To push back against President Biden’s 30×30 land preservation initiative, some 225 county executives, state legislators, farmers, and ranchers gathered in Lincoln, Nebraska to take part in a conference spearheaded by the American Stewards for Liberty (ASL).

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Left to right: North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, and CFACT President Craig Rucker

The aim of the gathering—which took place from April 21-22 and co-sponsored by CFACT—was to educate, network, and begin crafting a plan of action to resist what some are calling the largest attack on property rights in American history.

Margaret Byfield, the event moderator, set the tone by laying out the facts and warning how property owners can be “lured into voluntarily giving up their rights” through conservation easements that may appear to be harmless, but in reality “are used to devalue property and lock it up in perpetuity.”

She was joined by heavy hitters including Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, and Trump’s Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt.

CFACT’s President, Craig Rucker, also delivered a message that provided insight into how the Biden plan is part of a broader international effort to push the radical environmentalist agenda.

“The origins of 30×30 didn’t come from Biden,” he noted, “but are actually based on ideas that have been around for many years and can be traced back to misguided UN-related initiatives like the Wildlands Project, Agenda 21 and Biodiversity Treaty.”

Another CFACT spokesperson, Gabriella Hoffman, also lectured the crowd on how to better engage the press and public through a presentation she entitled “Media and Messaging”.

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CFACT spokesperson, Gabriella Hoffman

The conference did not go unnoticed by those on the Green Left. Two days before it kicked off, a crassly worded, over-the-top article was posted in the Lincoln Journal Star by Kyle Herrig of “Accountable.US”, whom not only took issue with the gathering, but was ripe with disparaging words of a personal nature against the organizers. Fortunately, this was met with a stinging rebuke published in the same journal the next day by the President of the Heartland Institute, James Taylor, whose group was also a co-sponsor of the conference. You can read the exchange between the two by clicking here.

Green activists also sent around a “billboard” truck outside the conference, and then through the streets of Lincoln, taking aim at the Governor for participating in the gathering. During his presentation, Craig Rucker highlighted this stunt to the crowd (most were unaware) and then challenged the Greens to reveal what the

carbon footprint was of the big truck being used to sport the billboard—it didn’t seem to be electric.
The crowd laughed.

Moving forward, attendees expressed interest in lobbying more counties to join the coalition by signing a petition against the 30×30 initiative. Some 150 have already done so, while only roughly 15 have thus far voiced support for it.