The 30×30 Disinfo Brigade
How extremists and political operatives are undermining American conservation efforts
This report builds on the Center for Western Priorities’ work tracking connections between the anti-public lands extremists and the industries and politicians who support them.
Download the reportSee Nebraska Case Study
The 30×30 Disinfo Brigade
How extremists and political operatives are undermining American conservation efforts
Shortly after the Biden Administration announced its “America the Beautiful” initiative to protect 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030 (aka “30×30”), a band of anti-government extremists launched an organized campaign of lies, speculation, and half-truths to undermine the effort.
This report builds on the Center for Western Priorities’ work tracking connections between the anti-public lands extremists and the industries and politicians who support them.
Download the reportSee Nebraska Case Study
The Players
Margaret Byfield
Anti-government crusader and science denier
Margaret Byfield
Byfield is the executive director of American Stewards of Liberty and the daughter of “sagebrush rebel” Wayne Hage, who sued the federal government after his family’s cattle were confiscated for grazing illegally on federal lands. Byfield calls 30×30 “anti-capitalism,” “anti-individual liberty,” and “anti-American.”
Trent Loos
Conspiracy theorist and insurrection booster
Trent Loos
Loos participated in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016, siding with anti-government extremists Steven and Dwight Hammond, together with Protect The Harvest. During the occupation, Loos interviewed Ammon Bundy. In 2021, he joined American Stewards of Liberty to oppose 30×30, suggesting that the effort was “designed to chase you and me off our own property.”
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert
Insurrection booster and QAnon supporter
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert
Boebert, a right-wing Republican from Colorado, introduced the “30 x 30 Termination Act” in May 2021. Boebert suggested in 2020 that she “was the militia.”Boebert posted a video with a Three Percenter named Robert Gieswein, who gifted her a gun in her restaurant in 2020 and was later charged with attacking police officers on January 6.
Former Interior Sec. David Bernhardt
Now leading a Trump-allied think tank
Former Interior Sec. David Bernhardt
Bernhardt served as the Secretary of the Interior under former President Donald Trump from 2019-2021. Bernhardt currently serves as Chair of the Center for American Freedom at the Trump-focused “America First Policy Institute.” At Interior, Bernhardt oversaw drastic rollbacks of public land protections, undermining everything from the National Environmental Policy Act to the Endangered Species Act.
White nationalist ally and conspiracy theorist
Paul Gosar
Gosar has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011. In 2021, Gosar was censured by the House for posting an animated video depicting the execution of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Gosar cosponsored Boebert’s “30 x 30 Termination Act” and falsely claimed that the Biden administration owned “a majority of all land already” and were “seeking to take even more” through 30×30.
Gabriella Hoffman
Amplifying disinformation about 30×30
Gabriella Hoffman
Hoffman is a writer, speaker and commenter associated with Townhall Media, the Independent Women’s Forum, and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). In February 2022, Hoffman wrote an op-ed in the Washington Times falsely claiming that 30×30 would threaten private property rights. Hoffman’s argument was based entirely on false numbers.
County supremacy advocate and long-time conservative grifter
State Rep. Ken Ivory
Ivory is a state representative from Utah who served in the statehouse from 2011-2019, who returned in 2021. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called Ivory a “hero” in 2015. Over four years, Ivory paid himself and his wife more than $430,000 through their American Lands Council, a nonprofit that spread a debunked legal theory that counties could demand land from the federal government.
The political hub of 30×30 disinformation
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts
Ricketts is the political hub of 30×30 disinformation, holding town halls across Nebraska to “raise awareness about the threat 30×30 poses.” In April 2021, Ricketts organized a letter from 14 governors that baselessly claimed that 30×30 would “violate private property rights.”
“Big lie” supporter backs anti-30×30 bill in Senate
Senator Kevin Cramer
Cramer is the Senate sponsor of Boebert’s “30 x 30 Termination Act.” Cramer opposed creating a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection and dismissed Trump’s continued lies about the insurrection as a “low priority.” In 2021, Cramer sponsored the “Federal Land Freedom Act” to give states full control over national public lands in order to develop all of the energy resources within their borders.
American Stewards of Liberty
Texas-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
American Stewards of Liberty
The American Stewards of Liberty (ASL) is a Texas-based non-profit with the goal of “protecting private property rights, defending the use of our land, and restoring local control.” Financially, ASL exists primarily as a pass-through for its only employees, Margaret and Daniel Byfield, who paid themselves $192,000 in 2020.
American Petroleum Institute
American Petroleum Institute
API has paradoxically claimed that the 30×30 initiative would “undercut” conservation efforts because the oil industry provides funding for programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This mirrors arguments from American Stewards of Liberty, which claimed LWCF was being “weaponized” by the Biden administration.
Western Energy Alliance
Western Energy Alliance
Western Energy Alliance, an industry group representing oil and gas companies that operate on public lands, has claimed without evidence that the 30×30 initiative is “the first step of the larger goal of eliminating oil and natural gas first on federal lands, and then, completely.”
Protect the Harvest
Protect the Harvest
Protect The Harvest was founded in 2011 by oil tycoon Forrest Lucas, and is a sponsor of American Stewards of Liberty’s “Stop 30×30 Summit” in April 2022. Lucas was a close friend and supporter of public land arsonists Steven and Dwight Hammond and helped secure their pardon by President Trump in 2018.
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a fossil-fuel funded group that has called 30×30 the “biggest land grab in American history” and falsely claimed that the U.S. government was going to “buy up” “millions of acres of private land.”
30×30 Disinformation in Action
Cherry County, Nebraska Case Study
American Stewards of Liberty’s war on private property rights is most visible in Cherry County, Nebraska, where the owners of the Bow and Arrow Ranch wanted to put a conservation easement on their land, in partnership with the Nebraska Land Trust. The owners of the ranch wanted to ensure their land would stay in agricultural use, and the easement plan was approved unanimously by the county planning commission in November 2020.
Despite the lack of any local opposition to the easement, County Chair Tanya Storer brought in Texan Margaret Byfield of American Stewards of Liberty, who gave the board her “professional opinion” about the Endangered Species Act and conservation easements, and warned of “unsavory processes” that could lead to conservation corridors that help endangered species recover.
The following month, Commissioner Storer gave the board “a review of her findings” regarding the conservation easement. Storer’s findings focused on the American Burying Beetle, which had recently been downlisted from Endangered to Threatened at the behest of American Stewards of Liberty and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Because the proposed conservation easement at Bow and Arrow Ranch could provide habitat for the beetle’s recovery, Cherry County told the owners of the ranch they could not conserve their land. Despite no opposition from neighbors or the county planning board, the county commission rejected the easement.
Storer went on to trumpet her success stopping the conservation easement alongside Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts at “Stop 30 x30” events across the state in 2021. In 2022, Storer and Ricketts are encouraging the legislature to pass a bill that would ban perpetual conservation easements entirely in Nebraska.
30×30 Disinformation in Action
Cherry Cherry County, Nebraska Case Study
American Stewards of Liberty’s war on private property rights is most visible in Cherry County, Nebraska, where the owners of the Bow and Arrow Ranch wanted to put a conservation easement on their land, in partnership with the Nebraska Land Trust. The owners of the ranch wanted to ensure their land would stay in agricultural use, and the easement plan was approved unanimously by the county planning commission in November 2020.
Despite the lack of any local opposition to the easement, County Chair Tanya Storer brought in Texan Margaret Byfield of American Stewards of Liberty, who gave the board her “professional opinion” about the Endangered Species Act and conservation easements, and warned of “unsavory processes” that could lead to conservation corridors that help endangered species recover.
The following month, Commissioner Storer gave the board “a review of her findings” regarding the conservation easement. Storer’s findings focused on the American Burying Beetle, which had recently been downlisted from Endangered to Threatened at the behest of American Stewards of Liberty and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Because the proposed conservation easement at Bow and Arrow Ranch could provide habitat for the beetle’s recovery, Cherry County told the owners of the ranch they could not conserve their land. Despite no opposition from neighbors or the county planning board, the county commission rejected the easement.
Storer went on to trumpet her success stopping the conservation easement alongside Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts at “Stop 30 x30” events across the state in 2021. In 2022, Storer and Ricketts are encouraging the legislature to pass a bill that would ban perpetual conservation easements entirely in Nebraska.
