{"id":829,"date":"2020-08-06T18:35:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T18:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.law.fordham.edu\/elr\/?p=829"},"modified":"2020-08-06T18:35:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T18:35:03","slug":"the-great-american-outdoors-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/?p=829","title":{"rendered":"The Great American Outdoors Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

by Michael Albalah<\/p>\n

The Trump<\/a> administration has reversed\u00a0100<\/a>\u00a0environmental protections and proposed deep\u00a0cuts<\/a> for conservation programs. It nominated William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley’s track record makes for a grim appointment: he wants to sell off<\/a>\u00a0all public lands and is more partial to armed\u00a0vigilantes<\/a>\u00a0then Black<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Native Americans.<\/a><\/p>\n

Further, the Trump administration has prioritized fossil fuel and mineral extraction. The administration\u2019s legacy includes unprecedented\u00a0leasing<\/a> of public lands and waters and historic destruction<\/a>\u00a0of national monuments and wildlife in\u00a0Bristol Bay<\/a>, Alaska, the\u00a0Arctic<\/a>, Superior National Forest\u2019s\u00a0Boundary Waters<\/a>, the Grand Canyon<\/a>, and Bears Ears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, he also passed the Great American Outdoor Act. The bill was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. It fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund<\/a>\u00a0and devotes $9.5 billion towards restoring crumbling recreational infrastructure<\/a> in our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, Indigenous schools, and public lands.<\/p>\n

In addition to environmental sustainability, the bill could provide much needed economic stimulus. Nationally, outdoor recreation contributes roughly $778 billion<\/a> in consumer spending and supports 5.2 million jobs. Every $1 million invested in LWCF could support between 16 and 30 jobs<\/a>, while national park funding in GAOA could support 100,000 jobs, $17.5 billion in economic output, and contribute $9.6 billion to the US GDP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By my count, this is the second bill, following the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act<\/a>, which provided support for wildlife corridors<\/a> and expanded access, <\/a>that the Trump administration has signed into law that protects wildlife.\u00a0 But while we celebrate the passing of this bill, let\u2019s not forget the tens of millions of acres<\/a> of public lands and waters debased, pollution<\/a>\u00a0increased, Indigenous\u00a0sites<\/a>\u00a0desecrated, recreational\u00a0opportunities<\/a> forgone and wildlife<\/a>\u00a0pushed toward extinction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Michael Albalah The Trump administration has reversed\u00a0100\u00a0environmental protections and proposed deep\u00a0cuts for conservation programs. It nominated William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley’s track record makes for a grim appointment:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,13,63,28,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-energy","category-public-lands","category-water","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}