skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

N.Y.C. Council speaker calls on Mayor Eric Adams to resign; KY could do more to protect kids from accidental drug ingestion, shootings; OH food banks face fed funding uncertainty, DeWine budget cuts; Protesters say Trump administration actions 'cast aside democracy.'

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

On a Middle East visit, Sen. Richard Blumenthal rejects a Gaza takeover. President's Day protests erupt around the country against White House moves, and another aviation accident draws attention to recent FAA cuts.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural America struggles with opioids and homelessness in unexpected ways, Colorado's Lariat Ditch could help spur local recreation, and book deliveries revive rural communities hit by Hurricane Helene.

Hunting, fishing groups praise bills' reintroduction in Congress

play audio
Play

Wednesday, January 29, 2025   

California advocates for hunters and anglers are speaking out in favor of two public lands bills that were just reintroduced in the U.S. Senate. They're designed to maintain public access and conserve big-game migration corridors.

The Public Lands in Public Hands Act would require the Bureau of Land Management to get congressional approval in most cases to sell or transfer parcels to a non-federal entity, such as a state or private owner.

There's been a push in some parts of the West to hand control of large parcels of federal land over to the states, said Madeleine West, vice president for western conservation at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

"Certain parcels, if you got rid of those, it would block off access to really pristine hunting grounds," she said. "It's those sort of worst-case scenarios that we just want to be able to safeguard against."

Utah has petitioned - unsuccessfully so far - to force the BLM to sell the state more than 18-million acres of federal land, and House Republicans recently passed a rules package that makes it easier to sell off federal lands. States, faced with the enormous cost of managing the lands and fighting wildfire, could then elect to sell them to private interests.

A second bill, the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, would codify programs to protect wildlife migration corridors. West noted that the programs were created during the first Trump administration and continued during President Joe Biden's time in office.

"These are programs that can have real, long-term benefit," she said, "and so, some certainty that they will exist into the long term, regardless of future political changes, is really valuable."

The programs, which are currently voluntary, provide funding for state wildlife agencies, landowners and nonprofits that do habitat restoration work and map out wildlife migration patterns.

Disclosure: Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Endangered Species & Wildlife, Environment, Public Lands/Wilderness. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
AARP Community Challenge grants have helped launch community gardens, which help improve livability for residents in a number of ways. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

AARP Colorado is accepting applications from nonprofits and local governments across the state for this year's Community Challenge grant program…


Health and Wellness

play sound

Town hall meetings start tonight across California, pushing back against congressional Republicans' proposal to cut hundreds of billions of dollars …

Social Issues

play sound

Worker's rights advocates and nursing home providers say Washington has a long-term care workforce crisis, and that inadequate benefits in the …


ALICE data from the United Way found between 2019-2022, the median hourly wage for teaching assistants in Connecticut was $23.38. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Connecticut union organizers are working to get pension plans for paraeducators. In recent years, they have won a flurry of benefits from organizing …

Social Issues

play sound

Some New York members of Congress are trying to repeal bank overdraft fee regulations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created a rule …

Women, young adults and those with a family history of depression tend to experience seasonal affective disorder at higher rates. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

If the cold weather and snow have got you down and feeling like there's no end in sight, you are not alone. Nationwide, up to 6% of the population …

Health and Wellness

play sound

New legislation backed by the American Heart Association would require all Oregon schools to have cardiac emergency response plans in place. …

Health and Wellness

play sound

By Tim Spears for WISH-TV.Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Col…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021