Washington, D.C. – President Donald Trump is the only president in U.S. history to have removed more protections from U.S. lands and waters than he put in place, according to a new column from the Center for American Progress.
The column found that over the past three years, the Trump administration has tried to remove protections from nearly 35 million acres of public lands—nearly 1,000 times more land than it has protected. These actions equate to stripping protections from an area the size of Florida.
“Unlike every modern-day U.S. president before him who helped build up America’s awe-inspiring system of public lands and waters, President Trump has pursued an agenda aimed at removing protections from vast swaths of public lands and waters,” said Jenny Rowland-Shea, co-author of the column and a senior policy analyst for Public Lands at CAP. “These attacks have dealt a major setback to the nation’s progress toward conserving nature and wildlife.”
CAP surveyed all administrative actions since 2017 that resulted in the elimination of protections for monuments, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas. The analysis also included actions that opened protected areas to drilling and mining, the removal of roadless areas and special areas, and the ousting of areas of critical environmental concern.
Read the column: “The Most Anti-Nature President in U.S. History” by Jenny Rowland-Shea and Zainab Mirza
For more information or to talk to an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202-478-6327.