BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - U.S. Interior Department officials on Feb. 11 canceled a Trump administration directive that gave local and state officials power to block purchases of land and water for conservation.
Acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega rescinded a November order from former Secretary David Bernhardt that had been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats, who said the Trump administration ignored their wishes when it changed a program that is paid for billions of dollars in conservation work over more than five decades.
In November, officials announced that $125 million in congressionally authorized spending under the conservation program would buy up private property inside the boundaries of places including Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, Kentucky’s Green River National Wildlife Refuge and Florida’s Everglades region.
In addition to buying up property, the November order gave local officials veto power and limited land acquisitions to property inside the existing boundaries of parks and refuges, rather than expanding their footprint. Trump administration officials had said the order would have allowed the government to fulfill goals that were set when conservation areas were created, by filling in missing pieces.
Notable among the critics of provisions in the order was Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a Trump loyalist who helped barter a bipartisan agreement that authorized the conservation fund purchases under the Great American Outdoors Act. The measure was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in August.
Bernhardt issued his order restricting how the money gets used less than a week after the election, drawing criticism from Daines and others for undermining the conservation program.
The conservation fund was established in 1964 to safeguard natural areas from development and protect wildlife. Money for land purchases comes from revenue from offshore oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf.
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