Deseret News Column, 'Freedom in Freelancing' Update, & More
Here's the latest dispatch.
Good morning!
Welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder.
Here’s what I have for you today:
Deseret News: Expanding national monuments could undermine true conservation efforts
Protecting public lands, including national monuments, is a cornerstone value of America’s conservationist ethos. There’s inherent value in preserving artifacts and sacred landscapes for the public’s enjoyment. Unfortunately, environmentalists and their allies in Washington are weaponizing these designations to further restrict public access.
In October, President Joe Biden announced an executive order restoring two national monuments in Utah — Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante — to their pre-2016 size. In 2017, Ryan Zinke, then-President Donald Trump’s first interior secretary, after conducting a review, recommended significantly downsizing the two areas to give more access and management power to the locals who care. This was a good decision, based on a lot of local input. But today it’s been reversed, with both monuments bloated to more than 1 million acres each.
The Antiquities Act of 1906, a seminal law, stipulates that presidents can establish monuments from existing public lands that “shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” It’s hard to see how seizing control of millions of acres of land is in keeping with the spirit of restraint embedded in the law.
PREVIEW: ‘Freedom in Freelancing’ - Dropping THIS Monday
Premiering at 10am ET this Monday: A preview of my upcoming AFP-Virginia sponsored video series FREEDOM IN FREELANCING.
E1 drops 12/13/2021, then E2 will drop sometime around 1/3/2022.
Townhall: Radical Environmentalism Poses Grave Threat to True Conservation Efforts
There is a grave environmental crisis afoot.
Mind you, it isn’t the oft-discussed “climate crisis”— but a threat that’s conveniently overlooked: radical preservationism.
Preservationists, namely the far-Left and their environmentalist allies, have falsely presented themselves as true conservationists. But they’ve finally been unmasked. How? Anytime their policies are enacted, the results are ruinous to both people and nature.
Take raging wildfires out West. A lack of forest management, due to preservationist policies, has led to the destruction of nearly 20 percent of sequoia trees in the last two years. That’s unconscionable.
Here are some additional examples of destructive preservationist environmentalist policies being pushed today.
Podcasts You May Have Missed
Here are District of Conservation episodes you may have missed.
EP 231: Biden Administration Wages War on Oil & Gas and Celebrating the Monarch Butterfly's Return
EP 232: Bureau of Land Management Pushes Renewable Energy, Washington St. Spring Bear Hunt Nixed, Elk Occupancy Agreements
What I’m 🎧 To
If you’re looking for music to let loose to, check out the Australian duo Hollow Coves. American audiences will soon learn about them.
How to categorize their music: Very upbeat and uplifting. Folksy meets indie. All-around, good stuff.
Check out their latest single “Purple.”
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—Gabriella