Unknowns About Biden’s 30×30 Initiative Raise Concerns

By Gordon HopkinsOn Friday, April 22 of this year, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts hosted what he called a “Stop 30x30 Summit” in Lincoln. A number of public leaders from Nebraska and several other states were in attendance.While any action by the current administration regarding climate change is expected to be controversial, one element of an Executive order signed on January 27, 2021, by President Joe Biden has raised concerns both locally and nationally.Section 216 of Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” directs the Interior Department to outline steps to conserve at least 30 percent each of American lands and waters by the year 2030.Originally called the 30x30 Initiative, it has since been redubbed “America the Beautiful” by the Biden administration.A primary concern about the initiative is a lack of information about how these goals will be reached. Jefferson County Commissioner Mark Schoenrock was in attendance and he reported to his fellow Commissioners at a meeting on Tuesday, April 25, “That's probably one of the more concerning things. It's not being done by a board of people. It's being done by executive order from Biden. And so, it would be administered through the various departments of the federal government, primarily through the Department of the Interior and through the Department of Agriculture, various programs within those two departments. But again, the concern is to know for sure what all is entailed in that effort, which they have not been very clear about what that is.”Schoenrock added, “There’s just a lot of unknowns about it, but the principal concern is the protection of private property.”According to a “Fact Sheet” released by the Biden Administration, “Approximately 60% of land in the continental U.S. is in a natural state, but we are losing a football field worth of it every 30 seconds. The decline of nature threatens wildlife; across the globe, approximately one million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades, including one-third of U.S. wildlife.”The executive order states, “The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, and the heads of other relevant agencies, shall submit a report to the Task Force within 90 days of the date of this order recommending steps that the United States should take, working with State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, agricultural and forest landowners, fishermen, and other key stakeholders, to achieve the goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.”A number of critics have dubbed this executive order as a “land grab,” including Nebraska Senator Steve Erdman (District 47), who said in an editorial last year, “Making these kinds of enormous land grabs will have devastating consequences for our economy in Nebraska. Many industries operating within our state’s borders depends upon our state’s natural resources, and these resources are now being put in jeopardy. These land grabs will surely affect our ability to raise crops, graze livestock, drill for oil, mine for minerals, and pump water from the Aquifer. In fact, it will even affect our ability to enjoy outdoor recreational activities, such as boating, fishing and hunting.” However, Schoenrock noted that the government is not exercising eminent domain for the 30x30 initiative, “The federal government can’t just come in and take somebody’s property.”But there are a number of different programs, primarily from the Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, where they would get people to, quote unquote, voluntarily sign up for conservation easements, Conservation Reserve programs.”Schoenrock is concerned that, given the lack of information, property owners may not understand the full extent of what such a contract may entail, “You would sign up as a private property owner, but then you basically lose the ability to utilize that land in the way that you want to as a private property owner. So, in effect, you basically have lost your rights and property ownership, your name might still be on the title but what you can or can't do with that property would be significantly impacted under a number of these programs.”Schoenrock urged any landowner considering signing up for the initiative to review the contract very carefully.The Jefferson County Farm Bureau has also expressed concern and sent a letter to President Biden dated March 29, 2021. In a press release, the Bureau stated, “Jefferson County Farm Bureau Board of Directors relayed numerous concerns they've heard from members since the president signed the EO (Executive Order) about what it could mean and its potential impact, specifically concerns about the expansion of federal control over private land and expansion of federal lands.”U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has emphasized that participation in the program is voluntary.“It’s surprising, because farm groups have always articulated the need for conservation programs and always articulated the need for additional investment in conservation programs. So, it beats me. Again, if people read the report and understand what currently the practices are they would know: That ‘this is a land grab’ is nonsense,” Vilsack said in 2021. “This is a suggestion and a commitment to basically use those resources and to try to see if we can encourage more utilization of those programs and more investment in those programs.”In an editorial written shortly before the summit and published on April 19, Governor Ricketts wrote, “Lands considered “conserved” under 30 x 30 include wetlands, wildlife reserves, state and national parks, and national monuments. The Biden Administration has expanded borders of existing conserved lands to reach their goal. This includes growing the Bears Ears National Monument by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 45%. Together, these monuments now give more than three million acres of land to federal control. But the Biden Administration is still hundreds of millions of acres short of 30%. There is no way for the Biden Administration to reach its goal by 2030 through these expansions alone. And they know it.”

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