{"id":14348,"date":"2018-09-07T13:13:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T17:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=14348"},"modified":"2018-09-07T13:13:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T17:13:34","slug":"policy-news-september-7-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2018\/09\/07\/policy-news-september-7-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Policy News: September 7, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESA Policy News<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In This Issue:<\/h1>\n

ESA 2018 Opening Plenary Welcomes Ecologist to the Gulf Coast and River Delta Ecosystems<\/a>
\n<\/strong>A recording of the opening plenary talk\u00a0by Robert Twilley, \u201cEcosystem design approaches in a highly engineered landscape of the Mississippi River Delta\u201d is available online<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress<\/a>
\n<\/u><\/strong>Senate passes appropriations\u00a0packages for Agriculture, Interior and EPA, Mercury monitoring bill introduced to Senate.<\/p>\n

Executive Branch<\/a><\/u><\/strong>
\nWhite House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director nominated, EPA releases regulation to replace the Clean Power Plan<\/p>\n

Courts<\/u><\/a><\/strong>
\nStates sue Interior Department over reinterpretation of Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Federal court blocks Yellowstone-area grizzly bear hunt for two weeks.<\/p>\n

States<\/u><\/a><\/strong>
\nCalifornia governor proposes logging legislation aimed at reducing wildfire risk, New Jersey governor stops bear hunts on state lands.<\/p>\n

Scientific Community<\/strong><\/a>
\nEnvironmental Law Institute releases report on blockchain.<\/p>\n

International<\/strong><\/a>
\nAustralian Prime Minister replaced over carbon emission reduction plans, French Ecology Minister resigns.<\/p>\n

Federal Register Opportunities<\/u><\/a><\/strong>
\nUpcoming meetings and other opportunities for public involvement.<\/p>\n

Register to Vote<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

2018 midterm elections are happening in November.\u00a0\u00a0Register to vote and learn more about voting policies and rights in your state at Rock the Vote.<\/a><\/p>\n

ESA In the News <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

View an up-to-date list of ESA\u2019s media coverage<\/p>\n

103rd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America convenes in New Orleans, La.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s 2018 Annual Meeting kicked off with a welcome to New Orleans and ecosystems of the Gulf Coast with a plenary talk by Robert Twilley, the executive director of the Louisiana Sea Grant and a professor at Louisiana State University, entitled \u201cEcosystem design approaches in a highly engineered landscape of the Mississippi River Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meeting attendees and scientists watching the\u00a0livestream from home were introduced to Louisiana\u2019s love of the mud that built the Mississippi River Delta. These beloved wetlands \u2013 and river deltas all over the world \u2013 are sinking beneath sea level rise, causing significant threats to natural and social systems. Louisiana loses around a football field of wetlands an hour. This land loss\u00a0is due to the combined effects of anthropogenic changes to sediment supply and river flow, subsidence and sea level rise, posing an immediate threat to the millions of residents that live in the Gulf Coast region.<\/p>\n

Twilley\u2019s presentation described how and why humans have designed the Mississippi River Delta through levees and flood control projects and how an ecosystem design approach can link the multiple-purpose needs of the diverse services and stakeholders that the river system and coastal network provides. Ecosystem design combines systems and design thinking and focuses on a three-layered framework integrating ecosystem, economy, and community resulting in an plan that meets economic and social needs and creates a more sustainable and resilient coast.<\/p>\n

The goals of the ecosystem design framework include aggressive reconnections of Mississippi River\u2019s natural flood pulse\u00a0to the coastal landscape, transforming flood control to controlled floods, relocating port operations, and developing delta communities along a more consolidated and coherent landscape. The ecosystem design framework plan lays out a vision over the next four generations for restoring the environment and leveraging the natural ability of human settlement to adapt and change to a long-term vision of the Mississippi River Delta.<\/p>\n

The live-streamed talk is available online for viewing. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qT3uJFBaCqE<\/a><\/em>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Appropriations<\/strong>: <\/strong>During August, the Senate passed two spending packages, including spending bills for the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) added an amendment requiring NOAA and USDA to establish a working group to study ways to deacidify the ocean. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) inserted an amendment providing funding for research on harmful algal blooms and their impacts.<\/p>\n

Funding levels for the Interior Department agencies largely remain flat. The Interior receives $13.1 billion in total. The U.S. Geological Survey\u2019s budget remains flat at $1.14 billion. The National Park Service receives a $13.4 million increase over FY 2018 levels, bringing the agency\u2019s budget to $3.21 billion. Similarly, the Bureau of Land Management receives $1.34 billion, an increase of $11 million over FY 2018 levels. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service receives a $19.7 million cut, bringing the USFWS\u2019 budget to $1.57 billion.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency receives flat funding of $8.05 billion.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service receives $6.29 billion, including $349 million in increased funding for wildland fire management. The Forest Service\u2019s Research and Development program receives $300 million, a $3 million increase over FY 2018 levels.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers from the House and Senate are now meeting in a conference committee to resolve the differences between appropriations bills passed by both chambers before the beginning of the 2019 Fiscal Year on October 1, 2018.<\/p>\n

Mercury Bill:<\/strong> Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act (S. 3394<\/a>). This bill would direct the EPA, in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, NOAA and USGS to create a national mercury monitoring network to measure and collect long-term data sets on mercury levels in the air, water, fish and wildlife. The bill also creates a scientific advisory committee to oversee the monitoring program and a publicly available database of new and existing mercury data.<\/p>\n

Other legislative updates:<\/strong><\/p>\n