Protecting lands and waters is central to America’s conservationist ethos.
Americans, by and large, desire to maintain beautiful spaces and see flora and fauna thrive. But if the Biden administration gets its way in enacting its 30-by-30 initiative — a push to “conserve” 30% of waters and lands by 2030 — true conservation would be undermined and private property rights would be severely threatened.
Upon first review, the initiative, stemming from President Biden’s first executive order “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” appears harmless. That’s intended. It promises a “collaborative and inclusive approach to conservation,” “supporting locally led and locally designed conservation efforts” and “conserving America’s lands and waters for the benefit of all people.”
Don’t be deceived by these niceties.
To better push its 30-by-30 initiative, the Department of the Interior rebranded it with a more disarming name: the “America the Beautiful” campaign. It suggests the push for the plan is “for the sake of our economy, our health, and our well-being.” But the details contained in “America the Beautiful” intentionally mislead the public about the current status of our nation’s lands and waters.
For starters, the Biden administration deceptively claims only 12% of U.S. lands and waters, or less than a fifth, are already set aside for noncommercial activities. This is patently false.
By examining the federal government’s own numbers, the heavily cited 12% figure severely undercounts the amount of lands and waters already protected.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gap Analysis Project on the Protected Areas Database of the U.S., the total amount of land in the U.S. amounts to 622,630,476 acres, of which 252,758,091 are already protected from human activity. When calculated, that number rounds out to a whopping 40.6% — not 12% — of lands closed off to multiple-use.
With the 30% goal already achieved, the “America the Beautiful” initiative doesn’t accurately reflect or seek to advance true conservation that encourages multiple uses on public lands.