Action Alerts

October 2026

Speak up for Strengthening our Marine Protected Area Network

We have the opportunity to speak up for strengthening our coast’s Marine Protected Area Network. On October 14 – 16, the Fish and Game Commission will hear public comments and make decisions on each petition that will either strengthen or weaken protections for our coastal waters. More and stronger Marine Protected Areas are the only way that we can make 30×30 progress on our coastal waters. Here is how to make a difference:

Please fill out the form here if your organization would like to join our partners at WildCoast’s coalition letter of opposition for the petitions that will weaken the network.
Submit written comments to the Fish and Game Commission by Sept. 30th. See comments supporting stronger, more equitable MPAs and opposing proposals that would weaken key protections in the Network, by using Fish On’s customizable comment portal.
Attend and register to give comments at the Fish and Game Commission on October 14 – 16. See the agenda here, and details to register to speak here. Please contact Bella Sullivan (isullivan@nrdc.org) for additional details, including transportation and hotel options.

No on Prop 45!

In a couple of weeks, ballots will arrive in voter’s mailboxes. Power in Nature is strongly opposed to the 41-page ballot measure funded by the California Chamber of Commerce, corporations, and data center developers, that dismantles the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Proposition 45 would limit environmental review, public participation, tribal consultation, and judicial oversight for many major polluting projects. If passed, these changes would weaken important environmental and public health safeguards that protect our clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, cultural resources, and advance California’s 30×30 goals.

Check out the No on Prop 45 coalition campaign toolkit for sample Letters to the Editor, example emails to your organization’s membership, fact sheets, and key messaging. If you haven’t already, please consider endorsing the No on Prop 45 campaign.

On August 21, the federal administration opened a public comment period on a proposal to rescind the Roadless Rule. Roadless areas make up 20% of California’s forests, and they provide vital refuges for wildlife and help sustain the healthy forests and watersheds that communities across the state depend on. We’re joining partners across the country with a goal of generating one million comments in defense of the Roadless Rule.

Take action and submit a comment here! Read more on why the Roadless Rule matters here.

✍️ Uplift Priority Legislation on Governor’s Desk

We still have two pieces of priority legislation before the Governor’s office. SB 1268 that would codify the Outdoors for All initiative into law, and AB 2218 the Indigenous Water Rights bill that would establish California policy to acknowledge and correct historic inequities inflicted on California Native American Tribes by requiring state agencies to incorporate such policy when making decisions around water rights, regulations, permits, policies and grants. Tell Governor Newsom to sign these bills, and check out our social media posts encouraging the Governor’s signature.

🛣️🌲Last Opportunity to Comment on the Roadless Rule Rollback

There is still time to speak up for the 44.5 million acres of public lands protected by the Roadless Rule. The U.S. Forest Service has extended the public comment period on its proposal to rescind the Roadless Rule until October 6, 2026.

For more than two decades, the Roadless Rule has protected some of California’s most intact National Forest lands by limiting new road construction and commercial logging. In California alone, these protections cover approximately 4.4 million acres, including important watersheds, wildlife habitat, and places people love for hiking, hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation.

This is the last opportunity for the public to weigh in before the Forest Service moves forward with its decision on the proposed rescission.

Take action and submit your comment by October 6 here. Learn more about the Roadless Rule, what the Forest Service is proposing, and how to comment here.

⛰️ Proposed Yosemite Land Swap Is the Latest Attack on Public Lands

Earlier this month, the story broke that the Trump Administration is considering a land exchange in Yosemite National Park with a private developer. The deal would allow developer, Kingsbarn Realty Capital, to build a private road through the park for access to a remote 83-acre property it owns on Yosemite’s western border. The proposal reportedly would exchange a strip of federal land inside Yosemite for property of roughly equal value owned by Kingsbarn. A final decision has not been made.

☎️Call your representative ➡️(202) 224-3121⬅️ and tell them every inch of Yosemite belongs to all of us!
Uplift this post from our partners at Friends of the Inyo to help bring awareness!

👉📩 Follow us on LinkedIn!

The Power in Nature Coalition is now on LinkedIn! Please follow us, share our page and check out our posts.

September 2026

✍️ Power in Nature Priority Bills Pass Legislature → Headed to Governor’s Desk

Great news! Four of our priority bills are headed to the Governor’s desk. Please urge the Governor to sign our priority bills: SB 954 (Blakespear) the CEQA cleanup bill, AB 2218 (Kalra) the Indigenous Water Rights bill and AB 2494 (Rogers) Modernizing Demonstration Forests bill, and SB 1268 (Gonzalez) the Outdoors for All bill. See sample messages below for each bill and find Governor Newsom’s contact form HERE. In the contact form, you must submit one message per bill and find the bill in a dropdown list.

“Dear Governor Newsom, please sign the following bill into law in order to protect our natural resources, and help advance our state’s 30×30 goal;
- SB 954 (Blakespear) would provide critical protections for communities and important wildlife habitat from the CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing projects. The potential danger and environmental risk of advanced manufacturing facilities have been illustrated with the chemical leak that resulted in the evacuation of 50,000 residents of Garden Grove. More than 2/3 of Californians in a recent poll opposed exempting advanced manufacturing projects from CEQA.
- AB 2218 (Kalra) advances Tribal participation, stewardship, Indigenous Knowledge, and meaningful consultation in California water policy. For generations, California Tribal Nations were excluded from decisions about waters they have stewarded since time immemorial. Indigenous Knowledge brings generations of place-based understanding of water, drought, fire, fisheries, and ecological change.
- AB 2494 (Rogers) prioritizes Tribal co-management for our 85,000 acre state demonstration forest system and shifts the management objectives away from commercial logging to instead focus on biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and sequestration, fire resilience, outdoor access, and ecosystem health. This bill helps the state make strides in our state’s 30×30 initiative and goal for Tribal co-stewardship.
- SB 1268 (Gonzalez) formally codifies the Outdoors for All initiative into statute to expand equitable access to public recreation spaces. The bill requires state agencies to pursue equitable access to parks, trails, beaches, forests, and open spaces; invest in park expansions and programs in disadvantaged and low-income communities; and align those efforts with California’s 30×30 goal.
- Please consider signing this bill and furthering the state’s 30×30 efforts. Thank you.”

🛣️🌲Roadless Rule Rollback

For more than two decades, the Roadless Rule has helped protect some of California’s most intact forests—safeguarding the headwaters for our drinking water, wildlife habitat, and opportunities to experience wild places without roads or development. These protections for 4.4 million acres of land in California are now at risk.

Take action and submit a comment here! Read more on why the Roadless Rule matters here.

August 2026

✍️SB 954 Needs Your Help in the Assembly Appropriations Committee

SB 954 will be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee during the second week of August. This bill is most at risk this session. If your Assemblymember is one of the following, please contact them and urge them to vote ‘YES’ on SB 954.

Asm. Buffy Wicks (D-14)
Asm. Josh Hoover (R-7)
Asm. Joaquin Arambula (D-31)
Asm. Lisa Calderon (D-56)
Asm. Jessica M. Caloza (D-52)
Asm. Diane B. Dixon (R-72)
Asm. Mike Fong (D-49)
Asm. Mark González (D-54)
Asm. Maggy Krell (D-6)
Asm. Blanca Pacheco (D-64)
Asm. Gail Pellerin (D-28)
Asm. LaShae Sharp-Collins (D-79)
Asm. José Luis Solache Jr. (D-62)
Asm. Tri Ta (R-70)
Asm. David J. Tangipa (R-8)

To find your Assemblymember, visit: https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Sample message:

“Hello, my name is [Name], and I’m a constituent from [City]. I’m calling to ask Assemblymember [Last Name] to support and vote ‘YES’ on SB 954. This bill restores important environmental and community protections while supporting responsible economic development. Thank you for your time.”

🌊🛑Federal Administration Conducts Review of CA Coastal Programs

Tell the Federal Administration and Congress to continue to fund and recertify the Coastal Zone Management programs! In spite of a decades-long track record of bipartisan support, the Administration’s budget request for next year has once again proposed eliminating state and territory coastal management programs, which would jeopardize the important work being done to protect our beloved coasts. This illegitimate, political process has a prescribed outcome already made clear by the administration– eliminating California’s coastal protections to accelerate ocean industrialization, such as offshore oil drilling.

🗓️The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will hold one in-person meeting on Aug. 10 in Santa Monica and two virtual meetings on Aug. 11 and 12. Registration is required.

✍️Write in letters of support for California’s Coastal Management Program through Aug. 22.

* See suggested talking points here.

JUly 2026

SB 954 Needs Your Help

SB 954 addresses gaps created by last year’s changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The bill restores important environmental, worker, and community protections by narrowing the broad CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing facilities and ensuring that projects that could impact sensitive habitats and nearby communities receive appropriate environmental review. SB 954 strikes a better balance between supporting economic development and protecting public health, neighboring communities’ workers, and California’s natural resources.

SB 954 is the bill most at risk this session, and we need your help today. Please contact your Assemblymember and urge them to support and request to co-author SB 954. Co-authoring the bill demonstrates strong leadership and helps build the momentum needed to move it forward in the Assembly.

To find your Assemblymember, visit: https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Sample message:

“Hello, my name is [Name], and I’m a constituent from [City]. I’m calling to ask Assemblymember [Last Name] to support and co-author SB 954. This bill restores important environmental and community protections while supporting responsible economic development. I hope the Assemblymember will add their name as a co-author. Thank you for your time.”

June 2026

Contact Your Assemblymember: Ask them to Support the CEQA Clean-Up Bill, SB 954

This week, SB 954 (Blakespear) — a Power in Nature Advocacy Day Priority Bill — narrowly passed the State Senate. Thank you to everyone who reached out to their Senator to ask them to vote for this bill. SB 954 would provide critical protections for communities and important wildlife habitat from the recently enacted CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing projects (SB 131). This bill is now in the State Assembly, where it faces an uphill battle due to the opposition from industry, manufacturers, and big tech. We need your help! Find your Assemblymember here, and call or email their office, and let them know why it is vital that this bill passes the Assembly. Suggested talking points:

Please support SB 954.
The potential danger and environmental risk of advanced manufacturing facilities was illustrated over the last week with a chemical leak that resulted in the evacuation of 50,000 residents of Garden Grove.
SB 954 would enact important environmental guardrails for communities and wildlife habitat, including:
- Restoring important protections for habitat for endangered, declining, and rare species;
- Ensuring that “advanced manufacturing” projects are located a safe distance away from homes, schools, and disadvantaged communities if they are going to get an CEQA exemption; and
- Sharply limiting air pollution from exempted projects.
More than 2/3 of Californians in a recent poll opposed exempting advanced manufacturing projects from CEQA.

May 2026

Help these State Bills in the Appropriations Committee

This month, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees are each considering bills that could impact 30×30. One would increase protection, and one, if not amended, could cause harm. We need your help today.

Support the Protection of 85,000 Acres of State Forest, Pass AB 2494

In order to stop extractive commercial logging on our state demonstration forests, AB 2494 (Rogers) ends the mandate that these forests be managed for extractive purposes. Contact Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair, Assemblymember Wicks, today to ask that AB 2494 be passed through committee to help our state forests incorporate a management approach that centers tribal co-management, biodiversity, climate mitigation and resiliency, and outdoor access as opposed to profit-driven logging in state forests. Speak up by May 7th.

See portal to message Assemblymember Wicks here, or call her office (916) 319-2014
See sample comments here!

Strengthen SB 1097 to Protect California’s Sensitive Lands

SB 1097 (Weiner) must be amended to ensure that efforts to modernize our energy grid do not come at the expense of California’s treasured natural and cultural resources. Reach out to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, Senator Cervantes, to ask that SB 1097 pass only if it is amended to exclude state parks, ecological refuges, designated habitat for endangered species, national monuments, and protected and sensitive lands from the CEQA exemption for reconductoring. Speak up by May 7th.

See portal to message Senator Cervantes here, or call her office (916) 651-4031
Key Messages:
- Only pass SB 1097 out of the Appropriations Committee, unless it is amended to exclude 30×30 lands (state parks, ecological refuges, designated habitat for endangered species, national monuments, and protected and sensitive lands) from the CEQA exemption for reconductoring.
- Federal roadless areas must be included in the list of protected sensitive lands so that transmission projects must comply with CEQA for those areas.
- SB 1097 must include language that requires tribal consultation.
- Transmission reconductoring projects can have serious environmental impacts if not designed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate.

Regional Marine Protected Area (MPA) Hearings

Currently, there are a number of petitions to either strengthen or weaken the network that will be decided upon by the CA Fish and Game Commission this Spring. In order to achieve 30×30 on our coastal waters and prepare our beloved coastline for current and emerging stressors, advocating for more and stronger MPAs is vital. Consider attending one of the upcoming hearings to support proposed MPAs or the strengthening of existing MPAs in your region:

May 5-6: Central Coast petitions will be heard in a meeting in the Santa Barbara Area
May 19: South Coast petitions will be heard in a meeting in the San Diego area

There will also be the option to join these meetings on Zoom to make a comment in support.

See this Storymap of all the proposed Marine Protected Areas around the state. To support MPAs that strengthen the network, submit a written comment to the Commission by email at <fgc@fgc.ca.gov> or by mail at California Fish and Game Commission, P.O. Box 944209, Sacramento, CA 94244-2090. Please note the petition number in the subject (i.e., Petition No. 2023-21 Pyramid Point SMCA to no take with tribal exemption).

March 2026

“It’s a Load of CRA!” Stop the Sneaky Use of Congressional Review Act

Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy of Utah are using the obscure Congressional Review Act to dismantle the management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. Like management plans here in California, the monument’s plan was built through years of input from Tribal Nations, local communities, and the public. If the resolution succeeds, it sets a dangerous precedent for national monuments across the country. Call your representatives now and urge them to vote NO on the Lee-Maloy Joint Resolution for Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Look up your representative here.

February 2026

Power in Nature Sign on Letter for State Budget Priorities

As organizations focused on the conservation of our natural resources and access for all to the outdoors, with a particular focus on the goal to conserve 30% of our lands and waters by 2030, the Power in Nature Coalition has an opportunity to let the Legislature and Administration know what we believe are important budget priorities. This sign-on letter below outlines the budget priorities for the Power in Nature Coalition, including supporting additional appropriations from Proposition 4, the Climate Bond; budget increases to protect endangered species and further 30×30 objectives; the need to protect funding for prescribed fire; funding for the reinstatement of a wildlife coexistence program at the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife; and the need to protect hundreds of staff positions at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Parks and the State Water Resources Control Board from being permanently cut from the budget. The deadline to sign our budget priority letter is Friday, March 6, 2026.

Sign the Budget Priority Letter→

“Sell-Off Steve” Nominated to Lead Bureau of Land Management

Steve Pearce has been nominated to lead the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 15 million acres of public lands in California. A former oil and gas executive, Pearce has supported transferring public lands to private interests. His Senate confirmation hearing was held this week; a vote has not yet been scheduled. Tell your Senator to vote NO.

Keep Reading & Take Action →

Sign-on Letter for State Demonstration Forest Bill - AB 2494

AB 2494 would provide a transformative update to the management of California’s State Demonstration Forests by shifting the management of the forest away from industrial commercial timber production, and towards ecological restoration, climate resilience, and Tribal co-governance for more than 85,000 acres of public forestland statewide. AB 2494 will qualify the 85,000 acres of state demonstration forests for our 30×30 goal, and will include the end of the commercial logging mandate for the Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF).

Sign the NGO Letter of Support→

January 2026

Call to Action: Urge Your Legislators to Support Timely Release of Proposition 4 Funds.

The release of Proposition 4 (Climate Bond) funding is facing significant delays due to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) rulemaking process. Agencies estimate that the APA process could delay Prop 4 funds by 12–18 months. We are already seeing these delays begin. The Wildlife Conservation Board and the Coastal Conservancy recently announced that they are pausing acceptance of new grant applications due to APA-related challenges. Without legislative action, similar delays will affect all agencies responsible for allocating Prop 4 funds.

State Assemblymember Alvarez introduced AB 35 to exempt Proposition 4 funds from the APA process. On January 26, the California Assembly unanimously passed AB 35, a bill designed to accelerate spending under Proposition 4 and allow the changes to take effect immediately upon the Governor’s signature. AB 35 now moves to the Senate for consideration before heading to the Governor. Please call your Senator and ask them to vote for AB 35!

Call to Action:

Call and email your State Senator and urge them to vote yes to pass AB 35 to exempt Proposition 4 funds from the APA.

You can look up your Senator here: https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov

Take Action: Speak Up for California's Rivers at the Bay-Delta Water Plan Hearing

A major decision about the future of California’s rivers is happening now—and public voices are critical. The Bay-Delta Water Plan will determine how much water must remain in rivers to support healthy ecosystems, salmon and other fish, clean drinking water, and the communities that depend on them. This decision affects river flows throughout the state and will have long-term implications for Tribal and fishing communities, local economies, and California’s ability to adapt to a changing climate.

Call to Action:

The State Water Board is hosting a three-day public hearing on January 28–30, and they need to hear directly from people who care about our rivers. Virtual testimony available and in-person option at 1001 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. In order to speak at the hearing (you can choose which day — January 28, 29 or 30) you need to fill out a speaker card.
Yosemite Rivers Alliance, Sierra Club, Restore the Delta, Save California Salmon, and Friends of the River hosted a great speaker training with clear, useful information and strong talking point suggestions. You can watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/zdrHq1le40I.
See talking points for the Bay-Delta Water Plan hearing from Save California Salmon’s social media.
Join the Rally in Sacramento on January 30th: For those who can attend in person, there will be a rally outside the CalEPA Building (1001 I Street, Sacramento) on Friday, January 30 at Noon. RSVP and get details here.

This is a pivotal moment for our rivers. A strong public turnout can make a real difference by ensuring decision-makers hear directly from the people and communities who depend on healthy rivers. Please consider joining and sharing your story.