National Parks Traveler

Outdoor Industry Interests Are Aligned With The 30 By 30 Initiative

By Lori Sonken

Tucked inside President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad are three paragraphs calling for recommendations to conserve 30 percent of  U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Scientists have championed the 30x30 initiative globally for years to protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change impacts, but only now is the effort gaining administration attention.

“Over the coming months, Interior will evaluate how to best measure and assess the country’s progress toward the 30x30 goal, to properly account for the many innovative and effective ways that communities are conserving their lands and waters for current and future generations,” according to a Department of the Interior fact sheet issued on January 27.

Calling the goals “the most ambitious conservation agenda in at least the past century,” outdoor industry companies, including Burton, Columbia, L.L. Bean, New Balance, Orvis, Patagonia, The North Face, Keen and Smartwool, co-signed a letter applauding the Biden administration’s 30x30 goal.

“Over the past five to ten years, we have felt this increasing urgency because we are losing such an incredible amount of open space, wild places, and  natural areas with diversity and beauty, and we are losing them at an incredible pace,” said Hans Cole, head of environmental campaigns, grants and activism at Patagonia.

Citing the threats posed by the climate and extinction crises, he said three organizations – the Outdoor Industry Association, Outdoor Alliance and Conservation Alliance – meet regularly and are working together to support industry, advocacy and conservation measures aligned with the 30x30 effort.

“For our businesses to thrive, the outdoors has to thrive,” said Rich Harper, director of government affairs, Outdoor Industry Association, a trade association.

The January 27 executive order directs the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with other federal agencies, to prepare a report within 90 days recommending how the goals will be achieved, along with suggestions on roles for the states, tribes, private landowners and others to play in meeting the objectives. Due in late April, the Secretary’s report is expected to define what constitutes conserved lands and waters, and how progress will be measured.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 12 percent of the country’s lands are conserved, and studies show about 23 percent of U.S. ocean waters, mostly in the Pacific, are protected.

Meeting the 30x30 target will require conserving an additional area twice the size of Texas, more than 440 million acres, within the next 10 years, according to the Campaign for Nature.

National parks, monuments, recreation areas, seashores, preserves, wild and scenic rivers, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries as well as wilderness areas are the primary federal designations used to protect lands and waters in this country.

The outdoor industry and environmental organizations support additions to federally protected areas.  For example, H.R. 803, Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act, that passed the House of Representatives on February 26 with bipartisan support would make a small down payment toward 30x30 by designating approximately 1.49 million acres of public land in wilderness and incorporating more than 1,000 river miles into the National Wild and Scenic River System in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Washington.

Put together by Raúl Grijalva, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, the bill includes several measures previously passed by the House but not enacted, including the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) sponsored by Representative Joe Neguse (D-CO), chairman, House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

“The CORE Act pulls together long-standing efforts that have been in the works,” that mountain bikers, the outdoor recreation community and conservation groups have worked on for at least a decade, said Louis Geltman, policy director, Outdoor Alliance.

Aside from federal lands, private property –-accounting for about 70 percent of the land in the lower 48 states-– will in all likelihood be part of the 30x30 equation, said Whit Fosburgh, president and chief executive officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, an organization supporting hunting and fishing.

“We currently incentivize landowners to conserve habitat in several ways, but the primary mechanism is to secure conservation easements through tax breaks and payments from private, state and federal sources,” including U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs, he said in an email.

Other federal laws, such as the National Forest Management Act, allowing multiple uses of national forests, could be used to support 30x30. For example, forest management plans could disallow extractive uses, such as timber cuts or oil and gas drilling, to conserve national forests.

“Federal courts have repeatedly affirmed agency authority to decide which uses should be prioritized or excluded,” said Andrew Carter, senior policy analyst with Defenders of Wildlife.

The Endangered Species Act could also be used to meet the 30x30 objectives.

“Given that private lands will be critical in protecting biodiversity generally, the habitat conservation plan program can be used to help plan out protections for threatened and endangered species specifically and protect many other species along the way. Coupled with permanent or long-term, durable easements, this section of the Endangered Species Act can help ensure we are doing what is needed to protect biodiversity for the long haul,” said Carter.

Tribal lands are expected to play a role as well. Speaking on a webinar on the 30x30 initiative held in January by Outdoor Retailer, Raina Thiele, president of Thiele Strategies and former tribal liaison for the Obama administration, discussed the importance of listening to Indigenous voices. Citing the displacement of  Native Americans when Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks were created, she said Indigenous and tribal rights should be incorporated in the development of 30x30.

While scientists and others develop the legal mechanism to protect lands and waters, The Orvis Company plans to continue its decades-long practice of committing 5 percent of pre-tax profits to restoration and protection efforts in partnership with conservation organizations, said Frazier Blair, vice president of merchandize and planning. 

Similarly, the Conservation Alliance, comprised of about 250 companies mostly in the outdoor industry, doles out approximately $2 million annually in grants for land and water conservation efforts, said Cole of Patagonia.

“More and more, our approach is to look for land and water protection supported by local communities, led by Indigenous people or sovereign tribes whenever possible, that truly brings benefits not just to 30x30 but also brings benefit and access to local communities and Indigenous communities," he said.

Though not yet confirmed by the Senate, U.S. Rep. Debra Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe in New Mexico, is Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of the Interior. Formerly the chair of the House Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands, she sponsored legislation, H. Res. 835, supporting the 30x30 goal. No action was taken on her bill introduced last year but now she is in the 30x30 driver’s seat.