by Lillian Anderson 2-2-2017 UPDATE: Rep. Jason Chaffetz announced this morning that he is withdrawing this bill. Thanks to everyone who called and made comments. Last Tuesday, Congressman Jason Chaffetz proposed HR 621. This bill will drastically impact our public lands if passed. It builds on the Disposal of Excess Federal Lands Act and aims to sell… Read more
As the Trump administration officially takes control of the White House on Friday, there are a number of environmental policy changes and appointments that already have environmentalists pushing back. With media focus on the upcoming inauguration, it’s easy to miss some of these new developments. Luckily, Wild Virginia is here to keep you informed and up to… Read more
by Lillian Anderson This week, the House of Representatives passed a new rules package that places our federal lands at risk. In the past, it has been difficult to transfer federal lands to the control of state governments because the lands hold clear value and generate revenue. If lands were taken out of federal control,… Read more
by Julia Travers A study in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, (PNAS) identifies our very own Blue Ridge Mountains as a recommended priority area for future conservation, along with eight other areas. The study also states that much of the protected lands in the U.S. are… Read more
By Jessie Thuma On September 9th, Wild Virginia’s President, Ernie Reed, and Conservation Director, David Sligh, led a group of hikers on a tour of the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Participants gathered at Shenandoah Joe’s for some coffee, snacks, and small talk before piling into vans and hitting the road to Nelson County…. Read more
Wild Virginia sent the following letter to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe today: Re: Letter of Support for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Dear Mr. Sitting Bear: Wild Virginia supports the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and joins the tribe in opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. We join you and many thousands of others who are… Read more
This week, Congress will be voting an appropriations bill that is slated to include provisions that would that would significantly harm national forests. These appropriations are part of a wider deal to reform federal spending on the wildfire budget, allowing more disaster funds to be used for fire fighting. What this means, however, is that… Read more
As a human species, we seem to be doing our best to overwhelm the natural balances of the earth: we waste about 1/3 of all food produced (and up to 40% in the U.S.), we cut down 46-58,000 square miles of forest a year, and scientists predict global temperature increases as high as 8.6° by 2100. Yet,… Read more
The Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC), headed by retired UVA Senior Scientist Rick Webb, seeks to keep Virginia politicians, government bodies, and Dominion on their toes concerning environmental effects of pipelines and natural gas infrastructure. To identify potential problems, DPMC runs a civilian air force that takes photographs of existing and planned infrastructure sites. In their latest investigative effort, the DPMC… Read more