Latest news with #BureauofLandManagement
Axios
4 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Congress could sell off 14 million acres of public land in Colorado
More than 14 million acres of federal public land in Colorado could be eligible for sale if Congress passes the Trump administration's budget bill, per a new analysis by a conservation nonprofit. Why it matters: This includes some of the state's most popular hiking, skiing and camping areas across the Western Slope. The big picture: The Republican-led proposal would require the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to put up to 3.3 million acres on the market for housing development. The bill's focus is on parcels outside of protected lands (like national parks, monuments or wilderness areas, which are exempt) but near roads and other development deemed suitable by local and state lawmakers. The Wilderness Society estimates more than 250 million acres across 11 Western states could be eligible for sale. Zoom in: In Colorado, that means some of its most prized public lands could be up for grabs, including sweeping sections of the Arapaho, San Juan and Rio Grande national forests. Also on the line are iconic stretches of the Million Dollar Highway and beloved hiking spots near Kenosha and Guanella passes, especially popular during fall leaf-peeping season. Follow the money: Most of the revenue — projected between $5 billion and $10 billion over the next decade — would go to the U.S. Treasury. Just 5% would trickle down to local governments. It's unclear how much the sale of public lands would negatively impact the outdoor recreation economy, which generated $1.2 trillion in economic output and supported 5 million jobs nationwide in 2023. Reality check: A recent Headwaters Economics report found less than 2% of public lands in the West near housing-hungry towns are actually suitable for development, and could be complicated due to high wildfire risk. The fine print: For the first decade, the land could only be sold for housing or related infrastructure — but after 10 years, that restriction vanishes, opening the door to virtually any kind of development, from strip malls to oil rigs. What they're saying: Colorado Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, told CPR no Democrats on the committee were given advance notice or could offer input, despite their states being on the list.
San Francisco Chronicle
12 hours ago
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Prepare to be blown away': New national monument near Santa Cruz to open with trails for hiking, biking
Almost a decade ago, former President Barack Obama recognized a 'spectacular' stretch of coastal mountains and prairie near the Santa Cruz County community of Davenport with the prestigious designation of national monument. The public, however, was never allowed in. That will change this summer. After years of unexpected delays preparing the site for visitors, the Bureau of Land Management has scheduled the opening of the 5,800-acre Cotoni-Coast Dairies monument for the afternoon of Aug. 15, a Friday. About a 15-minute drive north of the city of Santa Cruz on Highway 1, the onetime ranch and adjacent lands will debut with its northern reaches opened for hiking, biking and sightseeing. This includes nine of 27 miles of planned multi-use trails. The public will be able to access the full range of landscapes that the site is celebrated for, from broad marine terraces overlooking the Pacific Ocean to steep slopes spanning oak-dotted ridges, stream-lined canyons and redwood forest. Salmon and steelhead swim in the creeks, and jackrabbits, foxes and mountain lions roam the hills. 'When I get out there, I just feel like the place gives me a big hug,' said Zachary Ormsby, Central Coast field manager for the Bureau of Land Management. 'Visitors are going to feel that, too.' The site's name pays homage to both the native Ohlone people, specifically a subgroup called the Cotoni, and its early 1900s history as a Swiss dairy farm. The opening of the national monument to the public marks the end of a decades-long fight to keep the lands free of development. Sitting in the shadow of Davenport's shuttered cement plant, the site was spared from being absorbed by the factory. It also escaped unrelated proposals for oil drilling and a nuclear power plant. Protection came in the late 1990s after plans emerged for the area's bluffs to be lined with luxury estates. The San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land and Save the Redwoods League, among others, raised money to coordinate a roughly $45 million acquisition before any homes were built. About 500 of the original 7,000 acres that were purchased for conservation were conveyed to California State Parks while another portion was retained for agriculture. But the bulk of the property remained idle until a long-term caretaker could be secured. In 2014, 5,843 acres were transferred to the Bureau of Land Management. Shortly after that, the environmental community launched a campaign to upgrade the federal site to a national monument, a status that brings greater safeguards for natural and historical features as well as a higher public profile for the area. 'We see the property as having these superlative conservation and recreation values,' said Sara Barth, executive director of the Sempervirens Fund, the Los Altos-based land trust that helped lead the effort to make the lands a monument. 'It's larger than some of the other protected areas in the region. It's also more ecologically distinct. It has a rich history to it, too.' In January 2017, as one of Obama's final acts in office, the former president designated the federal site part of the California Coastal National Monument. Cotoni-Coast Dairies became the biggest onshore property within the existing monument, which includes a handful of distinguished spots along the Pacific. The Bureau of Land Management had hoped to open Cotoni-Coast Dairies years ago, but concerns about potential crowds caused delay. Neighboring communities worried there was too little parking and too few toilets, while scientists and conservation groups wanted to make sure that sensitive habitat, areas for wildlife and historical points would be preserved. Federal officials worked to address the issues. They've partnered with outside organizations to begin restoring watersheds for endangered coho salmon. Indigenous groups have surveyed culturally important plants on the property. Plans to rebuild an old 'cheese barn' are in the works. Perhaps most visible, the Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship and its many volunteers have taken the lead on constructing the monument's growing trail network, having recently completed three interconnecting 3-mile loops. The trails will be accessible from a new parking lot just north of Davenport near the junction of Warrenella and Cement Plant roads. Beyond serving hikers and bicyclists, parts of the multi-use trail system are designed for people using adaptive bikes accommodating mobility issues. The Bureau of Land Management hopes to open a second lot south of Davenport, with more trails, in the next few years. More details on the Aug. 15 opening will be provided closer to the date on the Bureau of Land Management's website for the monument. 'We've all been driving by this place for years and years and years,' said Matt De Young, executive director of the Trail Stewardship. 'Prepare to be blown away.'
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
We set a big chunk of California wilderness on fire. You're welcome
HOPLAND, Calif. — On a sun-kissed hillside in remote Northern California, I watched in awe as a crackling fire I'd helped ignite engulfed a hillside covered in tall, golden grass. Then the wind shifted slightly, and the dense gray smoke that had been billowing harmlessly up the slope turned and engulfed me. Within seconds, I was blind and coughing. The most intense heat I'd ever felt seemed like it would sear the only exposed skin on my body: my face. As the flames inched closer, to within a few feet, I backed up until I was trapped against a tall fence with nowhere left to go. Alone in that situation, I would have panicked. But I was with Len Nielson, chief of prescribed burns for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, who stayed as cool as the other side of the pillow. Like a pilot calmly instructing passengers to fasten their seat belts, Nielson suggested I wrap the fire-resistant 'shroud' hanging from my bright yellow helmet around my face. Then he told me to take a few steps to the left. And, just like that, we were out of the choking smoke and into the gentle morning sunlight. The temperature seemed to have dropped a few hundred degrees. 'It became uncomfortable, but it was tolerable, right?' Nielson asked with a reassuring grin. 'Prescribed fires are a lot about trust.' Dripping gasoline onto dry grass and deliberately setting it ablaze in the California countryside felt wildly reckless, especially for someone whose job involves interviewing survivors of the state's all too frequent, catastrophic wildfires. But 'good fire,' as Nielson called it, is essential for reducing the fuel available for bad fire, the kind that makes the headlines. The principle is as ancient as it is simple. Before European settlers arrived in California and insisted on suppressing fire at every turn, the landscape burned regularly. Sometimes lightning ignited the flames; sometimes it was Indigenous people using fire as an obvious, and remarkably effective, tool to clear unwanted vegetation from their fields. Whatever the cause, it was common for much of the land in California to burn about once a decade. 'So it was relatively calm,' Nielson said, as the flames we'd set danced and swirled just a few feet behind him. 'There wasn't this big fuel load, so there wasn't a chance of it becoming really intense.' With that in mind, the state set an ambitious goal in the early 2020s to deliberately burn at least 400,000 acres of wilderness each year. The majority of that would have to be managed by the federal government, since agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service own nearly half of the state's total land. And they own more than half of the state's forests. But California officials worry their ambitious goals are likely to be thwarted by deep cuts to those federal agencies by Elon Musk's budget-whacking White House advisory team, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In recent months, the Forest Service has lost about 10% of its workforce to mass layoffs and firings. While firefighters were exempt from the DOGE-ordered staffing cuts, employees who handle the logistics and clear the myriad regulatory hurdles to secure permission for prescribed burns were not. 'To me, it's an objective fact that these cuts mean California will be less safe from wildfire,' said Wade Crowfoot, California's secretary of natural resources. He recalled how President Trump, in his first term, erroneously blamed the state's wildfires on state officials who, Trump said, had failed to adequately 'rake' the forests. 'Fifty-seven percent of our forests are owned and managed by the federal government,' Crowfoot said. If anybody failed, it was the president, he argued. Larry Moore, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, said the job cuts won't affect the agency's fire prevention efforts. The Forest Service 'continues to ensure it has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world,' Moore wrote in an email. The agency's leaders are 'committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.' Nevertheless, last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom added $72 million to the state's forest management budget to bridge some of the gap expected to be left by federal agencies. But wildfire experts say that's just a drop in the bucket. Doing prescribed burns safely takes a lot of boots on the ground and behind-the-scenes cajoling to make sure local residents, and regulators, are on board. Because people get pretty testy when you accidentally smoke out an elementary school or old folks home, burn plans have to clear substantial hurdles presented by the California Environmental Quality Act and air quality regulators. It took three years to get all the required permissions for the 50-acre Hopland burn in Mendocino County, where vineyard owners worried their world-class grapes might get a little too 'smoky' for most wine lovers. When the big day finally arrived in early June, more than 60 firefighters showed up with multiple fire engines, at least one bulldozer and a firefighting helicopter on standby in case anything went wrong. They gathered at the University of California's Hopland Research and Extension Center, where students learn about ranching and wilderness ecology. But this was no school project. A fire that began in the surrounding hills a couple of years ago threatened to trap people in the center, so the area being burned was along the only two roads that could be used to escape. 'We're trying to create a buffer to get out, if we need to,' said John Bailey, the center's director. 'But we're also trying to create a buffer to prevent wildfire from coming into the center.' As the firefighters pulled on their protective yellow jackets and pants, and filled their drip torches with a mixture of diesel and gasoline, Nielson bent down and grabbed a fistful of the yellow grass. Running it through his fingers, he showed it to his deputies and they all shook their heads in disappointment — too moist. Thick marine-layer clouds filled the sky at 7 a.m, keeping the relative humidity too high for a good scorching. In many years of covering wildfires, it was the first time I had seen firefighters looking bored and disappointed because nothing would burn. By 8:45 a.m., the clouds cleared, the sun came out, and the grass in Nielson's fist began to crinkle and snap. It was time to go to work. The fire that would fill the sky and drift north that afternoon, blanketing the town of Ukiah with the familiar orange haze of fire season, began with a single firefighter walking along the edge of a cleared dirt path. As he moved, he made little dots of flame with his drip torch, drawing a line like a kid working the edges of a picture in a coloring book. Additional firefighters worked the other edges of the field until it was encircled by strips of burned black grass. That way, no matter which direction the fire went when they set the center of the field alight, the flames would not — in most circumstances — escape the relatively small test patch. On the uphill edge of the patch, along the top of a ridge, firefighters in full protective gear leaned against a wooden fence with their backs to the smoke and flames climbing the hill behind them. They'd all done this before, and they trusted those black strips of pre-burned grass to stop the fire before it got to them. Their job was to keep their eyes on the downward slope on the other side of the ridge, which wasn't supposed to burn. If they saw any embers drift past them into the 'green' zone, they would immediately move to extinguish those flames. Nielson and I were standing along the fence, too. In addition to the circle of pre-burned grass protecting us, we were on a dirt path about four feet wide. For someone with experience, that was an enormous buffer. I was the only one who even flinched when the smoke and flames came our way. Afterward, when I confessed how panicked I had felt, Nielson said it happens to a lot of people the first time they are engulfed in smoke. It's particularly dangerous in grass fires, because they move so fast. People can get completely disoriented, run the wrong way and 'get cooked,' he said. But that test patch was just the warmup act. Nielson and his crew were checking to make sure the fire would behave the way they expected — pushed in the right direction by the gentle breeze and following the slope uphill. 'If you're wondering where fire will go and how fast it will move, think of water,' he said. Water barely moves on flat ground, but it picks up speed when it goes downhill. If it gets into a steep section, where the walls close in like a funnel, it becomes a waterfall. 'Fire does the same thing, but it's a gas, so it goes the opposite direction,' Nielson said. With that and a few other pointers — we watched as three guys drew a line of fire around the base of a big, beautiful oak tree in the middle of the hillside to shield it from what was about to happen — Nielson led me to the bottom of the hill and handed me a drip torch. Once everybody was in position, and all of the safety measures had been put in place, he wanted me to help set the 'head fire,' a 6-foot wall of flame that would roar up the hill and consume dozens of acres in a matter of minutes. 'It's gonna get a little warm right here,' Nielson said, 'but it's gonna get warm for only a second.' As I leaned in with the torch and set the grass ablaze, the heat was overwhelming. While everyone else working the fire seemed nonchalant, I was tentative and terrified. My right hand stretched forward to make the dots and dashes where Nielson instructed, but my butt was sticking as far back into the road as it could get. I asked Nielson how hot he thought the flames in front of us were. 'I used to know that,' he said with a shrug. 'I want to say it's probably between 800 and 1,200 degrees.' With the hillside still burning, I peeled off all of the protective gear, hopped in a car and followed the smoke north along the 101 Freeway. By lunchtime, Ukiah, a town of 16,000 that bills itself as the gateway to the redwoods, was shrouded in haze. Everybody smelled the smoke, but prescribed burns are becoming so common in the region, nobody seemed alarmed. 'Do it!' said Judy Hyler, as she and two friends walked out of Stan's Maple Cafe. A veteran of the rampant destruction of wildfires from years past, she didn't hesitate when asked how she felt about the effort. 'I would rather it be prescribed, controlled and managed than what we've seen before.'
CNBC
5 days ago
- CNBC
U.S. National Parks, national monuments and more public lands will be free on Juneteenth—and 5 other days this year
With summer right around the corner, it's time to get outside and enjoy the Great Outdoors. The US National Parks service will be offering no-cost admission to all of its parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite on Juneteenth as part of its 2025 "Fee Free Days." Though most National Parks are free to enter, a number of them charge an entrance fee. Acadia National Park, for example, costs between $20 and $35, while Badlands in South Dakota will run you between $15 and $30 for an entrance pass. On Juneteenth, visitors will be able to enter parks at no cost. They will, however, still be required to pay any fees associated with camping, boat launching, tours and activities in the park. The National Parks Service recommends that visitors arrive early, since the fee-free days tend to draw crowds. Getting to the parks early can help you avoid the rush. If you can't make it to a National Park on Thursday, don't worry. There are a few more fee-free days left in 2025. Depending on the day, areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service will be open to visitors free of charge. Be sure to check the US Department of the Interior website to see which lands will be available each day. These are the remaining fee-free days this year.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
2 active wildfires burning in Lincoln County as Southern Nevada fire restrictions begin
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Stage 1 fire restrictions go into effect today (Friday, June 13) across federal and state lands in Southern Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) notes severe to exceptional drought conditions in the area. Above-normal potential for wildfires is expected to persist through July. Two fires are burning southeast of Ely on federal land in Lincoln County, according to a Thursday BLM post on social media. The Burnt Canyon Fire was at 1,068 acres and the Rosencrans Fire had burned 727 acres. Both fires started Wednesday about five miles apart and were 40% contained. Most wildfires are caused by people. They are preventable if the public observes simple precautions. Southern Nevada fire restrictions include: Campfires and open fires outside of designated areas. This includes charcoal grills. Use of open flames, including portable stoves and lanterns. (Exceptions: devices with shut-off valves that use gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel.) Smoking outdoors. Motorized vehicles or equipment use on dried vegetation. Welding and other spark-producing 'hot work.' Fireworks and explosives are always banned, as well as tracer rounds and steel ammunition, which can cause sparks. Combustion engines must have spark arrestors. The announcement comes as western Nevada is under a Red Flag Warning due to gusty winds and low humidity. The warning also applies to Washoe County, Carson City, Pershing County, Storey County, Churchill County and parts of Douglas, Lyon and Mineral counties. northeastern California. A wildfire near Sparks, Nevada, was fully contained on Thursday Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
