Category: Environmental

Tribal funding opportunity

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BIA’s Tribal Resilience Program

Solicitation Opportunity Number: BIA-TRP2020-0001

 

Grant application packages must be submitted to the BIA Tribal Resilience Program Office no later than 5:00 pm Alaska Daylight Time, March 2, 2020.

 

BIA’s Tribal Resilience Program recently announced its Annual Funding Solicitation, with funding available for Tribal resiliency programs.

Funding is available for several categories of funding. This includes:

  • Adaptation Planning
  • Ocean and Coastal Planning
  • Capacity Building 
  • Relocation, Managed Retreat, and Protect-in-Place Planning for coastal and riverine communities

BIA held a webinar to go over the program and the presentation material including the recording of the webinar are posted on the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals’ Tribes & Climate Change Program website.

Learn more and watch the webinar here: http://www7.nau.edu/itep/main/tcc/Training/Webinars_2020 

Find all the details about the BIA Announcement and requirements for the application here: https://www.bia.gov/bia/ots/tribal-resilience-program

 

Oregon Climate Initiatives Moving Forward

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Judge orders Oregon clean energy ballot measures to proceed

Yesterday, a Judge in Marion County, has ruled that two proposed Oregon Climate Initiatives can proceed. 

The measures were previously rejected by the Oregon Secretary of State, Bev Clarno. Like the forestry ballot initiatives that she rejected, she concluded that these earlier said the ballot initiatives violated a state requirement that legislative measures stick to one subject. And again, like the forestry ballot measures, a Judge has found she was incorrect.

As the AP Reports:

The judge’s permanent injunction means the process of earning a final ballot title from the attorney general will resume. Notably, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, refused to defend Clarno in the litigation and had challenged her legal basis for tossing the two proposals and a third one.

This ruling relates to Initiative Petitions #48 and 49. Proponents had said they proposed the initiatives to help spur the Legislature to take action during the short session in early 2020. It will be interesting to see what happens. Stay tuned!

Full Text

Ballotpedia has the full text of all Oregon’s ballot initiatives for the upcoming election, including those already on the ballot, those proposed, and those rejected. There is also a short summary on the process.

Initiative Petition 48

Initiative Petition 49

 

Voting by Mail in Oregon

 

Oregon Forestry ballot measure update

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In Oregon, there are currently several environmental ballot measures proposed. Back in September, the environmental group Oregon Wild filed three petitions for ballot measures related to Forestry Practices, The Oregon Secretary of State rejected these measures, Initiative Petitions #35, 36 and 37, because she found they violated the single subject rule.

 Marion County ruling

A Marion County Circuit Court judge issued a ruling today and agreed with the Secretary of State

In an opinion issued Wednesday, Marion County Judge Daniel Wren found Clarno was correct when in September she tossed the three initiative petitions filed by the group Oregon Wild.

The decision suggests Clarno has wide latitude to decide whether proposed measures pass constitutional muster. 

This case is a bit unusual as the Secretary of State is an elected official. It is the second highest position, as the State does not have a Lieutenant Governor. 

The position is currently filled by Republican Bev Clarno, who was appointed to the position following the death of Dennis Richardson and was sworn in on March 31, 2019. As a courtesy, Oregon’s Governor, Kate Brown, is a Democrat. She appointed a person from the same party as the deceased, as a courtesy that we previously extended.

The State’s Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, is also elected. As OPB reports, on October 24, Attorney Genreal Rosenblum sent Secretary of State Clarno a letter saying the State Department of Justice would not defend this action. Rosenblum felt defending the secretary of state’s decision would be “adverse to the interests of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and adverse to the interests of the people wielding the initiative power reserved to them by the Oregon Constitution.”

Opponents have vowed to appeal. 

NPR-A Plan Out for Public Comment

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BLM announced it has initiated an environmental impact statement (EIS) to evaluate a new Integrated Activity Plan (IAP) for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) to determine the appropriate management of all BLM-managed public lands in the NPR-A. The agency has put forth four alternatives and is currently taking comments. The deadline for comments is January 21, 2020.

“The Trump administration announced a plan Thursday that could allow oil drilling on over three-quarters of the nation’s largest piece of unprotected wilderness, overhauling a 2013 plan that limited development on the Alaskan reserve.” 

Read more here from the Washington Post and KTUU.

BLM has set up a comment period for the 2019 IAP/EIS. You can find more information here, including the Draft for review:

https://www.blm.gov/planning-and-nepa/plans-in-development/alaska/npr-a-iap-eis

Comments are due January 21, 2020.

Alaska Roadless Rule – Tongass

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Upcoming Comment Deadline

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service is seeking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement offering a range of alternatives to roadless management and a proposed Alaska Roadless Rule.

If adopted, the proposed rule would exempt the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule. The USDA Forest Service will publish the documents in the Federal Register this week. The publication will begin a 60-day public comment period on the proposed rule, and on each alternative outlined in the draft environmental impact statement.

The public has until midnight on Dec. 16, 2019, to submit comments on the documents. Comments can be submitted the following ways:

For more information, visit:  https://www.fs.usda.gov/roadmain/roadless/alaskaroadlessrule.

The Federal Register Notice is available here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/17/2019-22638/special-areas-roadless-area-conservation-national-forest-system-lands-in-alaska

 

Forestry on the Ballot?

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Proposals for Oregon Forestry Ballot Measures

It’s a few days after Election Day 2019, and there have been some interesting stories related to upcoming elections. Many are focused on the National level for 2020, but there are key local issues that will be considered.

In Oregon, Timber interests propose three Oregon forestry ballot measures, which are pro-logging. The industry says the measures would: 1. Give Oregon counties and the industry more control over how members of the Board of Forestry are selected. 2. Amend the constitution requiring the state to fully compensate woodland owners for any new regulations that limited their ability to log, such as expanded stream buffers. 3. Require that the forestry board use “non-biased” and “peer reviewed science”to come up with consensus-based policies.

These measures are the industry’s response to three ballot measures filed earlier this year by environmental groups. Initiative Petitions 35, 36 and 37 would “tighten aerial herbicide spraying rules, increase forest stream buffers, prohibit logging in steep, landslide-prone areas, and prohibit conflicts of interest for state forestry board appointees.” The Oregon Secretary of State rejected these measures on September 24, 2019, because she found they violated the single subject rule. This decision is currently the subject of litigation. Environmental advocates then filed modified versions as Initiative Petitions 45, 46, and 47, on October 2, 2019.

 

Light filters through trees in Oregon State Park
Tryon Creek State Natural Area, Portland, OR

With Oregon’s election law, there are a few ways that a measure can be placed on the ballot. This include referrals from the legislature for constitutional changes. They also provide a means for citizens to participate in the legislative process, by proposing changes to statutes, the State Constitution or as a veto referendum (to uphold or veto state legislation.)

So far two measures have been referred by the legislature for the 2020 ballot. Many others have been proposed. Ballotpedia provides a great list of what has been proposed here. Ballotpedia also has the proposed text. 

Text of Proposed Oregon Forestry Ballot Measures

The three Proposed Initiatives by Environmental Groups are

Initiative 45

Initiative 46

Initiative 47

The three forestry initiatives are 

Initiative 53 – which is a Constitutional Amendment

Initiative 54

Initiative 55

Oregon Climate Ballot Measures Proposed

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Climate change action on the ballot?

In addition to several proposed Forestry initiatives, Oregon voters may have the option to vote on Climate Change Actions as there are several Oregon climate ballot measures proposed.

As reported by OPB,

“Three initiative petitions filed with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office on Monday would require the state to phase out electricity sources that contribute to global warming, and transition to a carbon-free economy by 2050.”

They could be on the ballot in November 2020. The petitions were filed by a coalition calling itself 100% Ready For Clean Air, which includes Renew Oregon, the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Climate Solutions, the Oregon Environmental Council and other groups. 

Organizers hope that the proposed ballot measures will get the Legislature to take action during the upcoming short session in 2020. 

Stay tuned!