National parks, once derided by interests bent on resource extraction, have been a huge blessing for Alaska, supporting a robust tourism sector and ensuring that wild places like Denali remain as unspoiled and breathtaking as they were in bygone eras. Yet more areas of The Last Frontier still await protection from development.
Category: Our Environment
Inflation Reduction Act passes the U.S. House, heads to President Joe Biden’s desk
The historic climate and health focused Inflation Reduction Act is one of the most consequential environmental bills ever enacted by Congress. It now heads to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Seattle, TreePAC prevail over Master Builders in tree protection ordinance legal skirmish
Seattle Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil rejected a challenge brought by the Master Builders of King and Snohomish counties to the city’s determination that an update of its tree protection ordinance would not have would not have probable significant adverse impacts on the environment.
A win for America! U.S. Senate passes climate and health focused Inflation Reduction Act
“Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests, voting to lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and everyday energy costs and reduce the deficit, while making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share,” said President Joe Biden in a special statement.
Schumer, Manchin announce agreement on major climate and health focused budget bill
“This is the action the American people have been waiting for,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This addresses the problems of today – high health care costs and overall inflation – as well as investments in our energy security for the future.”
Wild Olympics’ prospects rise thanks to inclusion in 2022 national defense funding bill
A decade in gestation, the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act would protect 126,500 acres as wilderness – portions of Olympic National Forest surrounding the namesake national park – while extending Wild and Scenic River status to nineteen rivers and tributaries.
Documentary Review: The Arctic — Our Last Great Wilderness is an immersive, stirring call to conserve one of Earth’s wildest places
Read NPI contributor Joel Connelly’s review of a film created by Florian Schulz and the Campion Advocacy Fund that majestically makes the case for leaving the Arctic Refuge free from destructive activities like oil and petroleum gas drilling.
Proposed Pebble Mine looks kaput, this time for good, as EPA moves to protect Bristol Bay
The EPA’s action represents a win for the tenacity of Senator Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, who began fighting the Pebble Mine project in 2011 and pushed the federal agency into a three-year study of the project’s impacts.
Documentary Review: In new Netflix series, Barack Obama exhorts viewers to “vote like the planet depends on it” — because it does
The five-part series features parks in Kenya and Indonesia, as if to mock years of attacks on Obama’s origins and childhood from wacko birds of the right.
A win for the Emerald City’s trees: Seattle will soon require registration for tree removal
The implementation of Council Bill 120207 will make the tree care industry in Seattle more accountable and its collective conduct more transparent to residents.
U.S. gray wolves once again protected as an endangered species thanks to court ruling
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Lee ruled that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service delisted the wolf based on analysis of just two core wolf populations and failed to provide a reasonable interpretation of the “significant portion of its range” standard.”
“A long time coming”: B.C. ends threat of mining in upper reaches of the “Magic Skagit”
In January of 2021, the Province of British Columbia announced a buyout of mining rights owned by Imperial Metals, the folks responsible for the Mount Polley disaster of 2014, which saw a retention dam burst and send tailings into Quesnel Lake. It’s a huge win for conservation.
Second set of Seattle tree protection poll findings affirms voters value urban forests
Respondents to NPI’s October 2021 general election survey of the Seattle electorate are in strong agreement that the city should update its tree ordinance to strengthen tree protection policies, with more than seven in ten voters backing a majority of ideas tested.
Governor Jay Inslee unveils new salmon protection and recovery plan for 2022 session
“We are on a mission. Protecting and restoring our salmon is personal to me — it’s a legacy left to us by previous generations and we should do the same for our grandchildren,” Inslee said from underneath a large Swinomish Cedar Hat.