Andy Kerr

Conservationist, Writer, Analyst, Operative, Agitator, Strategist, Tactitian, Schmoozer, Raconteur

*Debunking Creation Myths About America’s Public Lands*. 2018. John D. Leshy. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. $7.95 (Amazon $7.15).

Booklet Review: Debunking Creation Myths About America’s Public Lands

February 01, 2019 in Administration, Congress, Department of Interior, Federal Lands, Politics, Book Reviews

America’s public lands are often in need of a good lawyer, and they have one in John Leshy. He has served America’s public lands (and its owners) as an academic, author, and advocate. In his long career, he’s published legal textbooks, written briefs, argued cases, and taught law students, and he was the top lawyer in the U.S. Department of the Interior for almost as long as Bruce Babbitt was secretary of the interior.

Public Lands in the 116th (2019–20) Congress

November 09, 2018 in Administration, Congress, Courts, Department of Interior, Endangered Species, Federal Lands, Land & Water Cons. Fund, Presidents

Elections matter, and the 2018 midterm election mattered a lot.

The Other Half of the National Environmental Policy Act Is Under Threat

October 12, 2018 in Administration, Congress, Other Federal Agencies, Presidents

Only the half of NEPA that is procedural is enforceable in court against federal agencies that violate it. And now that half is under attack from the president and from Congress.

Half of the National Environmental Policy Act is a Dead Letter

October 05, 2018 in Congress, Administration

If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposes to pave over the Earth, NEPA, in and of itself, will not stop them. All the Army has to do is prepare an environmental impact statement that considers a reasonable range of alternatives, proposes reasonable and prudent mitigation measures and fully discloses to the public the impact.

As the Courts Change, So Must Public Lands Conservation Look More to Congress (Part 2)

September 14, 2018 in Congress, Courts, Administration

What is necessary is nothing less than a near-total reinvention of the environmental movement—not in what we stand for but in how we work.

As the Courts Change, So Must Public Lands Conservation Look More to Congress (Part 1)

September 07, 2018 in Courts, Congress, Administration

The courts, they are a-changin’. The public lands conservation community should not expect judicial victories in the future comparable to those of times past.

The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, Part 1: A Vital National Conservation Purpose

July 20, 2018 in Wild and Scenic Rivers, National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Interior, Congress, Bureau of Land Management, Administration

There are times when Congress acts in a visionary manner. (Is it less so today, or is it just me?) Such was the case in 1968 when it enacted into law the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The United States of America versus the State of California

April 13, 2018 in Administration, Federal Lands, Local Government, Privatization, State Lands

The sovereign State of California generally doesn’t like it when the sovereign United States of America conveys federal public lands with public values out of federal public ownership. Neither do I. But....

Using the Bundys for Good: Finding the Silver Lining for Public Lands

February 23, 2018 in Administration, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, Livestock Grazing, National Monuments, Courts

Don’t tell anyone, but the more the Bundys—especially the patriarch, Cliven—talk, the better off are America’s public lands. This is true even if Cliven doesn’t again go off-script and full-on racist...

Bungling of the Bundys: A Postmortem Analysis of Government Incompetence

February 02, 2018 in Administration, Bureau of Land Management, Courts, Department of Interior, National Park Service

The bands of bozos that joined Cliven Bundy and his four sons in legally questionable escapades on federal public lands have mostly gotten away with it.... And now the conservation community has a chance to make sweet, sweet lemonade out of the Bundy lemons.

Protecting the Pacific Northwest Offshore Ocean for This and Future Generations

January 26, 2018 in Congress, Administration, Department of Interior, Federal Lands, Keep it in the Ground, Marine National Monuments, Marine Sanctuaries, National Monuments, Oceans, Presidents

Abstaining from mineral development offshore is the only way to protect the marine environment and the renewable resources that depend upon it.

Public Lands Conservation in Congress: Stalled by the Extinction of Green Republicans

December 01, 2017 in Administration, Congress, Federal Lands, National Monuments Act

Many politicians call for a return to the era of bipartisanship as a solution to any woe. This call has resonance because the bipartisan era occurred in the living memory of baby boomers. But in the long arc of history this era did not last long, and the evidence of today does not give much hope of a return to it.

Energy Exploitation on Federal Public Lands? Not!

October 27, 2017 in Bureau of Land Management, Administration, Department of Interior, Energy, Keep it in the Ground, Private Lands

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and I don’t agree on most public lands issues, including greater sage-grouse, national monuments, fossil fuel energy exploitation, and endangered species to name a few. But we do agree on at least one matter: Solar panels don’t belong on public lands.... While photovoltaic panels can happily and profitably live on roofs in town, bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, and sage-grouse cannot.

What’s in a Name? Preserving National Monuments Versus Antiquities Only

August 25, 2017 in Administration, Antiquities Act, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, National Monuments, Presidents, National Monuments Act

Back in the day, an Act of Congress, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906, soon after became commonly known as the “National Monument Act.” The more recently used name of the “Antiquities Act of 1906” must now be changed back to “National Monument Act of 1906.”

Numerous No-Take Marine Protected Areas Are Best for Commercial Fishing

July 14, 2017 in Antiquities Act, Administration, Department of Interior, Ecological Reserves, Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine National Monuments, NOAA, Oceans, Presidents

Marine protected areas (MPAs) in the United States exist to preserve our nation’s marine resources for this and future generations. About 26 percent of US marine waters are protected in some kind of MPA, defined ... as “any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.” A few MPAs known as marine reserves or no-take MPAs (amounting to about 3 percent of US waters) do not allow hunting, fishing, or collecting. The purpose of these no-take MPAs, which include marine national monuments, is to sustain fisheries and allow ecosystems to recover from environmental stressors.

The Trump Administration Takes Out 17 International Biosphere Reserves

June 23, 2017 in Presidents, Administration, Congress, Ecosystems, Ecological Reserves

The United Nations recently announced twenty-three additions to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). At the same council meeting where those additions were made, a request by the United States to remove seventeen was also approved. The Trump administration has trumpeted its general disdain for the United Nations, but this withdrawal was done without fanfare and so received very little press coverage.

It's all about the Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. Source: Tim Peterson, Grand Canyon Trust.

Trump Administration “Review” of Certain National Monuments

May 19, 2017 in Administration, Department of Interior, Marine National Monuments, National Monuments, Presidents, State Lands

Public comments are being taken on the regulations.gov website until May 26, 2017, for Bears Ears National Monument and until July 10, 2017, for all the other national moments on the Trump hit list. Register your opinion by clicking the “Comment Now!” button. You have my permission to be frank, blunt, terse, profane, and/or eloquent.

“Birds should be saved for utilitarian reasons; and, moreover, they should be saved because of reasons unconnected with dollars and cents. A grove of giant redwoods or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful cathedral. The extermination of the passenger-pigeon meant that mankind was just so much poorer. . . . And to lose the chance to see frigate-birds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad of terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach-why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.”

— A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open by Theodore Roosevelt (1916)

Theodore Roosevelt: The First and Greatest Public Lands Conservationist

May 05, 2017 in Administration, Antiquities Act, Congress, National Forest System, National Monuments, National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, Presidents, Wildlife

This least outdoors-loving American president makes me appreciate the most outdoors-loving president, Theodore Roosevelt. TR spent many a night outside of a bed under the open stars, including three nights in the Sierra with John Muir. Before TR left office in 1909, he had established, sometimes with Congress and sometimes without: 51 bird reservation, four national game reserves, five national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 national forests. I fear the losses to be toted up when Trump leaves office.

Will Trump Dump National Monuments?

April 28, 2017 in Courts, Congress, Antiquities Act, Administration, Marine National Monuments, National Monuments, National Parks, Presidents

President Trump signed an executive order on April 26, 2017, that directs Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review sixty-two of the last three presidents’ national monument proclamations, dating back to 1996. The review will result in a final report in four months that “shall include recommendations, Presidential actions, legislative proposals, or other actions consistent with law.”

The administration is interested in either totally abolishing, reducing in size, and/or weakening the protections for national monuments. Those prerogatives belong to Congress. If Trump tries, he’ll get a multitude of tweets saying, “See you in court!”

Reigniting the Pacific Northwest Timber Wars by Logging More Old Growth: Bring It On, President Trump!

December 23, 2016 in Administration, Antiquities Act, Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Forest Service, Forests, National Forest System, National Monuments, Presidents

At 61 and with acrophobia, I’m no use in climbing old trees to defend them from the chainsaw. But a younger generation of activists will sit, en masse, in those threatened old-growth trees, in front of bulldozers, and/or in appropriate offices. And if it comes to that, I’m happy to get arrested in offices of the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Republican Party, the timber industry, or elected officials.

Bring it on, President Trump. Bring it on, Big Timber. Bring it on, Rep. Walden. Go ahead, make my day: reignite the Pacific Northwest timber wars.

Let the battle be joined, as nothing less is at stake than the lands and forests we leave to future generations.

Public Lands Blog

Blog Posts by Category

A ~1,000-word weekly exposition on some aspect of federal or state public lands in the United States. Some blog posts goes rather deep and serve as a useful (I hope) backgrounders on particular public land areas, matters or issues. Other weeks, you’ll find a topical piece addressing a public lands controversy of the moment. This blog not only defends, but also extols, public lands.

Andy Kerr of The Larch Company (www.andykerr.net) splits his time between Ashland, OR and Washington, DC. He has been significantly involved in the enactment of more than 25 pieces of federal and state legislation and in copious litigation pertaining to public lands. Dedicated to the conservation and restoration of nature, The Larch Company is a non-membership for-profit organization that represents species that cannot talk and humans not yet born. A deciduous conifer, the western larch has a contrary nature.

If you wish to contact me, I will probably be glad you did.