Western Priorities

Kate and Aaron talk to Jayson O’Neill, a longtime public lands watchdog and Montanan who previously led the Western Values Project and now heads up a campaign called Save Our Parks. Jayson explains how the Trump administration is using the National Park Service to funnel money into Trump’s vanity projects in DC, as well as how President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum subverted America250, an organization chartered by Congress to celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday.

News

• National Park Entrance Fees Are Funding Trump’s D.C. Projects – New York Times
• Americans’ national parks passes will pay for Trump’s July 4 plans, documents show – Washington Post
• Mike Lee’s fast-track attempt to scrap this national monument’s management plan has failed – Salt Lake Tribune
• Judge orders Trump administration to restore signs changed at national parks – CNN

Resources

• Save Our Parks website
• Analysis: Reporting signs that “disparage” American history – CWP
• Watch this episode on YouTube

Produced by Aaron Weiss, Lauren Bogard, Kate Groetzinger, and Lilly Bock-Brownstein
Feedback: podcast@westernpriorities.org
Music: Purple Planet
Featured image: Photo of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool filled with algae; Source: Ali Khan/Wikimedia

The post How Trump and Burgum hijacked the Park Service and America’s birthday party appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstall exhibits and signs that were removed as part of the administration’s efforts to silence American history in national parks.

The preliminary injunction comes as a result of efforts by a coalition of conservation advocates, which filed a challenge earlier this year to a U.S. Department of the Interior policy that is actively erasing history and science from national parks. The policy seeks to remove any signage that “disparages Americans,” but in practice, the administration removed signs that mentioned topics like slavery, Indigenous history, or climate change.

As part of the administration’s efforts, QR codes were put up at national parks across the country, directing visitors to report any signs that are “negative” about past or living Americans. A recent analysis from the Center for Western Priorities found that 99.9 percent of the comments defended historical accuracy, expressed support for the National Park Service, or pushed back against the order, while only 0.1 percent flagged a specific sign or supported sign removal.

According to U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, removing these signs not only undermines “the integrity of the National Parks; it sets a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.”

Mike Lee fails to scrap Grand Staircase-Escalante management plan

The U.S. Senate missed the 60-day window that would have allowed lawmakers to scrap the management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The effort, led by Senator Mike Lee and Representative Celeste Maloy, would have used the Congressional Review Act to reverse a management plan that took years of collaboration among Tribes, state and local governments, stakeholders, and the public.

“This is a major victory for the millions of Americans who care deeply about the Grand Staircase and for everyone who supports our nation’s wildest public lands and want to see them protected,” said Scott Braden, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Quick hits Algae resurfaces in reflecting pool after multimillion-dollar fixes

POLITICO

Judge orders Trump officials to re-install signs and exhibits at national parks on topics like slavery and climate change

Associated Press | CNN | New York Times | NBC News | PBS News | CBS News | SFGATE | Los Angeles Times | Reuters

Feds to open tens of thousands of acres of Colorado wilderness to oil drilling

Colorado Newsline

Trump concedes a battle in his war against wind energy

Heatmap

AI scans for wildfires, but in Arizona, humans are still on watch

Arizona Republic

Senator Mike Lee says there should be consequences for states that sue over the Colorado River

Salt Lake Tribune

Trump leans on MAGA organizer to revive coal

POLITICO

Do chainsaws belong in designated wilderness?

High Country News

Quote of the day

Often referred to as ‘America’s largest classroom,’ National Parks serve in that spirit by telling the stories both of those who write history and those who go unheard.”

—U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley

Picture This @goldengatecanyoncpw

Baby moose are 90% legs and 10% vibes.

Remember, a baby moose often means mom is close by, and she’s not looking for new friends. Give moose plenty of space, leash your dogs, and admire from a distance.

: CPW/ Park Maintenance Brian

 

(Featured image: Metate Arch in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument near Escalante, Utah. Photo by John Fowler, Wikimedia Commons)

The post Judge orders Trump officials to reinstall signs about history, climate in national parks appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER—The Interior department announced Thursday that it is beginning the process of updating its policies regarding designated wilderness, wilderness study areas, and lands with wilderness characteristics.

Interior “is seeking recommendations on potential improvements to wilderness study area and lands with wilderness characteristics policies used by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service,” according to an Interior department press release.

The review will “help determine whether existing policy documents should be updated or clarified to improve consistency, increase transparency and ensure public lands continue to be managed effectively in accordance with applicable laws,” according to the release. Wilderness designations are conferred through acts of Congress that land management agencies must implement as directed, and the degree to which this review will infringe on or undermine congressional authority is unclear.

The Interior department published previews of three separate notices related to this review in the Federal Register on Friday:

• Policy Review: Considering Lands with Wilderness Characteristics in the BLM Land Use Planning Process

• Management of BLM Wilderness Study Areas

• Management of Designated Wilderness Areas

The notices will be officially published in the Federal Register on Monday, kicking off 60-day public comment periods for each review.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that the Agriculture department has drafted an order allowing off-road vehicles on millions of acres of wilderness study areas inside national forests. Interior is also updating its wilderness policies in accordance with the EXPLORE Act’s directive on fixed anchor climbing within wilderness, via a separate review.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Communications Director Kate Groetzinger: 

“The Trump administration is laying the groundwork for an attack on America’s wilderness with these reviews. While the notices themselves don’t tell us much about the administration’s intentions, we know President Trump and Interior Secretary Burgum aren’t interested in increasing protections for America’s public lands.

“Wilderness designations are the most powerful tool we have to protect sensitive and ecologically important public lands. We’ll be watching closely for any attempt by the Trump administration to undercut existing or future protections for America’s wildlands.”

Learn more: 

• Interior puts wilderness study areas under scrutiny as “war on wildlands” widens – The Wilderness Society

• Wilderness Designation FAQs – The Wilderness Society

Feature image: Kiger Gorge at Steens Mountain, Oregon; Source: Masako Metz/@mypubliclands

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Rushed environmental reviews won’t speed up new mines. Evidence suggests it slows them down

Cutting environmental red tape to speed up mining in America has become a popular talking point across party lines. On the right, the Trump administration has made expediting mineral production a signature effort; on the left, the “abundance” movement argues that faster permitting is essential to building a clean energy future. But both arguments rest on a flawed premise.

Research and real-world examples show that “permitting reform” targets the wrong problem, and the proposed solutions from both sides increase delays and opposition to projects, not reduce them.

As former Interior department official Steve Feldgus explained in a recent episode of the Center for Western Priorities podcast, The Landscape, and as University of Utah researcher Jamie Pleune lays out in a forthcoming article titled “Red tape is a red herring,” the real obstacles to responsible mining lie elsewhere: misleading industry claims, financing and market dynamics, inadequate agency staffing, and a loss of public trust.

Much of the problem starts with flawed statistics that purport to pinpoint singular bottlenecks in the process of developing a mine. For example, mining industry advocates frequently claim that it takes between seven and ten years to permit a mine in the United States, citing a report that was funded by, among others, the National Mining Association. However, as both Feldgus and Pleune point out, this industry-funded report notes that its authors did not do independent research to arrive at this statistic, and that it relied on data provided by “third parties,” including the National Mining Association.

Statistics on mine development timelines are also inconsistent regarding when the clock starts and what parts of the process are included. Most mines begin with exploration, where individuals or companies search for minerals, assess whether mining those minerals would be profitable, and seek investors to finance development of a mine. As Pleune notes, exploration that disturbs five acres or less of public land does not require a mining plan—the person or company just has to notify the Bureau of Land Management—and for exploration that disturbs more than five acres and requires an exploration plan, those approvals are usually granted in six months or less. So permitting does not delay exploration, and yet exploration is often included in mine development timelines that blame permitting for how long mine development takes.

The Mountain Pass rare earths mine in California, Tmy350 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pleune also points out that in some cases, a smaller mining company may start exploration and then negotiate with a larger company to take over development of an actual mine. Negotiating these deals adds to the timeline, and permitting is not responsible for causing delays at this stage. Arranging financing for mine development is another large and complex hurdle that extends mine development timelines. As Pleune explains, investors prefer projects that offer predictable returns on short timeframes with manageable risks; most mining projects check none of these boxes, making financing challenging to secure. Global minerals markets and geopolitical dynamics introduce even more complexity into mine development. A company might complete its permitting process, but decide to wait for more favorable market or geopolitical conditions before it begins operations—again, dragging out the timeline and blaming permitting when it’s actually other factors driving production decisions.

Feldgus points to the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada as a recent example of a misleading timeline. Lithium was discovered there in the 1970s, but no effort was made to develop a mine until much more recently when demand for lithium had skyrocketed—yet advocates for permitting reform claim that the Thacker Pass mine has taken 40 years to develop and blame permitting for the delay.

Aerial view of the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, U.S. Geological Survey

Other legitimate examples do exist of mines that have genuinely taken decades to permit, but in those cases, as Feldgus points out, “There’s a reason it takes that long. You’re trying to build a mine next to a wilderness area or in a very sensitive fishery. These are mines where people get very worked up and very concerned, and there’s a lot of political pushback. Mines can take a long time, but that’s not the NEPA process doing that.” In other words, this is the National Environmental Policy Act working as intended to ensure projects undergo rigorous review so the government and communities are aware of likely environmental damage.

For the most part, though, once the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service has received a proposed mine plan, the process of reviewing the plan, seeking and reviewing public comment, and eventually approving the mine plan takes three to four years, even for the largest mines. However, both Feldgus and Pleune emphasize that mine plan approval is a small piece of a much longer process which includes exploration, technical and economic analysis, securing investors, and building trust with neighboring communities. In other words, Feldgus says, artificially limiting the environmental review process to two years (as was recently mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed in 2023) isn’t all that meaningful in the grand scheme of taking a mine from exploration to production. On the contrary, rushed environmental reviews can actually introduce more delays if they are flawed and can’t withstand legal challenges, or if they drive opposition to the project by creating a perception in the community that the project is being rushed and corners are being cut. A mining company may save a year in the NEPA process, but add five years in litigation or overcoming public opposition to the project.

Currently, Feldgus notes, “Congress is very fixated on the idea of speeding up the back end of things. ‘How do we get NEPA done as fast as possible? How do we cut off lawsuits so that these things don’t go through the courts for years and years?’ It’s all on the back end, basically.” A more helpful approach, according to Feldgus, would be to do more on the front end, in the form of early coordination between the mining company, the land management agency, and the local community. He mentioned the BLM in Nevada as an example of a state office that has successfully reduced timelines, without increasing conflict, by doing more and better early coordination.

Gypsum mining in Wyoming, BLM Wyoming

“What we have found, what mining companies find, what academic researchers find, is the best way to ensure better permitting is to do more early on. Talk to people early, engage with them, find out what their concerns are,” Feldgus says. “And the earlier and the more meaningful you make that engagement, the better the permitting process works, because you’re removing sources of conflict that are what causes things to take a long time on the back end.” Feldgus also notes that it’s up to the mining industry to do more of this front-end work to secure local support for projects. Building relationships and trust over time isn’t something that can be legislated or regulated by the government, and attempts to do so turn into empty box-checking exercises.

So what role should the federal government be playing? Both Feldgus and Pleune point to policy proposals that would address some of the issues that are delaying responsible mining projects. Many of these are outlined in a September 2023 Interagency Working Group report on potential mining reforms, which offered 65 recommendations. In Feldgus’s view, the biggest change that would address many issues at once would be to shift mining to a leasing system, similar to what currently exists for other resources such as oil and gas, and to make mining subject to land management planning the way other resources already are. These changes would bring mining into long-term landscape-scale planning processes that would identify and address conflicts and concerns at the outset, develop a plan to address them, and provide greater certainty for both the mining industry and other stakeholders over the years or decades that a land management plan remains in place. However, Feldgus doesn’t believe a shift to a leasing system is realistic anytime soon.

Pleune also emphasizes the need for sufficient experienced staff to review mine plans, citing a body of research that identifies agency budgets, staffing, and coordination as significant challenges that actually delay permitting but that lawmakers are less interested in addressing. “Without adequate staff that have the necessary expertise, an efficient, productive regulatory regime is highly unlikely, regardless of statutory reforms,” Pleune writes. She also points out that permits, while maligned by the mining industry, are tools used to implement laws and regulations that were passed by Americans’ democratically-elected representatives. In other words, permits protect the values and protections that Americans want to see protected. Weakening or eliminating permitting systems will reduce the public’s trust in the regulatory environment, which will in turn increase public suspicion of the mining industry and opposition to mining projects. In other words, if the public doesn’t trust the process, they will reject the outcome. For this reason, deregulation is an unsound long-term strategy for the mining industry and could destroy the public support that projects need to move forward.

Featured image: Oak Flat in Arizona, near the site of a proposed copper mine; Elias Butler/CC BY-SA 4.0

The post Red tape isn’t the problem appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Nearly 320,000 acres of public land in northwest Arizona have been nominated for oil and gas leasing since January 2025, despite geologists saying the region has little to no known oil or gas reserves.

The nominations came from Zonaco, LLC, a shell company traced by the Arizona Republic to Rodney Ratheal, a Utah man who settled a 2012 SEC civil action alleging he raised more than $4 million from roughly 100 investors for an oil and gas scheme on the same stretch of federal land, then spent about $3 million of it on himself. Ratheal confirmed his identity to Arizona Republic reporters who showed up at his house. He told them he’s still working out how to finance the effort, targeting older investors who “understand this may be the last time they see their money.”

That opportunity for Ratheal to do this exists because of changes to the federal leasing process. The One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated the $5-per-acre nomination fee, required BLM to hold quarterly lease sales regardless of market demand, and opened nominations to essentially any bidder. Nominating 318,000 acres under the new rules cost Ratheal approximately nothing, but prior to the new rules, it would have cost about $1.59 million. About 80,000 of the nominated acres are now scheduled for auction in December.

The BLM is not equipped to screen out nominations like these. Arizona lost 24 percent of its BLM workforce in 2025, and the Arizona Strip Field Office is processing this leasing surge without a staff geologist. “The BLM just doesn’t have the people to do this correctly,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss. “Because now the law says the BLM has to offer anything that’s a valid nomination.”

Burgum doubles down on support for selling off public land, cuts partnerships to get Americans outdoors

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum joined RFK Jr. in Grand Junction, Colorado to promote public lands as a public health resource. The next day, the Interior department announced it was cutting 43 partnerships with groups that help get Americans outdoors, including internship programs, conservation initiatives, and recreational access partnerships. Burgum also used the appearance to defend Senator Mike Lee’s failed proposal to sell off 2-3 million acres of public land, telling the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that “in America, you can do two things at the same time.”

Quick hits Trump opens up Pacific marine national monuments to commercial fishing

The Hill | Seattle Times | Hawaii News Now | PBS | Newsweek

Senate committee passes Mike Lee’s Roadless Rule repeal amendment

Salt Lake Tribune | MeatEater | Source NM | Outdoor Life | Missoula Current | More Than Just Parks | Cowboy State Daily

Inside America’s ugly birthday battle

The Atlantic

At least five states are bowing out of Trump’s ‘Great American State Fair’

CNN | NOTUS

At this New Mexico park, mountain bikers pedal amid hundreds of oil wells

Source NM

Interior puts wilderness study areas under scrutiny

National Parks Traveler | Sierra Sun Times

$103M in federal contracts flows to Freedom 250 events

Public Citizen

American Prairie, conservation groups appeal bison grazing decision

Daily Montanan

Quote of the day

The administration is saying one thing and doing another—touting the outdoors as crucial for physical and mental health while cutting programs that increase access to outdoor recreation.”

—Kate Groetzinger, Communications Director for the Center for Western Priorities

Picture This @nationalparkservice

Me: I hate drama. I stay out of it.
Also me at the first sign of it:

The Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii), a year-round resident across much of the continental U.S., is the ultimate drama chaser. This bird is lightning fast and highly agile when pursuing prey through forests or even suburban neighborhoods: Speeds can exceed 50 mph (80 km/h) during a chase or when they fly over to the neighborhood Facebook page after hearing a loud noise outside. Fun fact: unlike falcons, which rely on high-speed dives, Cooper’s Hawks are masters of agility and acceleration, weaving between trees with jaw-dropping precision. Their long tail acts like a rudder, enabling sharp turns to snatch birds such as doves, robins, and starlings. The drama!

Image: Cooper’s Hawk peeking over the fort’s wall @castillonps in Florida.

 

Featured photo: Paiute Wilderness, in the northwest portion of the Arizona Strip. Bob Wick/BLM

The post Trump’s new drilling rules encourage leasing where there’s no oil appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

A Montana-based engineering firm whose leadership donated more than $1 million to President Donald Trump’s campaigns has been awarded more than $7 billion in federal border wall contracts. That includes nearly $2 billion to build over a hundred miles of wall through the Big Bend region in Texas.

High Country News reported that Barnard Construction and its affiliates have received more than $5.6 billion in border construction contracts in Trump’s second term. Records show chairman Tim Barnard and his wife donated $1 million to a Trump campaign fundraising committee in 2024. Barnard’s largest single award, a $1.6 billion contract for 112.5 miles of wall in eastern New Mexico, was granted without competitive bidding, citing “urgency” as the justification. “What was so urgent that they couldn’t bid it to other contractors that are already on the pre-approved list?” said Scott Amey, a lawyer who investigates federal contracts for the Project On Government Oversight.

In May, a competing contractor sued the Trump administration after CBP sent roughly 73% of new Texas border wall contracts to just two firms, Barnard and North Dakota-based Fisher Sand & Gravel, arguing the process lacked competitive opportunities. Barnard did not respond to requests for comment from High Country News.

Border wall construction in the Big Bend region has drawn widespread, bipartisan opposition. The region accounts for just 1.6% of southern border apprehensions this fiscal year, and DHS has waived dozens of environmental and cultural regulations to fast-track construction there. In March, five Texas county sheriffs urged the federal government to reconsider, warning the infrastructure would “permanently alter one of the most remote and ecologically significant border landscapes in the United States.”

Report: The 119th Congress’ Anti-parks Caucus

A new report from the Center for American Progress identifies 25 members of Congress as the driving force behind 65 of the 81 anti-conservation bills introduced in the 119th Congress. The Trump administration has already implemented several Antiparks Caucus proposals, including rescinding the BLM Public Lands Rule and revoking the Chaco withdrawal.

Quick hits What will change at Utah’s ‘Little Grand Canyon’ after state and BLM sign landmark management agreement

Salt Lake Tribune

Senators demand answers on Trump’s use of national park fees

The Hill | E&E News | Washington Post

2027 may be a disaster for public lands if this funding bill passes

GearJunkie

Lawsuit filed against USFWS over proposed wildlife refuge land swap with SpaceX

E&E News | Associated Press

Trump officials lay out aggressive timeline to build triumphal arch

Washington Post | Associated Press

Opinion: A land deal that is failing the people who live on the land

Anchorage Daily News

Federal parks program gets good news after an uncertain year

GearJunkie

Trump administration asks judge to reject bid to halt White House UFC event

The Hill | UPI

Quote of the day

The lack of transparency around awards for these beautification projects, as well as the loss in revenue meant for the maintenance and betterment of our national parks threatens the public’s trust and the long-term integrity of our nation’s most beloved public lands.”

—Letter to Interior secretary Doug Burgum, signed by 11 U.S. senators

Picture This @whitesandsnps

What’s Bloomin’?

The pale evening primrose (Oenothera pallida ssp. Runcinata) is thriving along our Backcountry Loop Trail! This beautiful white flower, with its showy yellow pistils, provides both food and shelter to a variety of pollinators in the park.

As always, when viewing the flowers in the park, please be sure to take only pictures and leave the plants intact for others to enjoy!

Photo: NPS/Paige G.

 

Featured photo: Big Bend National Park, Texas. Ralf Kiepert/CC BY-SA 3.0

The post Contracting firm run by Trump donor is building the border wall through Big Bend appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER—Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Bureau of Land Management Director Steve Pearce were in Grand Junction on Wednesday for a “roundtable with community outdoor recreation and health figures in promotion of the departments’ collaboration on the intersection of public land access, physical activity and public health outcomes,” according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. 

According to the Sentinel, Burgum was asked about public land selloff and downplayed the significance of selling off 2-3 million acres of public land:

Burgum was asked about his previous advocacy for selling off two to three million acres of BLM and Forest Service land and how this contrasts with current efforts to expand public land access. He responded that, in America, “you can do two things at the same time,” noting that the few million acres mentioned are a small portion of the approximately 525 million acres of Forest Service, BLM and National Park Service lands.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Communications Director Kate Groetzinger: 

“It’s shocking that Secretary Burgum is still defending Mike Lee’s failed public land sell-off attempt. The entire country—including hunters, anglers, and conservative lawmakers—adamantly rejected Lee’s attempt to sell off national public lands last year. We know that Burgum’s office helped Lee write talking points for his failed gambit to privatize public lands, and the fact that Burgum is still pushing it shows the fight is not over. Clearly Doug Burgum still wants to sell off our public lands.”

Also at the roundtable Wednesday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the power of nature to improve Americans’ health. The Sentinel wrote:

“Burgum said in a press conference after the roundtable that some participating physicians suggested that the government adopt language that it’s ‘prescribing’ Americans with ‘vitamin N’ for ‘nature’ to get them active outside.

“‘We need to get kids outdoors. Particularly, we need to connect them to the wilderness. The wilderness is a seminal experience for American kids and has been since our nation was founded,’ Kennedy said.”

Despite this acknowledgement, the Interior department announced today via Fox News that it is cutting 43 partnerships with outside groups it says no longer align with the Trump administration’s priorities. These include internship programs, conservation initiatives, research projects, and cooperative partnerships to get Americans outside.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Communications Director Kate Groetzinger: 

“Cutting partnerships that help get Americans outdoors during Great Outdoors Month is shameful and cruel. The administration is saying one thing and doing another—touting the outdoors as crucial for physical and mental health while cutting programs that increase access to outdoor recreation. Doug Burgum should put his money where his mouth is and expand federal partnerships that help Americans get outside, not cut them.”

Learn more:

• The Secretary of the Interior has a Yellowstone Club problem – Westwise
• Trump’s Interior Dept. Crafted Talking Points For Mike Lee’s Public Land Sell-Off Scheme – Public Domain
• 2026 Conservation in the West poll – Colorado College State of the Rockies Project

Featured image: @SecretaryBurgum

The post Burgum doubles down on support for selling off public land, cuts partnerships to get Americans outdoors appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

A new investigation from ProPublica and Re:Public reveals that Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana was pushing to eliminate Forest Service airworthiness inspections for firefighting aircraft at the same time his former company, Bridger Aerospace, was failing one.

In April 2025, a Forest Service inspector found a crack in the wing of a Bridger scooper the company had presented as ready for fire season. That same month, a draft executive order eliminating the inspection program leaked from Sheehy’s Senate office. Metadata on the document showed it had been edited by one of Sheehy’s policy advisers and a lobbyist for Bridger. At the time, Sheehy held between $13 and $15 million in Bridger stock. The Forest Service has paid Bridger more than $235 million for scooper contracts since 2021.

The crack discovered by the inspection could have been catastrophic had it not been discovered. In fact, the Forest Service’s modern inspection program, which Sheehy proposed to eliminate, was built in response to two fatal tanker crashes in 2002 that were caused by similar undetected wing cracks. Current and former Forest Service officials told reporters that Bridger has resisted the agency’s inspections. A Sheehy spokesperson called the inspection program “a relic of a bygone era and an unnecessary barrier to asset availability.”

The draft executive order was also shaped by the United Aerial Firefighters Association, an industry group Sheehy helped found in 2022. When Sheehy moved his Bridger stock into blind trusts earlier this year, he entrusted them to executives at an energy infrastructure company formerly run by his brother, also a significant Bridger investor. Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told ProPublica that selecting a family member’s company “appears to do that exact thing that the rules mean to prohibit.”

Quick hits National park visitors rebuffed Burgum’s pitch to police history

E&E News | National Parks Traveler | Associated Press

Political reviews are causing a huge grant backlog at the National Park Service

NOTUS

Lawmakers inquire about Forest Service spraying roundup on public lands

Mother Jones

White House to tap California water expert for Bureau of Reclamation

E&E News | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Opinion: The US government is pillaging our national forests from within

The Hill

Proposed Trump rule targets ‘woke’ federal grants for public lands, health, science

KQED

Senators demand answers on Trump’s use of national park fees

Washington Post

The last working pay phone in Yellowstone National Park is dead

Cowboy State Daily

Quote of the day

This is a dangerous arena to get into, where the forever business of NASA, NOAA or NPS are all now on the whims of political appointees and the shifting political tides. This is not how things were intended to be done.”

—Jesse Chakrin, executive director of Fund for People in Parks, KQED

Picture This @interior

Interior be like “I know a spot,” and then take you somewhere that looks like another planet.

Moonscape Overlook in Utah sits high above a maze of colorful badlands, ridges, and winding desert terrain managed by @mypubliclands. It’s the kind of place that reminds you just how wild and vast America’s public lands really are.

We manage millions of acres of public lands across the country, including places that still feel completely untamed. Some are famous. Others are hidden at the end of dusty backroads somewhere out in the middle of the desert. Those are usually the spots worth remembering.

Photo by Susan Hartman

Featured photo: Scooper plane dumps water on wildfire, Washington DNR

The post Senator pushed to cut firefighting aircraft inspections as his company’s aircraft failed one appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

A new report from the Center for Western Priorities found that less than one percent of 35,700 comments submitted to the National Park Service in response to signage asking the public to report negative depictions of American history in parks actually used the comment form as intended. The comments were received via a QR code sign that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered to be posted at national park sites. The sign asked park visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

The Center for Western Priorities analyzed 35,700 comments submitted across 475 national park units between June 2025 and January 2026, organizing the comments into categories based on content and sentiment. The vast majority of comments expressed opposition to the order, support for national parks, the importance of telling a complete history, criticism of the Trump administration generally, as well as a number of jokes and off-topic responses. However, a negligible number of comments actually flagged signage or supported removal, with only 47 comments, or 0.1 percent of the total comments submitted.

“These comments pass the vibe check with flying colors. Americans support our parks and the stories they tell, and they aren’t happy about the Trump administration’s efforts to rewrite history,” said Lilly Bock-Brownstein, Center for Western Priorities Creative Content and Policy Manager. “Instead of helping Trump censor our national parks, visitors used the comment form to tell the Trump administration to respect our parks or get lost.”

A former Interior department official explains what’s wrong with mining on public land

On a new episode of The Landscape, Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Steve Feldgus, an independent consultant who served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior department under President Biden. Dr. Feldgus talks about how to improve mine permitting in the U.S., a topic he worked on while at Interior.

Quick hits Effort to get national park visitors to snitch on signs backfires

Center for Western Priorities [report] | KOAA | Source NM | West Central Tribune | Salt Lake Tribune

New BLM grazing rules eliminate Tribal bison from public lands

Inside Climate News | Public Domain | Idaho Statesman [opinion]

BLM and Utah Lt. Governor sign co-management agreement for San Rafael Swell

ABC4 | Salt Lake Tribune | Deseret News

Elk herd habitat near Dinosaur National Monument to open for drilling

High Country News | International Business Times

Forest Service admits cabin project in Alaska was cancelled due to mining interests, after previously denying it

KTOO

Trump administration waives environmental laws to allow border wall in Big Bend National Park

National Parks Traveler | Common Dreams

Opinion: Federal policies put public lands elk habitat on the chopping block

Colorado Newsline

Once underwater, Colorado River canyon country reemerges as drought-stricken Lake Powell’s levels drop

Denver Post

Quote of the day

Folks need to understand the long-term impacts of a rush to lease so much public land. Once those leases are issued they are very hard to get rid of — they stay on the land for a long time, even if they aren’t developed.”

—Peter Hart, legal director of the Wilderness Workshop, High Country News

Picture This @u.s.forestservice

The rings on the shells of wood turtles reveal their age — giving them something in common with the trees in the forests they live in.

Forest Service scientists’ partner with land managers across the Midwest, finding ways to care for wood turtles threatened by habitat loss, stream pollution, disease, and poaching.

Data from long-term monitoring shows that protecting nests and constructing roadside barriers help turtles survive to adulthood and ensure the next generation of hatchlings.

(Forest Service photo by Donald Brown)

 

 

Featured photo: Lower Delicate Arch viewpoint, Arches National Park. NPS/Chris Wonderly

The post Trump effort to solicit negative feedback on national park signage backfires appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Steve Feldgus, an independent consultant who served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior Department under President Biden. Dr. Feldgus talks about how to improve mine permitting in the US, a topic he worked on while at Interior.

News

• Falling behind: Forest Service fuel treatment gap puts communities at risk – Center for Western Priorities
• Americans’ national parks passes will pay for Trump’s July 4 plans, documents show – Washington Post
• Wyoming’s ‘Path of the Pronghorn’ is a signature away from protections fought over for a quarter century – WyoFile

Resources

• Red Tape is a Red Herring: Deregulation Will Not Speed Critical Mineral Development
• Watch this episode on YouTube

Produced by Aaron Weiss, Lauren Bogard, Kate Groetzinger, and Lilly Bock-Brownstein
Feedback: podcast@westernpriorities.org
Music: Purple Planet
Featured image: Construction equipment at a bentonite mine on BLM land near Greybull, Wyoming; Source: Photo by Gretchen Hurley, Geologist, BLM Cody Field Office

The post A former Interior department official explains what’s wrong with mining on public land appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER—A new report from the Center for Western Priorities found that less than one percent of 35,700 comments submitted to the National Park Service in response to signage asking the public to report negative depictions of American history in parks actually used the comment form as intended.

The analysis looked at 35,700 comments submitted across 475 national park units between June 2025 and January 2026, organizing the comments into seven distinct categories based on content and sentiment. The largest category was “General opposition to the order,” which accounted for nearly 10,000 responses. This was followed by “Defend historical accuracy” (over 5,000 responses) and “General pro-parks support” (over 4,000 responses).

Other notable categories of public feedback included comments on the “Park visit experience,” “Trump / Burgum criticism,” and a number of “Off-topic / jokes / spam” submissions. In contrast, only 47 comments, or 0.1 percent of the total comments submitted, “Flagged signage or supported removal.” 

Background: In March of 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” In response, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered national park staff to put up signs asking park visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

Methodology: In May 2026, the Department of the Interior released 35,700 comments submitted through a QR code system in response to a FOIA request by KOAA News 5 and others. The Center for Western Priorities sorted the full dataset into categories based on content and sentiment through a combination of pattern-based classification and a manual verification/refinement process. More information on methodology is available in the full report.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following quote from Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein, who conducted the analysis and authored the report:

“These comments pass the vibe check with flying colors. Americans support our parks and the stories they tell, and they aren’t happy about the Trump administration’s efforts to rewrite history. Instead of helping Trump censor our national parks, visitors used the comment form to tell the Trump administration to respect our parks or get lost.”

Learn more:

• ‘Censorship:’ See the National Park visitor responses after Trump requested help deleting ‘negative’ signage – Government Executive

• The National Park Service race to rewrite history becomes a slog – Politico

• America’s 250th anniversary and why history matters in our parks – The Landscape (Center for Western Priorities’ podcast)

• Confidential database reveals which items NPS thinks may ‘disparage’ America – Washington Post

The post New analysis finds Trump effort to solicit negative feedback on national park signage completely fails  appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The Trump administration’s lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Friday drew little interest from the oil and gas industry. It netted just $3.7 million, a low result following two prior sales with similarly poor returns. Only two bidders showed up for the auction: HEX Energy, a small Alaska-based natural gas company, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state-owned public corporation. Of roughly 60 tracts offered, only five received bids, covering 72,000 of the 689,000 acres on offer.

The ANWR lease sale was the first of four required by 2035 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would generate $452 million in federal revenue over a decade, but the recent pattern of lease sales shows that may be unrealistic. The 2021 sale netted $16.5 million, less than one percent of the $1.1 billion Congress originally projected, and the two private companies that bid later relinquished their leases. The 2025 sale received no bids at all. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, every tract that received a bid Friday had already been offered in 2021, and either got no bids at the time or was later relinquished.

The lack of industry interest is due to the difficulty of developing in the area. “Arctic projects are high-cost, they take decades to get into production; once they’re in production, it takes decades to earn a revenue back to make up for the cost of development,” saidAndy Moderow, senior director of policy for the Alaska Wilderness League.

Wildfire experts say Trump’s attacks on public land agencies will make this summer wildfire season worse

A new Westwise blog post from Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Lauren Bogard reveals how wildland fire managers and former federal officials are reacting to the Trump administration’s dismantling of public land agencies during what forecasters expect to be a severe season. More than 2.4 million acres have already burned across the country in 2026, nearly double the ten-year average.

Quick hits Trump auctions off rights to drill in Alaska wildlife refuge, but gets few bidders

The Hill | E&E News | Washington Post | Taxpayers for Common Sense

U.S. Forest Service to open millions of acres to off-road vehicles

New York Times | MeatEater | Field & Stream

The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs are heading toward a ‘system crash,’ experts warn

Salt Lake Tribune | Fox13 | National Parks Traveler | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Park Service orders removal of ‘woke’ quotes at Boston’s Bunker Hill monument

Washington Post | WBUR | NBC Boston

Chuck Sams: The Trump administration wants to kill a rule that protects millions of acres of national forests

The Guardian

The Forest Service wants to close research hubs to save money. That could be costly

NPR

As park fees go to DC, Yellowstone, Grand Teton face $1.5B backlog

WyoFile

Lawsuit filed to stop UFC fight on White House lawn

National Parks Traveler | Associated Press | Variety | NBC

Quote of the day

Anyone who thinks this is a fight between red and blue is deeply mistaken. Few things unite the people of this country like their love of the land. Hunters, anglers, hikers, campers, families of every stripe support the national treasures that are our wild places. We all want a relationship with our land.”

—Chuck Sams, former National Park Service director, The Guardian

Picture This @yosemitenps

The Sierra lupine is bursting into bloom at Yosemite National Park!

When driving through Yosemite Valley, visitors might come across a blanket of purple flowers and green herbage carpeting the forest floor. That is Lupinus grayi, otherwise known as the Sierra lupine. It’s one of 26 documented species of lupine seen throughout the park. Warm weather, open sunlight, and a healthy forest floor make the perfect grounds for these flowers to stretch into the sky.

Please do not trample on, touch, or pick any wildflowers you see. While lupine is common in the park, it remains part of Yosemite’s delicate ecosystem and plays an important role in supporting pollinators and improving soil health. Help preserve and protect the wildflowers of Yosemite so they can grow back just as happily as this for years to come.

Featured photo: Caribou and Brooks Range, Arctic NWR, USFWS

The post Oil industry largely passes on Alaska lease sale appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s ties to the Yellowstone Club stretch back nearly two decades, Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger writes in a new Westwise post, and raise questions about whether he represents the best interests of the public.

The Yellowstone Club, which sits on land that was once public, and its owners are notorious in Montana for locking up public lands through land swaps with the federal government. The club’s member list includes celebrities and tech titans, like Justin Timberlake and Bill Gates. Financial disclosure and property records show that Burgum owns a condominium inside the club valued at $22 million as well as an ownership stake in the club, generating annual income from both.

Burgum’s financial stake in a resort with a long history of disputes over public-land access, land swaps, and development raises serious ethical concerns. Former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter said Burgum should not be involved in decisions affecting residential development on public lands while retaining an ownership stake in the Yellowstone Club.

And while Burgum’s office says he has complied with federal ethics requirements, legal compliance is beside the point: the man charged with stewarding America’s public lands should not have significant financial interests tied to a luxury resort that has repeatedly benefited from locking the public out of public lands.

Quick hits Why is Brooke Rollins dead set on saving a failing California dam?

Grist

Cuts trigger scientific brain drain as Trump reshapes government

E&E News

Forest Service offers separation incentives to employees ahead of relocations

Federal News Network

New bill would block public lands layoffs until 2030

GearJunkie

Forest Service and state of South Dakota sign agreement to work together on forest management

South Dakota Searchlight

Federal firefighting change-ups and this summer’s forecast are a bad mix, advocates say

Utah News Dispatch

Opinion: Why we are suing Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

Billings Gazette

At Delta Lake, AI mogging TikTok

Jackson Hole News & Guide

Quote of the day

Every public acre locked away from public access is an acre lost to the next generation of Montana hunters and anglers… So we’re asking the court to provide what FWP would not: clarity, accountability, and a path back to the public land that belongs to everyone. Now—and for all who come after us.”

—Montana Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and Public Land/Water Access Association, Billings Gazette

Picture This

@Interior

The NBA Finals have Wemby.

America’s public lands have these giants.

Feature image: A condo at the Yellowstone Club that was listed for sale for $22 million in 2020. Source: Mountain Living

The post The Secretary of the Interior has a Yellowstone Club problem appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER—U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz appeared in front of a House Natural Resources subcommittee Thursday to defend the Trump administration’s downsizing of his agency and answer questions about the upcoming wildfire season.

Schultz defended the Trump administration’s unpopular staffing cuts to the Forest Service, which have resulted in a massive gap in wildfire prevention work heading into the summer wildfire season, as well as the administration’s move to shutter research stations across the U.S.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the Forest Service has lost around 16 percent of its staff—a total loss of 5,860 employees—including “red card” holders who are authorized to assist in wildfire efforts. Meanwhile, according to a Center for Western Priorities analysis of publicly available data, the Forest Service treated roughly 35 percent fewer acres of forest for wildfire in 2025 compared to 2024.

Schultz also defended the administration’s efforts to aggressively ramp up logging in national forests and repeal the Roadless Rule, which currently protects 45 million acres of national forest land from clear-cutting, road-building, mining, and oil and gas drilling.

Research has found that high-severity wildfires are almost two times more likely to occur on private industrial forest lands than on adjacent public lands. Meanwhile, the Roadless Rule does not preclude fuels reduction work. Since the Roadless Rule took effect in 2001, nearly 2 million acres of inventoried roadless areas across 12 western states have been treated for hazardous fuels.

Schultz also defended the administration’s aggressive strategy of putting all wildfires out as soon as possible after they begin, constraining fire managers from making the call based on available resources and expertise. This approach, known as full or total suppression, has been shown by science to increase long-term wildfire risk.

Finally, the Trump administration is currently proposing a cut of 75 percent to the overall Forest Service budget, including the complete elimination of the agency’s research program.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Lauren Bogard:

“The Trump administration continues to treat our national forests like assets on a balance sheet, prioritizing timber industry profits over responsible, science-backed management.

“In today’s hearing, members of Congress and Chief Schultz seemed convinced that we can log our way out of wildfires by ramping up commercial logging, which actually increases wildfire risk, according to science.

“Meanwhile, the Trump administration has fallen way behind on the targeted fuel reduction treatments that actually reduce wildfire risk, leaving communities across the country more exposed to the risk of catastrophic wildfire.”

Learn more:

• Falling behind: Forest Service fuel treatment gap puts communities at risk – Center for Western Priorities
• As admin claws at national forests, what will become of the Forest Service? – Wilderness Society

The post STATEMENT on Forest Service hearing in House Natural Resources subcommittee today appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The Trump administration is redirecting at least $90 million in National Park Service fee revenue toward projects in Washington, D.C., tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary on July 4. According to the Washington Post, the spending includes a $1.6 million fireworks display, more than five times the typical Fourth of July fireworks budget, and roughly $76 million for repairs and “beautification” projects such as work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The money is coming from a portion of park entrance fees that federal law allows the National Park Service to spend outside the parks where the fees were collected. Trump administration officials, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, have defended the spending as legal and part of broader efforts to prepare the nation’s capital for President Donald Trump’s America 250 celebrations. But diverting dollars to D.C. will have negative impacts on the rest of the national park system, which faces a maintenance backlog estimated at about $24 billion.

Several park officials told the Post that they had recently been informed there was little or no funding available for projects at their own parks. A letter sent by senior agency officials to staff in April said that parks should not expect any money from a contingency fund to cover unforeseen costs, because that money is being diverted to pay for the nation’s 250th anniversary and projects in D.C.

Quick hits The state of the nation’s public lands

WAMU

We’re having our worst wildfire year in a decade, and it’s probably going to get worse

Outdoor Life

Opinion: Improve county and Forest Service wildfire plans

Missoulian

Trump goes all in on OHV use on public lands, worrying conservationists

GearJunkie | Outdoor Life | Idaho Capital Sun

BLM to hold largest oil and gas lease sale in Colorado history

Capital & Main

Interior department’s slavery exhibit removals probed by court

Bloomberg Law | Courthouse News

Fast-tracked logging project on Yellowstone’s northern border draws pushback

Montana Public Radio | Inside Climate News

Experts are concerned about how staff cuts in public-lands agencies will impact firefighting

KSJD

Quote of the day

At [Backcountry Hunters and Anglers] we advocate for access every single day, but motorization in these backcountry lands is not the same thing as access… Access means conserving access for hunters and anglers in perpetuity for our future generations.”

—Jack Polentes, policy and government relations senior manager for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Outdoor Life

Picture This

@COParksWildlife
TFW someone says they want to skip work and go fishing
THIS WEEKEND IS FREE FISHING WEEKEND. On June 6-7, 2026, anyone can fish for free, and the fishing license and Habitat Stamp requirements are waived: https://cpw.info/4u6rbdn

 

Feature image: Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; Source: Doug Burgum via X

The post Trump and Burgum divert park fees to D.C. ahead of July 4 appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

A 70-foot geyser of toxic oilfield wastewater erupted near Loving, New Mexico, after a pipe component failed at a disposal site operated by NGL Energy Partners. Loving is located in the Permian region, which produces roughly 6.6 million barrels of crude oil per day. About 40 barrels of wastewater were released, highlighting the growing problem caused by enormous volumes of “produced water” generated during oil and gas extraction.

Produced water is highly saline and can contain petroleum chemicals and radioactive materials. The state recently banned the discharge of treated produced water to ground and surface waters. Most of it is disposed of by injecting it deep underground. However, New Mexico’s oil boom has led to rapidly increasing wastewater volumes—more than 2.7 billion barrels in 2025 alone—putting pressure on disposal systems. The state is running out of suitable injection sites, and wastewater injection has been linked to earthquakes, brine leaks, and similar blowouts. In 2024, over 4 million gallons of produced water were spilled by oil and gas companies.

The geyser incident has intensified debate over whether treated produced water should be reused outside the petroleum industry. Industry advocates say that advanced treatment could turn it into a valuable water source and reduce disposal pressures, but the water’s composition is not fully understood, large-scale treatment remains unproven, and reuse could create new health and environmental risks.

Quick hits Trump nullifies 50 years of limitations on off-highway vehicles

E&E News | Yahoo News

Public lands face increasing threats in Trump era, advocates warn

Axios

More than 95% of national refuge lands could allow more hunting

KUNC

Opinion: The Forest Service is too important to be a political pawn

Los Angeles Times

Trump’s wildfire overhaul faces a pivotal review

E&E News

Interior appeals ruling vacating endangered species regulations

Bloomberg Law

Wyoming’s ‘Path of the Pronghorn’ is a signature away from protections

WyoFile

New political players have upended a fragile peace in Colorado’s oil and gas wars

Colorado Sun

Quote of the day

If the federal government is going to move the Forest Service, reorganize its parts and further downsize this agency, every American should demand that key questions be answered first. Members of Congress should lead the charge through effective and bipartisan oversight.”

—Dan Glickman and Ann Veneman, former secretaries of Agriculture, Los Angeles Times

Picture This

@Interior

From neighborhood parks to remote wilderness, America is full of places to relax, explore, and make lasting memories. Whether you’re hiking a trail, paddling a river, or watching a sunset, everyone can celebrate Great Outdoors Month and enjoy the natural splendor of our country.

 

Feature image: Permian Basin oil and gas development; Source; SkyTruth/Flickr

The post 70-foot wastewater geyser erupts in New Mexico oilfield appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

President Donald Trump rescinded two executive orders on Friday evening that aimed to balance off-road vehicle (OHV) use on public lands. The 1972 and 1977 orders, signed by Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, required federal agencies to minimize ecological damage, harassment of wildlife, and recreational conflicts due to OHV use on public lands. Repealing the orders prioritizes motorized recreation and resource extraction over conservation, increasing the risk of widespread environmental degradation.

The White House called the rescinded orders “outdated and burdensome” hurdles to energy and timber production. Without this guidance, fragile ecosystems—including those inside national parks—are at risk of unmitigated OHV use, which can degrade streams, displace wildlife, and significantly damage soil and vegetation. Beyond ecological damage, allowing more OHV use in the backcountry will increase dust and noise pollution and lead to conflicts between off-roaders and other user groups, like hikers and rafters.

“Rescinding guidance meant to reduce conflicts in the backcountry and protect wildlife habitat isn’t popular; that’s why Trump tried to bury it by putting this order out on a Friday evening,” Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger told the New York Times.

Wildfire experts warn of dire fire season to come

Historic drought conditions and an exceptionally light mountain snowpack have left much of the West vulnerable to wildfire this year. Simultaneously, fire experts are deeply concerned about federal management shifts and significant personnel losses within agencies like the Forest Service and Interior department. “I think this is going to be the year,” warned Timothy Ingalsbee, co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “The conditions are just ripe for some really bad outcomes.”

Quick hits USGS rolls out national map of public lands and waters

E&E News

Trump Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says says MAGA rally for America’s 250th will be ‘nonpartisan’

Yahoo News

Here’s where the Trump administration plans to allow hunting, fishing on refuge and park service lands

Outdoor Life

Park Service officials raised alarms over Trump administration’s tennis center plan

Washington Post

Forest Service delays public rollout of its proposed repeal of Roadless Rule

Lookout Eugene-Springfield | Bloomberg

How to define ‘access’? Bitterroot property swap sparks public land debate

Missoulian

Column: Make grazing great again?

High Country News

UFC White House fight and race cars take over National Park Service land

Los Angeles Times

Quote of the day

Essentially, this is a hijacking of one of America’s oldest and most well-respected conservation organizations… There are so many very good people at the foundation, with so many years doing real work on behalf of America’s national parks, it’s heartbreaking to watch.”

—Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, Los Angeles Times

Picture This

@mypubliclands

Hey parents! Did you know your fourth-grade student is eligible for an annual pass to America’s public lands? With school almost out for the summer, it’s the perfect time to get the pass.

The Every Kid Outdoors pass allows fourth graders and their families to receive free entrance to federal public lands and waters during their fourth grade school year (September-August).

To do this, log on to everykidoutdoors.gov with your student, complete an activity and then download and print your pass voucher. Redeem the printed voucher for the pass at thousands of federal public land sites throughout the country.

 

Feature image: Radar Hill OHV Area, Oregon; BLM/Flickr

The post Trump repeals rules governing off-roading on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

A proposed management change for the Maroon Bells Scenic Area, located in the White River National Forest outside Aspen, Colorado, is putting public access to the popular hiking destination in jeopardy, particularly for less affluent visitors.

Earlier this month, after the U.S. Forest Service stated that it can no longer afford to manage the area, Pitkin County applied for a special use permit to take over operations beginning in the 2027 season. Managing heavy visitation has always been a challenge at the Maroon Bells, and the area currently relies on shuttles, timed-entry, and limited parking reservations to keep crowds from overwhelming the landscape. The Pitkin County Open Space and Trails director told county commissioners the county’s general fund will not subsidize Maroon Bells operations, and that it will increase fees to cover costs.

The Forest Service currently oversees these operations at a nearly $300,000 annual deficit, though as Center for Western Priorities Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein writes in a new Westwise blog post about the issue, “Accepting the premise that national public lands must operate in the black is accepting an argument that would justify privatizing nearly every park, forest, and wilderness area in the country.”

The Maroon Bells situation is in part a result of underfunding by Congress, a problem that has been building for years and has accelerated under the Trump administration. Both the Trump administration and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have made it clear they intend to manage public lands like assets on a balance sheet, and offloading management costs to local governments is a consequence of that approach. The result is a pay-to-play system where access to public lands becomes more expensive. Hiking the Maroon Bells is already a costly endeavor that requires visitors to pay for parking in Aspen and for the shuttle ride to the trailhead.

Quick hits The hollow man in the arena

RE:PUBLIC

Comments from national park ‘snitch signs’ have been released. They’re wild

SFGATE

The Maroon Bells belong to everyone. Why are we treating them like a business?

Westwise

The Trump administration is spending $5 million to coat D.C. horse statues in gold

NOTUS

Grazing away wildfire risk? Congress considers cattle grazing for wildfire suppression

Montana Free Press

California is getting three new state parks, and they’re not where you’d think

National Geographic

Wildlife advocates sue to stop killing of predators inside designated wilderness areas

E&E News

Research suggests being in nature improves body image

Outside

Quote of the day

This is part of a Trump administration strategy to defund land management agencies in order to increase dysfunction, and then to present privatization as the solution. The Maroon Bells are well known and visible enough to draw scrutiny and generate outrage, but lesser-known areas won’t be so lucky.”

—CWP Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein, Westwise

Picture This

@u.s.forestservice

A brilliant red sunset paints the landscape on the Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Plan your adventure today!

(Forest Service photo by Adam DiPietro.)

Featured image: Maroon Bells Shuttle at the Maroon Lake parking area. Source: Pitkin County.

The post Higher fees could make visiting Colorado’s Maroon Bells unaffordable appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The National Park Service is spending at least $67 million from national park entrance fees to help fund President Donald Trump’s beautification projects in Washington. According to a New York Times analysis of federal records, the Trump administration is funding nearly $60 million in repairs to nine ornamental fountains in D.C., and another $7 million toward the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

In April, the administration awarded a no-bid contract to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to repair the Reflecting Pool and paint it blue. Federal records show that the contract is worth $13.1 million, more than seven times what Trump initially promised the work would cost. Additionally, the firm is being paid an inflated profit margin, according to federal documents obtained by The New York Times. The profit margin for federal construction contracts is typically between 6 to 12 percent. Atlantic Industrial Coatings submitted a bid that charged 20 percent, adding at least $850,000 to what a more typical contract would have cost.

“Our parks and public lands have been underfunded for decades, and there are many genuinely urgent projects in need of funding across the country,” said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities. “Instead, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is determined to divert millions of dollars to projects that President Trump can see out his window.”

The Park Service has a backlog of deferred maintenance projects for repairs to bathrooms, campgrounds, roads, visitor centers and other aging infrastructure that came to an estimated $23 billion at the end of 2024.

Quick hits Fast-track copper mine review put Arizona owl habitat at risk

Arizona Republic

National park entrance fees are funding Trump’s D.C. vanity projects

New York Times | The Hill

Corporation claims it’s running out of money and can’t afford cleanup of a former Colorado uranium mill

Colorado Sun

Forest Service treated 35% less dangerous fuels for wildfire risk in 2025

KJZZ | KGVO

Colorado state forester says pine beetles’ assault on ponderosas expanded nearly 150% in 2025

Colorado Sun

Reflecting Pool contract has ‘inflated’ profit margin, according to analysis of federal documents

New York Times

Growing body of research examines the affect of wildfire smoke on fertility

High Country News

Opinion: Wyoming’s public lands—why they’ve always felt like home

WyoFile

Quote of the day

The Lincoln Memorial is one of the most significant civic landscapes in the country, and it deserves care. The question is whether Congress and the federal government are providing enough funding for the entire national park system.”

—Natalie Britt, the president and chief executive of Zion Forever Project, New York Times

Picture This

@nationalparkservice

Ah, camping. It can be in-tents!

Sometimes spending a day in the wilderness isn’t quite enough to truly capture the feeling of a special place. Let’s be honest, though…sometimes it is. You know who you are. <slowly raises paw> For others, maybe you’ve really wanted to experience a park after dark: taking in the starry night sky, getting lost in the howling of a distant coyote (wait, what??), hearing the rustling sound of something on the other side of a very thin tent wall (why didn’t you splurge on the more moderately affordable tent with better zippers?), wondering if it’s just your partner…until you remember you’re single and out there alone. Then things get really existential. Is anyone ever really alone? Who am I? How far is the car? Also, something is definitely now crawling in the tent. How many hours until dawn?

Magical.

Story time: What are some of your favorite camping stories or experience from some nights spent in a national park? Are you in a tent right now and have a visual on the spider? It’s not a spider?

Well, good luck with that.

Image: Tent seen illuminated from within under a night sky @joshuatreenps NPS/ Hannah Schwalbe

Featured image: Contractors painting the Reflecting Pool surface blue. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The post National park entrance fees are funding Trump’s D.C. vanity projects appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California among the states with the largest declines

DENVER—A new analysis by the Center for Western Priorities finds that the U.S. Forest Service treated roughly 35 percent fewer acres for hazardous fuels in 2025 than in 2024, a sharp decline that leaves communities across the West and Southeast more exposed to the risk of catastrophic wildfire. CWP’s analysis covers the full calendar year 2025, updating earlier findings from Grassroots Wildland Firefighters that tracked the decline through September. CWP’s analysis also reveals for the first time which states saw the largest declines in fuels treatment year-to-year.

Hazardous fuels treatments — including prescribed burns, mechanical thinning, and brush clearing — reduce the amount of vegetation that feeds dangerous wildfires. Thinning and controlled burns are known to significantly moderate the intensity and severity of wildfires that increasingly threaten Western communities and the forests and watersheds they depend on.

According to CWP’s analysis of publicly available USFS data, the Forest Service treated approximately 2.6 million acres for hazardous fuels in calendar year 2025, compared with roughly 4.1 million acres in 2024.

Larger map | Full analysis

“Agriculture Secretary Booke Rollins and Undersecretary Michael Boren had two critical responsibilities heading into fire season: take care of America’s forests and help build fire-resilient communities,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss. “Instead, they cut treatment acres by more than a third in a single year, leaving fuel on the ground from Montana to Florida heading into a drought-fueled fire season.”

“The chaos at the Interior department makes it worse. Secretary Doug Burgum has gutted his firefighting workforce while he tries to combine five agencies into a half-built Wildland Fire Service, and has ordered fire crews back to a failed full-suppression posture that fire scientists spent decades trying to escape,” Weiss added. “The ‘10 a.m. policy’ is what got us into this mess. Doubling down on it, while the Forest Service falls a million and a half acres behind on the prevention work that keeps communities safe, is a recipe for disaster this year.”

National findings

• The U.S. Forest Service treated approximately 2.6 million acres for hazardous fuels in 2025, down from roughly 4.1 million acres in 2024 — a decline of about 35 percent.
• The drop represents a significant reversal from recent years, with 2024 having been one of the strongest years on record for fuels treatment work.
• The decline comes amid ongoing concerns over staffing shortfalls across the Forest Service workforce.
• While it is too early to make definitive statements about fuel treatments in 2026, early data suggest that 2026 is still tracking far behind the historical average, and nowhere close to digging out of the hole that the Trump administration dug for itself last year.

State findings

The analysis found severe declines in many of the states at greatest wildfire risk.

West

• Montana, which faces persistent high wildfire risk, treated just 87,845 acres in 2025 — down 63 percent from 239,112 acres in 2024.
• Oregon, which led the nation in acres treated in 2024, completed hazardous fuels work on 228,411 acres in 2025 — down 47 percent from 430,586 acres the year before.
• Idaho treated 230,788 acres in 2025, down 45 percent from 418,339 acres in 2024.
• California, which has experienced devastating wildfire seasons in recent years, treated 205,358 acres in 2025 — down 40 percent from 341,970 acres in 2024.

Southeast

The declines are not limited to the West. Some of the sharpest year-over-year drops occurred across the Southeast, where prescribed fire is a critical tool for managing fire-prone longleaf pine ecosystems.

• Florida treated just 124,372 acres in 2025 — down 68 percent from 385,017 acres in 2024. Florida routinely leads or nearly leads the nation in prescribed fire acres, making this collapse in treatment activity particularly alarming.
• Georgia treated only 20,827 acres in 2025, also down 68 percent from 65,352 acres in 2024.
• South Carolina treated 41,452 acres in 2025, down from 128,461 acres in 2024 — another 68 percent decline.
• Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee also saw significant drops in year-to-year fuels treatment.

About the Analysis

The Center for Western Priorities, in partnership with Redstone GIS Consulting, analyzed publicly available data from the U.S. Forest Service’s Natural Resource Manager (NRM) Forest Activity Tracking System (FACTS), the agency’s standard system for managing information about activities related to fire/fuels, silviculture, and invasive species. The data covers hazardous fuels treatment activities completed in calendar year 2025. This analysis uses the same dataset and methodology as the October 2025 Grassroots Wildland Firefighters memo on wildfire preparedness, updated to reflect the full calendar year. The underlying data, including metadata, is available through the FSGeodata Clearinghouse.

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