{"id":64583,"date":"2019-10-26T19:27:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T01:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/senators-set-goal-to-preserve-lands-and-oceans-by-2030\/"},"modified":"2019-10-27T01:27:33","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T01:27:33","slug":"senators-set-goal-to-preserve-lands-and-oceans-by-2030","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/senators-set-goal-to-preserve-lands-and-oceans-by-2030\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators set goal to preserve lands and oceans by 2030"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Democratic
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., speaks on Aug. 11 at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. A national goal to conserve land and oceans was set by Bennet and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., this week to address the growing threat of climate change.<\/span>John Locher\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 A national goal to conserve land and oceans was set by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., this week, to address the growing threat of climate change.<\/p>\n

The Udall-Bennet Thirty by Thirty Resolution to Save Nature outlines the goal of conserving at least 30% of the land and 30% of the water in the U.S. territory by 2030. The resolution is in response to U.N. research and a growing group of scientists who say conservation efforts are the minimum steps needed to fight the climate crisis, a press release said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t address climate change without focusing on conservation,\u201d Bennet said. \u201cCommitting to conserving 30% of America\u2019s lands and oceans by 2030 is exactly the kind of ambitious strategy we need to protect our wildlife and lands and tackle this urgent crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal will be accomplished through:<\/p>\n

Working with federal agencies, tribes, communities and landowners to conserve lands and resources in their control.<\/em>Improving access to nature for all residents.<\/em>Using land and oceans to sequester and store carbon and incentivizing landowners to sequester carbon in land with high conservation value.<\/em>Preventing extinction by restoring degraded ecosystems.<\/em>Increasing economic opportunities for farmers and ranchers.<\/em>A slew of environmental and conservation groups, such as the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, support the resolution. Collin O\u2019Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement the resolution underscores the urgency of conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecovering wildlife populations and conserving public lands is the best way we can not only safeguard our outdoor heritage and strengthen our outdoor recreation economy, but also transcend political partisanship and deliver for the American people,\u201d O\u2019Mara said.<\/p>\n

Mark Pearson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, said the goal is \u201ccertainly laudable, and it would be wonderful if we could accomplish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOther countries have ambitious goals like this that they are pursuing or even have accomplished,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cCanada has a pretty robust agenda \u2013 it\u2019s more like 20% that they might be close to \u2013 so they\u2019re certainly committed to it, and there are countries like Costa Rica who are on their way to accomplishing those kinds of conservation objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Colorado voters generally support conservation and environmental protection, Pearson said, extractive industries have a strong influence under the current administration and will likely oppose the resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cUndoubtedly, we\u2019ll see some pushback from those industries that have relied on changing our landscape pretty dramatically for the benefit of exploiting natural resources,\u201d Pearson said.<\/p>\n

Stan Dempsey, president of the Colorado Mining Association, expressed concern with the resolution because Bennet did not consult with them before introducing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly haven\u2019t been contacted by the senator\u2019s office, even to introduce the topic,\u201d Dempsey said. \u201cIt\u2019s surprising to us because we\u2019ve had a very good working relationship with the senator and his staff on issues, but this is the first time we\u2019ve heard about this, so perhaps it would\u2019ve been wise to consult with stakeholders before introducing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempsey said he doesn\u2019t have enough details to assess how this resolution might affect mining operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be dependent on other countries for minerals when we can mine here in the U.S.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also is concerned with how the senator will go about telling landowners how to manage their lands, as that will look different from how Dempsey\u2019s association has worked with Bennet on land boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d be interested to hear from the senator and better understand his proposal and to realize that certainly preservation of our natural resources is a goal we all share,\u201d Dempsey said. \u201cBut we need to keep in mind that we have the need to continue to use or develop critical minerals like coal and uranium; minerals that make our lives better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayelet Sheffey is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators set goal to preserve lands and oceans by 2030<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64583"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}