New app helps document environmental damage on public lands

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Recreational visitors to public lands have a new tool to document any damage they see and upload their report to a database. Brian Sybert is executive director of the Conservation Lands Foundation. He said the new mobile app, TerraTRUTH, is needed because public lands are at risk now that the Trump administration has begun easing protective regulations to allow expanded oil and gas drilling. He said hikers or other outdoor users can help track damages they see by downloading the app. “And then once that’s downloaded onto your phone, you can get out onto the ground in national monuments, national conservation lands and document, through use of the app, things that might be negative impacts on the ground,” Sybert said. The app was created by the Conservation Lands Foundation, in partnership with Puente Institute and Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners. It encourages users to “Explore, Snap, and Send” images that show harm on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management...more