MEMO: How The Biden Administration Can Leverage Public Lands To Mitigate Climate Crisis

World leaders attending the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow pledged to end deforestation by 2030, and President Biden has the unique opportunity to highlight renewed U.S. leadership in addressing the climate crisis on a world stage. While much of the national media focus may be on budget reconciliation legislation or international commitments to reducing emissions, executive actions to conserve U.S. lands and waters must also play a critical role in U.S. climate action plans.



Healthy, intact and connected nature is among the most cost effective ways to address climate change and wildlife loss, and to improve community health and resilience. But what remains of our nation’s natural areas are rapidly disappearing to human development and the benefits of natural areas that are conserved are not shared equitably across racial and socioeconomic lines. 



Our national response to the climate crisis must include protecting and conserving land and water. In particular, the Biden administration should lead by example on lands managed by the federal government. These public lands offer unmatched potential for absorbing large amounts of carbon emissions, providing habitat that imperiled wildlife need to survive and adapt to rising temperatures, and creating the space for people and communities to flourish. 

The world summit in Glasgow is an opportunity to highlight what can still be achieved via executive action on public lands by the Administration to reduce emissions, protect biodiversity and help address the worst effects of the climate crisis.

The Wilderness Society (TWS) strongly supports the Biden Administration’s goal of conserving at least 30% of the lands and waters in the United States by 2030, an initiative known as America The Beautiful, as set forth in Executive Order (EO) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. President Biden’s recent action to restore protections for Bears Ears, Grand-Staircase and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts national monuments was a critical step to honor tribal ancestral lands and build momentum toward reaching conservation goals to save more nature. 

The America The Beautiful initiative aims to address the urgency of the climate crisis, inequitable access to nature, and the rapid disappearance of biodiversity. These crises are affecting public health, clean air, fresh water and food supplies, worsening extreme weather events and exacerbating racial inequities nationwide

Land management agencies and policy makers must take a more aggressive approach to reaching the 30% goal, restoring conservation efforts that have been rolled back by past administrations, using existing agency tools to make nature conservation and biodiversity protection a priority across publicly managed lands and waters in the United States. These tools will support and enable local leaders to more readily engage on climate-focused solutions that invest in and work for their communities.

The Wilderness Society, along with some of our key partners, is preparing a series of formal recommendation letters to be delivered to the various heads of land agencies within the Biden Administration. The first, to the USFS Chief Randy Moore, was delivered on October 1. 

A second letter was delivered to the USFWS' Deputy Director, Martha Williams, on October 13th, encouraging the agency to focus on enhancing the national wildlife refuge system. 

Simply put, President Biden can issue several agency directives to achieve the following climate-focused recommendations:

• The Forest Service should undertake a climate-focused rulemaking that prioritizes the protection of older and mature forests, carbon storage, watershed conservation, and habitat connectivity with input from a committee including scientists, tribes, and stakeholders. Additionally, the Administration should swiftly reinstate the roadless rule in the Tongass National Forest and clarify the agency’s intent to manage roadless areas to conserve biological diversity values consistent with the 30x30 goal. 
  
   
• National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) are an important part of the equation in conserving 30 percent of our lands and waters because of the opportunity to protect landscapes of all scales, geographic locations, ecosystem types and more. Strategic growth of the National Wildlife Refuge System will support species conservation, preserve biological diversity and underrepresented habitats, enhance ecosystem resilience, and improve habitat connectivity. The US Fish and Wildlife Service should invest in and expand the National Wildlife Refuge System and Urban Wildlife Conservation Program to protect biodiversity close to communities around the country and ensure access to nature for everyone. The Administration should request, and Congress should fully fund, the Refuge System at $900 million per year at minimum, and regional planning should be prioritized to receive sufficient resources to ensure growth. 
  
   
• The Bureau of Land Management should issue an expanded Secretarial Order that directs the agency to prioritize the conservation of wildlife migration corridors, including a rule-making to develop departmental policies and resources, to help connect lands and waters that are critical to wildlife survival as temperatures warm. Additionally, the BLM should direct agency staff to use existing authorities to identify, evaluate and designate new protected areas critical for climate adaptation and habitat conservation. These designations should include new Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). Both of these designations allow for potential protection of important historical, cultural, and scenic values, or fish and wildlife or other natural resources, and could help determine a path to the 30x30 goal.