Celebrating Biden-Era Environmental Wins

NWF President & CEO Collin O’Mara credits cooperation with environmental successes during the Biden administration

By Collin O’Mara
Conservation
Dec 18, 2024

President Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame a national monument.

IN POLITICS, FOUR YEARS IS A SHORT WINDOW TO ACHIEVE LASTING CHANGE. It takes most presidents two terms to advance major policies or laws. That makes the historic shared successes of the National Wildlife Federation over the past four years all the more remarkable. As we look ahead to meeting the goals of our new strategic plan, the end of the Biden administration offers a fitting moment to look back at our wins for wildlife and people.

The last four years have brought the most significant climate investments and conservation achievements in our country’s history. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have invested billions of dollars in nature-based solutions that will help people and wildlife thrive in spite of the climate-fueled floods, hurricanes, storms and heat waves we’re enduring today. We are proud that our leaders, staff, affiliates and supporters were “in the room where it happens” as we worked closely with the White House and lawmakers to draft these historic bills, help push them through a narrowly divided Congress and ultimately get them to the president’s desk. These laws make essential investments in forest and wetland restoration, community resilience, climate-smart agriculture, water quality, clean energy and environmental justice that will reduce the greenhouse gas pollution driving the climate crisis.

NWF also saw historic victories for communities and species in vital ecosystems. Working in solidarity with sovereign Tribal nations, state affiliates and conservation partners, we conserved more than 42 million acres of habitat, including successfully encouraging the Biden Administration to restore Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, to designate new monuments (Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, Camp Hale-Continental Divide in Colorado, Castner Range in Texas) and to expand others (Berryessa Snow Mountain and San Gabriel Mountains in California). We worked to conserve wildlife habitat in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest and Coastal Plain, and around the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. We helped the Bureau of Land Management develop rules that place conservation and habitat restoration on equal footing with extractive activities on public lands. We helped establish nearly 500 million acres of marine protected areas, including parts of the Pacific Ocean, and helped protect the Atlantic from drilling. With the Nez Perce and additional Pacific Northwest Tribes, we secured commitments that will aid the recovery of salmon, steelhead and more native fish populations throughout the Columbia River basin.

Together, these victories will help ensure that our lands, waters, wildlife and ways of life endure for future generations. And they are only possible thanks to the help of our 7 million members and supporters, including you, and the Federation’s 52 state and territorial affiliates. We’re committed to building upon these wins in the years ahead.