Today the Biden Administration released a preliminary report to the National Climate Task Force titled Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful. The report provides a vision and plan to preserve at least 30% of the country’s land and waters by 2030 with a locally led America the Beautiful campaign.The U.S. Departments of Interior, Agriculture and Commerce and the Council on Environmental Quality all contributed to the report, which identifies six recommended areas of early focus:
- Create more parks and safe outdoor opportunities in nature-deprived communities
- Support Tribally led conservation and restoration priorities
- Expand collaborative conservation of fish and wildlife habitats and corridors
- Increase access for outdoor recreation
- Incentivize and reward the voluntary conservation efforts of fishers, ranchers, farmers and forest owners
- Create jobs by investing in restoration and resilience
To measure and report on the success of the campaign, the report recommends the creation of the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas to develop and track baseline information on land and waters already conserved or restored, which could then be updated, and an annual America the Beautiful report to inform the public on the progress of the campaign.