• Politics

Governors Working Together On Environmental Challenges Is Nothing New

• colorado river
• conservation
• environment
• Regional Fishery Management Councils
• restoration

As we reported yesterday, the Governors in several regions of the country have teamed up to fight the coronavirus within their respective areas — but regional agreements between Governors are nothing new in the world of conservation and the environment because pollution, just like a virus, does not respect state boundaries.

Why This Matters:  Governors working together to fight the coronavirus and its impacts through regional cooperation arrangements may prove to be a way that President Trump fixed the government by breaking it.

• Water

Some Dams Survive Through Inertia — Time to Take Them Down?

• #30x30
• dam
• dam removal
• fish
• restoration
• river
• wildlife

The removal of legacy dams, which were first constructed dozens to more than a hundred years ago, is proving to be increasingly popular to restore river flows now that they are no longer serving any purpose for generating power or driving industrial uses. 

Why This Matters:  There is no doubt that a free-flowing river is a healthy river.  As has been much discussed recently, the need to do everything we can to restore and conserve the natural world to stave off the next wave of extinctions and to combat climate change.

• Land

Senator Booker Proposes “Nature-Based” Climate Legislation

• agricultre
• carbon sequestration
• Civilian Conservation Corps
• climate change
• farmers
• Forests
• restoration
• the New Deal
• wetlands

Presidential hopeful Senator Cory Booker last week introduced legislation in the Senate to combat climate change through farm conservation, reforestation, and wetlands restoration, The Hill reported. 

• Ocean

New Study Recommends Billions for Gulf Restoration Projects

• Audubon
• birds
• BP
• Deepwater Horizon
• Gulf of Mexico
• oil spill
• restoration

The National Audubon Society published a new report yesterday calling for the largest ecosystem restoration effort ever attempted — a $1.7-billion slate of distinct restoration projects spanning the states of Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Louisana, and Florida.  The funding for these projects is available due to the $20B settlement in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation.