American Stewards | The Wildlands Project Returns

While Congress was passing the Inflation Reduction Act (Inflation Act) last month that included $20 Billion for the climate crisis conservation programs, the radical left was rolling out the next targeted phase of their attack to achieve 30×30 (permanently protect 30 percent of our lands and oceans by 2030).  This one is focused on the western federal lands.

An article entitled “Rewilding the American West,” (Rewild) was strategically released in several progressive publications, and then quickly reprinted and cited by others around the time the Inflation Act was passed. The Oxford Academia Journal Bio-Science was first, followed by recreational publications such as Outside Magazine, and then the international World Economic Forum. 

The plan is to remove livestock grazing, mining, oil and gas, timber production and eventually recreation, from the western federal lands, and prioritize these areas for wolves and beavers. They have identified 11, 5000 square-kilometer reserves that total approximately 13.5 million acres.  These reserves are to be connected, with additional federal land acquisitions and conservation easements on private lands, to create continuous wildlife corridors from Mexico to Canada.

The Rewild plan also fits nicely with the Sagebrush Sea Network advanced by green groups a few years back, covering the greater sage grouse habitat across the west.  This plan touches the 13 states and takes in over 150 million acres. The two together take in most of the western states.

The timing of the Rewild rollout coincides with the passage of the Inflation Act and is likely not a coincidence.  It is also probable that this has been the plan all along, the announcement of which was put on hold when the Build Back Better Act and the green new deal appeared to be dead.

We can thank Bill Gates for saving the green agenda. He is taking credit for convincing Senator Manchin (D-WV) to pass the lighter version. It should be no surprise then, that livestock grazing is first on the chopping block. After all, Gates has significant investments in plant-based meat companies and funds efforts to convince people to stop eating beef.  Just like the Robber Barons of the Industrial Age, Bill Gates is bankrolling the environmental movement to drive out the competition.

The Rewild report advocates a series of steps necessary to implement the plan.

“Based on our analysis, we suggest a rewilding plan for the proposed reserve network that includes: (1) retiring livestock grazing allotments on federal land within the proposed reserve network; (2) protecting, reestablishing, or recovering gray wolves, especially within the network; and (3) reintroducing beaver in suitable habitat within the network.” 

Following this will be the removal of the extractive industries and recreational uses.

“In addition to eliminating the adverse effects of livestock grazing within the identified reserve network, it would be important to limit resource extraction industries and off-road vehicles.”

Without off-road vehicles, hunters and recreationists are left to access these areas solely on foot.  However, the hunters will eventually be paired down as well. Wolves will be replacing them as the preferred natural solution to control wildlife populations.

“Moreover, adding and preserving wolves could assist in the natural control of overabundant native ungulates.”

The Rewilding campaign has its roots in the radical green agenda known as the “Wildlands Project” uncovered in the 1990’s. This plan would move humans into limited, self-sustained population areas, leaving the majority of America’s lands off limits from human use. It would have succeeded had it not been for some of our compatriots in the property rights movement exposing the agenda and convincing members of the Senate to oppose the 1992 U.N. Biodiversity Treaty that contained the plan. Biden’s 30×30 agenda has once again revived this radical agenda.

The Rewild report justifies the plan as follows:

“After taking office, President Biden signed an executive order announcing his America the Beautiful plan to conserve 30% of US land and water by 2030. He challenged Americans to collaboratively “conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend” at a national scale (US Departments 2021, p. 9). Here, we take a major step in advancing President Biden’s plan by envisioning a bold and science-based rewilding of publicly owned federal lands (hereafter, federal lands) in the American West. Beyond concerns for human survival and flourishing, a principled commitment to the natural world and a sense of moral urgency underpins the motivation for our proposal.”

The Inflation Act funds many key components of the green new deal, including conservation programs dedicated to mitigating climate change and curtailing livestock emissions, as well as a new climate conservation corps, which can employ thousands of eager woke-approved activists to help usher in the rewilding agenda. 

How will they get this done? They will do this piece-by-piece, at the local, state, and regional levels.  Wherever the federal land management agencies are revising, amending or approving plans and projects, expect to see an increased effort to push cattle and people off the land to be replaced by the wolf, beaver, and sage grouse.

And, if they fail before the President’s term expires, be watching for the designation of a new National Monument that will make the million-acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah look miniscule.  Or, possibly we will see several smaller national monuments that conveniently connect and align with the Rewild and Sagebrush Sea proposed reserves.

What is the first step for Americans to protect their community from this land grab?  Pass the local government resolution opposing 30×30 for all counties within the target zone of the 11 proposed Rewild Reserves and the Sagebrush Sea. Get your community educated and be on alert for efforts, even small ones, to remove humans from the lands. 

You can download the model resolution here. To see what other Counties have passed, click here.

(If your county has passed the resolution and you do not see it listed on our map, please email asl@americanstewards.us.)