasts, from inner-city Los Angeles to the Florida Everglades, who contributed to the America's Great Outdoors concepts...more

Montanans in the White House

Choteau-area rancher Dusty Crary stood beside President Barack Obama this week at the White House, watching over the president’s shoulder as he unveiled the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. Denny Iverson, a rancher along the Blackfoot River and member of the Blackfoot Challenge, had a front-row seat to the event too, as one of the people from throughout the nation who provided the roadmap that laid out the path to the initiative. “It was a great honor for Montana to have someone up on the stage,” Iverson said Thursday. “It could have been any one of us with the Crown of the Continent work, but we were glad to go. It was a lot of fun.” Work on the initiative started with a meeting last June at Jim Stone’s Blackfoot River ranch, which kicked off a series of 51 “listening tours” by government officials aimed at helping them figure out better ways to preserve the landscape and get people outdoors. “It’s about practical, commonsense ideas from the American people on how our natural, cultural and historic resources can help us be a more competitive, stronger and healthier nation,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “Together, we are adapting our conservation strategies to meet the challenges of today and empowering communities to protect and preserve our working lands and natural landscapes for generations to come.” At the White House on Wednesday, Obama signed the memorandum that outlines general goals the administration hopes to pursue in the next few years. Those include encouraging outdoor recreation by Americans; forming coalitions with states, local governments and the private sector; connecting wildlife migration corridors; and encouraging sustainable use of private land. More than 100,000 people offered suggestions on the initiative...more

Paso Robles cattleman visits Obama in White House

Kevin Kester, a rancher from Paso Robles, attended a meeting with President Barack Obama yesterday about preservation efforts. Kester is the president of the California Cattlemen's Association and represented California ranchers at the White House yesterday. He was there when Obama announced the release of a new report on America's Great Outdoors Initiative, the program the White House started last year to preserve open space and parks nationwide. "We talked to them about the great efforts cattlemen and ranchers are making to preserve the environment and keeping working spaces open across the nation," Kester said. But this is all happening at the same time Governor Brown is trying to take away benefits from California ranchers, and they say they can't keep their land open if Brown cuts funding for the Williamson Act...more

Obama admin. holds meetings on 'Great Outdoors'

On the edges of a vast landscape that measures in the millions of acres and stretches north through a wilderness area and a scenic national park, ranchers and environmentalists have been able to agree on a lot lately. The work done to preserve land in northwestern Montana's "Crown of the Continent" was made the shining example Tuesday of what the Obama Administration hopes to achieve with its new "America's Great Outdoors Initiative." The conservation effort has focused on voluntary land sales of 310,000 acres from a large timber company, deals to retire mining and oil projects and conservation agreements with ranchers and land owners in developing homemade plans for a working landscape in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The varied interests behind the effort also agree the Obama Administration should make sure its new initiative doesn't force land conservation ideas from big cities down the throats of rural residents. "Urban-based conservation movements have really only succeeded in alienating the very best allies: our ranchers, our loggers, our sportsmen and our farmers," said Melanie Parker, who lives in the scenic Swan Valley and has played an integral role in getting loggers and environmentalists in the area to talk with one another...more

I also found this interesting:

The administration's new initiative comes as Republicans and others criticize the contents of an internal Interior Department memo and other records that show the administration was considering the potential for presidential monument declarations in nine western states. Those declarations, last done in Montana under former President Bill Clinton, remain a very sore point for some westerners. Leading Democrats said the monument declarations are not part of the agenda. "I am opposed to the administration creating monuments," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who holds an influential role in the Senate. "This is bottom up, that was top down."

If Baucus is opposed you won't see Obama designate any monuments in Montana. Same would be true for New Mexico should Bingaman take a similar stance.

Great Outdoors Initiative forum held in Helena

Federal officials got an earful Wednesday at a listening session in Helena on how to better protect open lands and get people, especially children, into the great outdoors as part of President Barack Obama’s Great Outdoors Initiative. Jay Erickson with the Montana Land Reliance called for renewal of conservation-easement tax incentives, which could give ranchers more reason to keep from subdividing their property. Bob Sanders with Ducks Unlimited wants to focus attention on preserving the wide open native prairies of Eastern Montana and the Dakotas, which he called “one of the most productive areas on Earth.” The five men were among about 200 people who crowded into two banquet rooms at the Red Lion Colonial Inn in Helena, as one of four listening sessions held only in Montana this week on the president’s initiative. Robert Bonnie, a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, said the sessions were enlightening to the dozens of federal officials attending them. Vilsack, John Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, and Nancy Sutley, chairman of the White House Council for Environmental Quality, were among top federal officials who attended Tuesday’s session. Ellen Simpson with Montana Wood Products and others also said that if the government wants more people to use the outdoors, they need to make it easier to get into the forests. “We need to open, not close, access to people,” Simpson said...more

Obama’s ‘Great Outdoors Initiative’ listening session

People interested in helping to develop a new, nationwide conservation policy and finding better ways to connect the public to the great outdoors are invited to attend a meeting June 2 in Helena. The meeting is one of many taking place throughout the United States as part of President Barack Obama’s “America’s Great Outdoors Initiative,” which was unveiled in April. Obama directed representatives of the Department of Interior, the Department of Agriculture and the White House Council on Environmental Quality to go to communities like Helena and learn from the public what is happening on the ground and what needs to happen. They’re hoping to hear from tribal leaders, farmers, ranchers, sportsmen and women, community park groups, foresters, youth groups, business people, educators, state and local government and recreation and conservation groups — and just about anyone else with an opinion or idea — at the sessions. Generally, four topics will be included at the sessions: what are new land conservation strategies and obstacles; how to better connect people with the outdoors and obstacles; how the federal government can work better with local public and private recreation groups; and what can make current efforts more successful...more