In January 2021, President Biden signed an “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.”  In this order, President Biden set a “goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.” The Biden administration refers to this Executive Order by the short name “America the Beautiful”. Opponents began calling this the “30 x 30 Land Grab”.

Many people were suspicious about the origin, purpose, and implementation of this Executive Order.  The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, which first convened in 1992, had recently set a new goal of conserving 30% of the world’s land by 2030.  Here in the United States, the Center for American Progress (CAP) published a report in 2019 titled “How Much Nature Should America Keep?”  In the report, CAP not only endorses the 30% goal but also advances arguments that 50% should be secured by 2050.

Federal Government agencies and environmental groups began promoting the “America the Beautiful” program to the pubic, stating that land will be obtained “voluntarily”. However, skeptics and opponents of this program fear that land will be obtained “by any and all means possible”, by force, and without consent.

Here is a short, one-page, easy-to-read explanation written by the Governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts: https://governor.nebraska.gov/press/30-x-30-land-grab

( If you want to read the actual Executive Order on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/ )

Two bills that seek to stop President Biden’s “America the Beautiful” Executive Order have been introduced in the Senate and House. The “30×30 Termination Act” as named in the Senate and the “No Land Grab Act of 2021” in the House. You can read about the reasons for these two opposition bills here: https://www.asas.org/taking-stock/blog-post/taking-stock/2021/06/28/no-land-grab-act-of-2021-and-30×30-termination-act-introduced

The U.S. Senate Bill the “30 x 30 Termination Act” originated in Kansas. The U.S. House Bill the “No Land Grab Act of 2021” originated in Colorado. In Nebraska, over half of its counties have passed resolutions formally opposing the “30 x 30 Land Grab”.

In Bowman County, North Dakota, last week Sheriff candidate Jason Dodge presented a Resolution to the County Commissioners for their consideration. The resolution, titled “Resolution Opposing The Federal Government’s “30X30” Land Preservation Goal”, If adopted, will be our County’s direct , United, and unwavering response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 “ Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” also known as “America the Beautiful” or commonly as “The 30X30 Land Grab”.

Bowman County, North Dakota Sheriff Frank Eberle wrote in a Facebook post recently, “We learned about a dangerous attempt by the federal government to attack our ranchers and farmers by stealing their land, under the name of climate change,…as your Constitutional Sheriff, I stand with our ranchers and farmers, and will deputize as many of our citizens of Bowman County as necessary to bring a halt to this unconstitutional act…Today, I will be contacting every Sheriff in the state and our Governor to stand in opposition to this threat.”