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control our land, it poses a significant hurdle. eir solution
is enticing landowners to enroll in federal conservation
programs, creating a federal connection to the private lands,
eventually allowing for increased conservation restrictions as
we move closer to 2030.
Faced with significant opposition and substantive questions,
e Biden Administration released a report last May that
aempts to deflect the serious debate by rebranding the
program "America the Beautiful." ey assure us their intent is
not to preserve the land; rather, it is to "conserve and restore."
en they fail to define the difference.
ey avoid the important questions that address how they
will acquire 400 million additional acres in nine years. Instead,
they talk about small-sized actions such as more city parks,
more access for hunters and recreationists, and more federal
funding to keep working lands working. ey also assure us
this internationally-rooted agenda is locally-led.
e White House has said they will be using all the tools
in the toolbox to implement 30 x 30, and they are. e
Administration is paying more for conservation set-asides,
artificially raising the cost of land and directly competing with
working landowners.
GAP 1 : An area having permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover and a
mandated management plan to maintain a natural state.
GAP 2: Permanent protections and a mandated plan to maintain a primarily natural state,
but management practices may degrade quality.
GAP 3: Permanent protections in majority, but some areas are subject to extractive uses.
Protections for federally listed species exist throughout.
GAP 4: An area having no known public or private institutional mandates or legally
recognized easements or deed restrictions held by a managing entity to
prevent conversion.
Map: Defenders of Wildlife's Getting to 30x30: Guidelines for Decision-Makers. https://defenders.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/
getting-to-30x30-guidelines-for-decision-makers.pdf.
