Conservation groups are circulating a petition asking the feds to give "America the Beautiful National Parks and Recreation Lands" passes to new citizens at their naturalization ceremony. Members of the group GreenLatinos have met with multiple federal agencies to pitch the idea.

Louis Medina, communications and philanthropy director with the nonprofit Friends of the Inyo, said it would make a great "Welcome to America" gift.

"It would be a great way of giving them the best that America has to offer. It could instill greater patriotism and pride, and it could create new allies in the environmental movement," Medina contended.

The pass normally costs $80 per year and gets one car with up to four adults into all national parks and monuments. Last year, more than 878,000 people became U.S. citizens.

The group also wants to start holding naturalization ceremonies at sites on public lands. And they'd like to reverse the trend of national parks going "cashless," as they have at Yosemite and Death Valley.

Medina added parks may save money by requiring everyone to pay by card, but it risks turning people away who don't have credit cards or mobile payment apps.

"For communities of color and immigrant communities that already are having issues in accessing our national parks, because of costs, because of distance, or because of lack of familiarity, then cashless entry creates yet another barrier," he continued.

The petition currently sports more than 900 signatures and is available on the GreenLatinos website.


get more stories like this via email

Federal grant money is supporting an Oregon organization rehabilitating the land and training tribal youth.

The Interior Department's Indian Youth Service Corps has awarded the Lomakatsi Restoration Project two grants of $300,000 and $400,000. The funds will support the organization's Tribal Youth Ecological Stewardship Training and Employment program.

Marko Bey, executive director of the project, said the Indian Youth Service Corps supports tribal young people age 18 to 30, and up to 35 if they are veterans.

"What it's focused on is providing paid to train opportunities for tribal members to work on their ancestral lands or neighboring ancestral lands," Bey explained. "Engaged in ecosystem restoration or eco-culture restoration work."

The Lomakatsi Restoration Project has been around since 1995 and is based in Ashland. Bey noted the focus is on ecosystem resilience and reducing large wildfires that have become more prevalent and destructive in recent decades. The organization works in Oregon and northern California.

The goal of the Indian Youth Service Corps grant is for the organization to train 12 tribal youth from seven tribal communities on restoration in southern Oregon.

Belinda Brown, director of tribal partnerships for the group, said the program will prepare the young people for careers in forestry work.

"The success is the youth having family wage jobs, of them being able to contribute and help their family, of them being able to be successful in their community," Brown outlined. "Which elevates them to the mentors for that next generation."

Bey added the goal is also to include tribes in restoration and management work.

"This gives an opportunity to get the lands treated in an ecological way," Bey emphasized. "And to get cultural fire ultimately back on the ground, incorporating indigenous, traditional ecological knowledge with Western science into the work."


get more stories like this via email

Coastal tribes in the Northwest are on the front lines of the changing climate but face barriers to responding to its effects.

A new report collected testimony directly from tribal members to hear what their biggest hurdles are. Sea level rise is already pushing some tribes from the coast of Washington.

Meade Krosby, senior scientist in the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington, one of the organizations behind the report, said tribes have been at the forefront of adapting to climate change but their biggest barriers stem from accessing funds to address the scale of the issue.

"The tribes are having to navigate really a maze of different pots of money that are spread out across different agencies and departments and units within federal government agencies," Krosby explained. "They're having to chase down these funds."

The report was compiled with input from listening sessions with members from 13 tribal nations on the Washington and Oregon coasts. It identified five key barriers to greater adaptation to climate change, including funding, staffing and technical expertise.

Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 federal climate action law, could help speed up tribes' responses. The Tribal Coastal Resilience program associated with the University of Washington recently received $3.4 million for coastal readiness projects.

Amelia Marchand, senior tribal climate resilience liaison for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, also worked on the report.

"We're hoping that those funding opportunities will be less of a burden, a little bit more supportive to the flexible and timely needs that tribes have," Marchand noted.

Even with the funding, Marchand stressed climate change is accelerating, worsening the conditions for tribes.

"Swift action is really needed to ramp up the response and to have it occur in a manner that's coordinated and respectful of tribal sovereignty, tribal self-determination and tribal rights," Marchand emphasized.



get more stories like this via email

A rural Mississippi community is fighting to protect the health of some Cherokee residents threatened by industrial pollution.

Barbara Weckesser, treasurer of the group Cherokee Concerned Citizens, and some of her neighbors formed the group in 2013 to address noise, dust and odor stemming from the Bollinger shipyard and Chevron refinery, just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico community.

Weckesser explained about 120 families there have experienced high pollution levels, which she believes has created health issues, including elevated levels of heavy metals in children.

"We have lost 30 residents in the last six years, none from COVID," Weckesser pointed out. "They've either been heart or lung, or cancer deaths. We currently have about eight to nine active cases, most of them within the 40-60 age range."

Weckesser contended they have not received adequate responses from state agencies to their multiple complaints about the problem but noted some progress has been made. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency installed an air monitoring system and provided grant funding to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to follow through with the results.

Jennifer Crosslin, president of the group, said they are advocating for the local government to buy out the Cherokee Forest subdivision. She added the national organization "Buy In" has applied for federal funding on their behalf to implement relocation and restoration plans.

"We would like for anyone in Cherokee Forest Subdivision who wants to be relocated, to be relocated," Crosslin emphasized. "And for their property to be turned into a buffer zone that can protect nearby residents from industrial pollution and flooding, and improve the climate resiliency for the rest of the city."

The National Coastal Resilience Fund provided a $300,000 grant from the Inflation Reduction Act for community-led habitat restoration planning to the "Buy-In" organization for Mississippi. The grant aims to improve wetland habitat in high-risk residential neighborhoods in Pascagoula.

This story is based on original reporting by Lisa Abelar for the Mississippi Free Press.