What is 30X30 Initiative, aka America the Beautiful?
BACKGROUND—The title, “30X30” initiative, referenced 30% of land to be conserved/protected by year 2030. The initiative is only one section out of 16 sections from three parts of Presidential Executive Order 14008 , Jan. 27, 2021, titled “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad”. Section 216 of the EO is titled “Conserving Our Nation’s Lands and Waters”. The EO Directed the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior along with other relevant agencies to come up with a proposal to “achieve the goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. Why 2030? That coincides with the UN Agenda 2030 for transformation of world environment and society. This is the renewed continuation of the previous UN Agenda 21 that began in 1992. The EO specifically references the “Paris Accord on Climate” of 2015 which is a UN function as a partner with the Agenda 2030. Remember Al Gore in the 2006 “inconvenient Truth” of Climate Crises? That kick started the UN’s jumping on the Climate Change mantra. This EO is re-entering the “Paris Accord on Climate” that Trump had removed us from. Bottom line in the EO is to stop and control Climate Change, which they claim is a CRISIS and is Man Caused. Initiative 30X30 is one part of solving the faux Climate Crisis. There are 50 countries as part of this. The Environmental corporations are pushing this agenda and seeking to make it 50% of the world’s lands and waters to be “permanently protected”.
As mentioned above, Section 216 of the Presidential EO is to achieve the goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. Initiators thought 30X30 would be a catchy title to get “buy in” by public to “Permanently protect” 30 % of the lands and water. How this is to be done is by federal government having ownership and/or control over the lands and waters to, as they claim, prevent destruction, exploitation and neglect of the resources. They have since re-named 30X30 to “America the Beautiful” initiative due to many people recognizing the connection to the UN 2030 Agenda. All activity and actions involved in the conservation, protection, management and use of the Lands and Environmental Resources will be for the objective of controlling the Climate, as per the “Paris Accord on Climate”, NOT for improving local environmental and economic conditions. Please refer to the defining Title of the EO! The proponents believe that reducing greenhouse emissions and sequestering carbon in soils, trees and other vegetation is key to controlling the climate and critically necessary to stop, reduce and stabilize the changing climate.
A few facts to ponder:
The Constitution did not authorize the federal gov’t to own what is now called “public lands” within any established State. There has been no Constitutional Amendment to change that.
United States Land acreage is 2.3 Billion acres. The Federal Government owns almost 640 Million acres. (see number 1). That constitutes 27.4% in federal ownership, with about 92% of that in 12 Western States, about 58.9 million acres.
The Declaration of Independence and Constitution was based upon individual State Sovereignty and Private ownership of lands with federal ownership severely limited and then only with approval of a State Legislature for the sale to the federal government, within the guidelines in Constitution Art.I, sect. 8, Cl 17.
Colorado contains 66,485,760 total acres. Federal government owns 23,870652 acres, 35.9% of the entire State. Well over the “magic 30%.
Only about 1-3% of land in the entire World has been “urbanized” and built up. The rest is forests, shrubs and agriculture, streams and lakes and un-inhabitable, aka “wilderness”, all of which identifies as Conserved and protected.
Population of the earth, as of 2021 is 7.9 Billion people. How many is that? If you placed all of the people on a 2’x4’ foot spot, they would all fit within Montezuma County, CO, with room to spare for the fat ones. Is the world really overpopulated? Don’t believe it? Do the math.
What is the definitions of “permanently”, and “protect” as used in the 30X30 initiative? Protect what from what or who? Environmental “Rewilding” corporations are behind the push for locking up lands to create mammoth “nature preserves”. One such is the “Western Wildway” which is a wide strip of land from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, encompasses all of the Rocky Mountains including the western third of Colorado, where all the “public lands” and land conservancy easements are to be “permanently protected” from public use, and all influence from man. The one exception is that it does not include the Front Range in Colorado. The wolf introduction initiative is part of that push. Two other “Wildways” include the “Pacific” and “Eastern”. The Western Wildway is the easiest to accomplish due to the massive amount of lands already in federal ownership and control. Another project that is current, is the proposed “American Prairie Reserve”, that is to remove 57,000 acres of BLM grazing allotments in Eastern Montana from grazing, to provide for free roaming Bison. This eliminates providing food production for our increasing population.
Montezuma County is ONLY 23% private land. The other 77% is Ute Indian lands held in trust by the federal government, National parks and monuments, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forest and some State School Lands.
Climate change has taken place continually since the creation of the Earth and man, and continues today. Today’s fluctuating climate is nothing new. There is no science that indicates man has ever impacted the change in Climate, but rather man responded to the climate changes for his own survival by adapting for water, food production and shelter, for the brief time that any man is on this Earth.
The move to “protect/conserve” 30 to 50 percent of all lands and waters FROM MANS USE AND HABITATION, ignores the fact that man is a part of the total “Natural Environment”, and has been since Creation, and depends upon it for his/her survival.
The Massive federal lands have been under “protected” status since 1976, resulting in increasing damage to forest, range lands and waters. In 2020 10 Million acres burned severely damaging watersheds, economies and recreation opportunity. Already in 2021 there have been 40,474 wildfires from Jan through August. Federal “protection” has proven to NOT WORK.
The proposal to “protect and conserve” 30 to 50% of the lands and waters to be under federal ownership and control is a violation of the Constitution and sound resources and economic management practices.
Should man strive to make better use and care of the environment that we have been entrusted with? Certainly and that requires active management and use of the land and resources. NOW is the time to RESPOND to nature’s fluctuating climate with ACTION to restore management on ALL the “public lands” to protect and enhance the watersheds for the benefit of the environment and all that is in it, including wildlife and man. One such effort being currently proposed is HR4302 “Active Forest Management, Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act”, that is proposed by Representative Lauren Boebert. This would enable a new beginning for restoration of the forest and range environment that has been degraded over the past nearly 45 years on the public lands due to misconceived and misdirected environmental regulations. All effort should be made to support HR4302 and also HR 3014 the “30X30 Termination Act” to prevent the loss of National heritage of private land ownership, and the further degradation of the “public lands”.