30x30 Starts Marching SOURCE: AMERICAN THE BEAUTIFUL NEWS

30x30 Starts Marching

Spotlighting the Work to Conserve 30 percent of Lands and Waters by 2030

EXPANSION OF PUBLIC ACCESS TO HUNTING AND FISHING

In May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal for new or expanded hunting and sport fishing opportunities for game species across 2.1 million acres at 90 national wildlife refuges and on the lands of one national fish hatchery.

The expansion proposed in this rule is the largest in recent history. Hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities contributed more than $156 billion in economic activity in communities across the United States in 2016, according to the Service’s National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and WildlifeAssociated Recreation, published every five years. More than 101 million Americans — 40 percent of the U.S. population age 16 and older — pursue wildlife-related recreation, including hunting and fishing.

LAGUNA ATASCOSA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE ADDITION

On July 7, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the addition of 4,800 acres to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. This acquisition from The Conservation Fund helps connect critical migration corridors for the endangered ocelot, in addition to coastal habitat for other wildlife, climate resiliency, and recreational and economic opportunities.

BOISE, IDAHO

The City of Boise, Idaho has committed to creating a set of unique America the Beautiful goals to directly protect native habitat in its open spaces, manage park properties to promote pollinators, increase the city’s tree canopy and promote healthy soils — all while protecting the Boise River for generations to come.

The city has charted a course to manage 30 percent of open space and native habitat areas to build resilient ecosystems in the Boise Foothills and along the Boise River, increase actively managed native habitat areas in improved park sites in the city by 30 percent, raise $30 million to protect more open space and clean water resources getting $2 million in federal grants to help make urban areas greener.

The money comes from the outdoor recreation legacy partnership program, which helps target projects in “historically marginalized communities,” the state’s Sierra Club chapter said.

“The Biden White House supercharged this program earlier this year as part of their America the Beautiful initiative to protect 30% of lands and waters in the U.S. by 2030, ” the chapter said.

Trenton will receive $1 million to develop a soccer and fitness complex at a former industrial site along the Assunpink Creek. “New amenities include a regulation sized-soccer field and two open air pavilions, one outfitted with exercise equipment and the other left open as a multipurpose space,” the Sierra Club said.

Camden County will get $1 million to improve Whitman Park as well as to expand the park into an adjacent industrial site. The result will be a 10-acre park.

and enhance community restoration projects, and increase tree canopy cover in Boise to 30 percent — all by 2030.

SABINOSO WILDERNESS EXPANSION

On July 19, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced that the Department of the Interior has accepted a land donation that will increase the Sabinoso Wilderness in New Mexico by nearly 50 percent — the largest wilderness donation in the agency’s history.

Secretary Haaland celebrated the public lands expansion at an event with Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, former Senator Tom Udall, Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández, Tribal leaders, and representatives from the Trust for Public Land. The donation of 9,617 acres of the Cañon Ciruela property from the Trust for Public Land to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will help unlock public access for current and future generations to enjoy the area and will stimulate local economies through increased hunting, hiking, horseback riding and other recreational opportunities.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: NEW JERSEY GETS FEDERAL GRANTS TO MAKE URBAN AREAS GREENER

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey is

Source: American the Beautiful News ▫