Center for Progressive Reform :: Natural Resources

Natural Resources

Protecting Natural Resources, Wildlife and Nature

The nation’s natural resources, wildlife and nature have faced persistent challenge in recent years, as efforts to preserve and protect nature have run headlong into political pressure to defend destructive exploitation for profit. In Washington, meanwhile, the Bush Administration conducted what sometimes seemed like a marathon giveaway of natural resources to polluting industries.

In addition to extensive research and writing on natural resources issues, CPR Member Scholars have worked closely with various agencies and organizations to help devise clean-up strategies. For example, the Chesapeake Bay has been deteriorating since the 1930s, when water clarity, crab and oyster populations, and underwater bay grasses began to decline. Excess nutrients – phosphorus and nitrogen – and sediment runoff from agriculture, urban and suburban development, and sewage treatment plants caused the Bay’s cloudy waters, resulting in “dead zones” containing too little oxygen to support aquatic life. The Bay’s oyster population has been devastated, down to 2 percent of its average levels in the 1950s. The Bay’s famous blue crab populations are also low, about 30 percent below the annual average from 1968 to 2002.

Working with an ad hoc committee of the Chesapeake Bay Program, a collaboration among states in the mid-Atlantic region, CPR provided recommendations to help establish a framework for an accountability mechanism for the participating states’ clean-up goals for the Bay. CPR’s participation included interviewing key stakeholders to gain insight into how they perceive the program’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their thoughts about various ways to improve program effectiveness in meeting goals such as increasing oyster and crab populations, reducing agricultural runoff, and reducing overfishing and addressing possible jurisdictional and regulatory problems preventing the program from achieving its statutory mission. An Accountability Mechanism for the Chesapeake Bay: Interview Findings, by CPR Member Scholar Rena Steinzor and Policy Analyst Shana Jones and released in November 2008, distills CPR’s findings.

Learn about CPR Member Scholars’ work to protect precious natural resources from destruction and misuse:

Cheapeake Bay Clean-up. Read about CPR's work developing recommendations for strengthening accountability among the states participating in the Chesapeake Bay Program. Or read the report itself, An Accountability Mechanism for the Chesapeake Bay: Interview Findings, by CPR Member Scholar Rena Steinzor and Policy Analyst Shana Jones, released in November 2008.

Proposed Executive Orders for the Obama Administration. In November 2008, the Center for Progressive Reform transmitted to the Obama Transition Team a slate of seven Executive Orders addressing a series of critical issues, including climate change, transparency in government, environmental justice, children's exposure to toxics, citizens' right to sue corporations whose products cause them harm, and stewardship of public lands. Read a web article about the proposals, and read the white paper itself, Protecting Public Health and the Environment by the Stroke of a Presidential Pen. Or read the news release.

Endangered Species Act Interagency Cooperation. Read Comments from CPR's Holly Doremus, Robert Glicksman, Alejandro Camacho, Daniel Rohlf and Margaret Clune Giblin, joined by Mark Schwartz (UC Davis), on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service's Proposed Rule on Interagency Cooperation under the Endangered Species Act. The October 10, 2008 comments argue that USFWS is in an "unseemly rush" to weaken the Endangered Species Act before the Bush Administration leaves office, and that the proposed rule would make it less likely that endangered species would be shielded from destructive activities.

Water Resources Management Op-Ed: Florida's Water. Read "Where Did Our Water Go? Give the Law a Chance," by CPR Member Scholar Mary Jane Angelo and Richard C. Hamann, in the September 23, 2008 Orlando Sentinel.

Water Resources Management Op-Ed: The Colorado River. Read Robert W. Adler's August 30, 2008 op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune, "A New Set of Negotiations Needed for Colorado River Compact."

Endangered Species Opinion Articles in Slate. Holly Doremus has published two articles in Slate Magazine on the Bush Administration's decision about whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Read the pre-decision January 18, 2008 article in Slate Magazine or the post-decision May 20, 2008 article.

Water War in the Klamath Basin: The Book. Read about Member Scholars Holly Doremus and A. Dan Tarlock's 2008 book, Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics, the tale of a bitter water-management dispute pitting environmental and agricultural interests in the midst of a Southern Oregon drought.

Public Lands Report. Read Squandering Public Resources, by Alyson Flournoy, Margaret Clune Giblin and Matt Shudtz's September 2007 report on the government's failed stewardship of public lands.

National Forests White Paper. Read Alyson Flournoy, Robert L. Glicksman and Margaret Clune Giblin's June 2005 white paper on the Bush Administration's regulatory sell-out of the national forests. Read the news release.

Grazing Rights Articles. Read Joseph Feller's, "In Bush Grazing Decision, Politics, Secrecy Win Again," a description of Administration suppression of a damning environmental impact statement assessing the harm from a Bureau of Land Management grazing policy, published August 18, 2004 on the websites of the Center for American Progress and AlterNet. Or Read Feller's article, "The BLM’s Proposed New Grazing Regulations: Serving the Most Special Interest," posted by permission of the Journal of Land, Resources and Environmental Law, from the Journal's Vol. 24 No. 2, 2004.

Wetlands Op-Ed. Read Alyson Flournoy’s "Dangerous Illusions about Wetlands," as published on the Center for American Progress website on May 19, 2004.

A CPR Perspective. CPR Member Scholars have authored articles on related topics, as part of the CPR Perspectives Series. These include Perspectives on Livestock Grazing on Public Lands, Mountaintop Mining, National Forest Management, Wetlands, and Protecting Endangered Species.