The Court is RADICALIZED—and a man named Leo

by Stephen Capra, Executive Director, Bold Visions Conservation

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It has been quite a week at the Supreme Court. Giving gratuities to an elected official for a contract is now legal. You cannot give it before you sign the papers; that would be illegal, but once signed, give them $15,000, $20,000, maybe even a million, and that is OK. It's a simple gratuity so much for corruption.

But the reality is that this court is bought and paid for, and its mission is to destroy federal agencies and any protections for the environment. These radical right judges should be jailed for their corruption. A case in point was the Chevron doctrine decision that was expected and handed down this week. The decision strips power away from federal agencies to protect the environment, have workplace safety, and regulate everything that the scientists and experts in these agencies have been educated in and worked to safeguard all of us. Thursday, the court ruled that the EPA could not limit smokestack pollution that blows across state lines. Known as the good neighbor rule, the court took the unusual step of weighing in while the case was still pending in a lower court. Again, why? Last year, this same court, at the behest of radical conservative's agenda's, struck down an EPA rule known as "Waters of the United States," designed to protect millions of acres of wetlands from pollution; they did this before the rule was final.

In 2022, according to the N.Y. Times, they sharply limited the agency's Clean Power Plan, and the court sharply limited its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Again, this is a radical agenda, which the court directs, not a rational plan to protect Americans.

Now, judges or Congress will make these decisions, but not those with expertise. Both of these decisions were political and skink of cash, changing hands. The billionaires that run major corporations, the oil industry, want nothing that stops their destruction of the planet and their lust for money. By not allowing agencies to regulate, we are on the precipice of destroying efforts to curb climate change; we are looking at people like Leonard Leo, a despicable human who has spent more than two million dollars of his own money to fight climate change efforts and now has his sights set on ending the Endangered Species Act.

Leonard Leo is a name you must get on your radar. Leo is the architect of the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority. Leo uses dark money channels such as the Concord Fund and the 85 Fund, according to Rolling Stone magazine. He wants nothing to stop the oil, gas, logging, and mining industries. He has worked with the wingnut Paul Gosar (R) of Arizona on a range of bills with what he calls "modernization amendments that are designed to allow the destruction of wildlands and wildlife so that industry that enjoys the 1872 mining law, drilling at record levels on public lands, and endless logging money to get their cut out, can do so without regulation or fear.

Part of the Project 2025 plan is to delist grizzlies, delist gray wolves everywhere, and end any protections for sage grouse. This man, Leonard Leo, is a clear and present danger to our wildest public lands and needs to feel the heat of citizens across this country who love wildlife and our public lands. His is not the action of a real American or patriot. Still, instead of human scum, a man driven by wealth and arrogance is determined to destroy the very lands we love.

All of this goes back to the election. After a horrible night in the debate, Biden has left many of us wondering and fearing what a Trump Administration would bring. It is clear, given his mean and nasty demeanor, that Trump would drill the Arctic Refuge. Just to hurt us.

He would support the slaughter of wolves and bears, would end protections for sage grouse, and end the Environmental Protection Agency. We would see an end possibly of the Interior Department and work to open wilderness areas to destruction. Nothing would be off the table.

He is a sick and demented man, and his push for total control would not bode well for the environment. But most Americans seem oblivious to what could happen to the environment.

But Protect 2025 spells it out, and we must listen and educate people who seem only obsessed with the price of groceries. Biden may step away or come back swinging, but what we know about Biden is that he has worked to protect our public lands and has not been great on wolves, but that is a political situation that will soon change; he has created several key National Monuments in his first term, which was a bold move. He has allowed federal agencies to flourish and protect everything from the water we drink to the air we breathe.

As a nonprofit, we are not here to tell you how to vote but to inform you that we face a severe environmental crisis that could forever change our public lands and wildlife. That should be an alarm bell across our country, and one thing is for sure: the Supreme Court will do all it can to prevent corruption and the destruction of our wildlife and public lands. They remain a disgrace that must be reined in, something a second term of Biden or another Democrat will need to focus like a laser on.

The bottom line is that we need agencies to regulate, and we need professionals with experience to make decisions, not politically appointed judges or radical conservatives whose only agenda is to destroy democracy.

There's no way to contact Leonard Leo directly, but let The Federalist Society know what you think of his actions: info@fedsoc.org

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Let’s Close a Trail to Trapping

by Stephen Capra, Executive Director, Bold Visions Conservation

Our new address Bold Visions Conservation, PO Box 941 Bozeman, MT 59771

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As I head to Bozeman to speak with the mayor and county commission, along with Tom Rodgers, my Washington, DC, educator of all things federal government, this trip has another purpose. It is closing a very popular Bozeman trail, known as Sourdough Trail, to trapping. Sourdough, like many hiking trails across the West, is in an urban interface. Some of the land on the trail is on City lands; others are cross-sections belonging to the US Forest Service. We spoke to the USFS and the city several years ago. The FS indicated that if the city closed the 9-mile trail to trapping, they would follow suit.

Michael Stroeger, our Bozeman-based Director, has been meeting with elected officials and people across the community to emphasize the danger to pets and families hiking this busy trail. The Mayor and Councilors have indicated they will move this to a vote soon.

The bottom line remains we must create safe landscapes for wildlife. Protecting a hiking trail may sound minor in scale, but it is something that trappers have been fighting, and we must begin to take away their control of our city and public lands. We can start with this trail and continue to push back on trapping anywhere near the urban interface and erode their power once and for all. Let's face it: we want to hike with security, and we want our families and pets to be safe. Most of all, we want the nightmare of trapping to end once and for all.

We will meet these city officials on Monday, pushing for a vote soon on closing the sourdough trail to trapping. We will also brief them on our Monument proposal and work to get their support for a monument that would ban trapping and protect wolves, grizzlies, and other vital predators.

So we ask you to write to them and ask not only for Sourdough Trail to be closed to trapping but also for their support of this Monument for Wildlife—1.6 million acres designed to protect our most important species. We will work hard to convince them of both. The reality remains: It's time to end trapping now and start to erode trappers' sick control of our precious public lands.

CLICK HERE

TO CONTACT THE BOZEMAN MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL.

The West in all its Grandeur

by Stephen Capra, Executive Director, Bold Visions Conservation

As summer kicks in, people from across the world pour into the West. This place of dreams is filled with those seeking adventure. Many will try to pet a buffalo (not a good idea) or, for the first time, get work thousands of miles from home. They will be awestruck by sunsets and surprised by late snow.

I was once one of the 18-year-olds who came West for my first job at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It snowed the first week we arrived. With my friends, we explored the park on days off and drove into the mountains at night, drinking in and feeling the freedom that comes with youth and the wonder of magical landscapes. At the end of the summer, with my friend Sam Wainer, who would in the years to come hike with me from Mexico to Canada to raise awareness for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we once drove all day and night to the Grand Canyon.

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We arrived on the north rim at about 3 a.m. In the first light, we could see what we had driven for: the canyon in its splendor opened before us. Both being photographers, we dove out of the car and stood dumbstruck in awe. We took many pictures, hugged one another, and shouted to the canyon below. We were young and free, and the West was now part of our soul.

We went back east that year, and I flunked out of school. I was lost back in the East, and my very being needed to be in the West.

Many adventures followed, working for a few months, then quitting to explore the wilds of Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Olympics, Alaska, and so many more. My eyes over that time began to see what my excited youth could not. Scars on the land, timber cutting, mining, erosion by cattle, and the various ways our public lands were degraded.

We were also surprised by how little wildlife we encountered. Each one was met with wonder, and the excitement was something we talked about for days and weeks. It never occurred to me in those early years that so many wanted to kill wolves, bears, or any animal. They were so innocent, so beautiful; it all seemed so perfect.

But as the years passed, I saw many a hunting season come and go; coyotes hung from fence posts. My time in conservation made me read and learn so much about how people find killing animals a thrill. Like many, we have witnessed such injustice for so many animals that simply want to live.

As I get older, there are books I can no longer read and things that happen to animals that leave me brokenhearted. Still, my will to protect them never dies, as it does for many of you. I may not be the best scientist, and I cannot give you endless facts, but like many of you, passion and justice are the drivers.

It seems to me over the years, the conservation community has spent far too much time trying to work with people who hate us, who continue to control our public lands for one reason- to abuse them.

Our efforts now to create a sanctuary of 1.6 million acres are meant to protect the wildlife we love and allow another generation to experience the freedom and magic of wildlife and wildlands.

But it is also a statement that we are not giving in. We want our public lands protected, not disseminated. We want to hike and explore lands where wildlife can be part of the experience. We can send a message and create a new precedent for wildlife and public lands. We can turn Yellowstone, which is now 2.2 million acres, into a park of 3.8 million protected acres.

Trappers will not enter; trophy hunters will not kill predators in this sanctuary. We can take back from Game and Fish agencies that they have stolen and make clear that wolves belong in the West.

Perhaps I am a dreamer, but I have faith in the Tribes who will lead this and in the people like yourself, hungry for victory and tired of killing at the hands of ignorance.

I hope one day we can all enjoy a summer day in this vast and beautiful land under the sign that reads America’s newest National Monument. That exceptional land and the wildlife it protects can be a sanctuary for wildlife and our souls.

Perhaps then we can all shout our joy into the canyons of our youth and the mountains that leave us with the satisfaction that comes from a life in the West.

Trappers will not enter; trophy hunters will not kill predators in this sanctuary. We can take back from Game and Fish agencies that they have stolen and make clear that wolves belong in the West.

Perhaps I am a dreamer, but I have faith in the Tribes who will lead this and in the people like yourself, hungry for victory and tired of killing at the hands of ignorance.

I hope one day we can all enjoy a summer day in this vast and beautiful land under the sign that reads America’s newest National Monument. That exceptional land and the wildlife it protects can be a sanctuary for wildlife and our souls.

Perhaps then we can all shout our joy into the canyons of our youth and the mountains that leave us with the satisfaction that comes from a life in the West.