As Biden Eyes a Conservation Plan, Activists Fear Low-Income Communities and People of Color Could Be Left Out
A plan to conserve 30 percent of land and water in the United States by 2030 could help close “staggering” racial and socioeconomic disparities in access to nature.
December 21, 2020
Ellington Tardy, 9, enjoys the playground in his Orchard Valley neighborhood Nov. 5, 2020 in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Credit: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
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President-elect Joe Biden has said that one of his first steps upon taking office will be to pass an executive order to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
Luke Runyon
As KUNC’s reporter covering the Colorado River Basin, I dig into stories that show how water issues can both unite and divide communities throughout the Western U.S. I produce feature stories for KUNC and a network of public media stations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada. I also host KUNC’s live community storytelling events.
I love public radio because I know the power of hearing someone’s story in their own words, using their own voice. You can get a much better sense of who someone is and what their motivations are just by listening to how they speak, and that’s a big part of why I love public radio reporting.
Congress Passed a Bipartisan Conservation Law. Then the Trump Administration Got in its Way
Republicans and Democrats together approved the Great American Outdoors Act, but the administration has ignored planned projects and imposed rules restricting spending.
December 16, 2020
The California Coastal National Monument started with 1,711 acres of donated land, then expanded with the help of funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Now it offers unique coastal habitat for marine-dependent wildlife and vegetation along the California coastline. Credit: David Ledig/Bureau of Land Management
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The partisanship poisoning Washington made it hard to imagine the sharply divided Congress coming together over anything in this year, let alone environmental legislation. And fallout from the pandemic made it seem even more unlikely that Democrats and Republicans could agree on something like spending hundreds of millions of dollars on parks and conservation