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Public lands win elections: The Mountain West polling guide for the 2026 miderns
DENVER—As voters head to the polls across the Mountain West, one of the most prominent and bipartisan throughlines in 2026 is protecting America’s public lands and natural resources. Broadly, we have already seen public lands serve as a salient and decisive issue across elections, central to the identity of voters across the states highlighted. This report highlights recent data from multiple polling firms that surveyed Mountain West voters:
View the 2026 Winning the West polling guide here
Topline takeaways:
- For an overwhelming percentage of Mountain West voters, public lands rate incredibly positively, and are understood as valuable to the economy. Even in the context of other important issues like affordability, health care, and education, 86% of voters see issues involving public lands, waters, and wildlife as a motivating factor in supporting an elected public official across Mountain West states.
- Funding cuts, rollbacks of protections, and loss of natural areas rank as top concerns for voters across states.
- Selling off public lands is a third rail for Mountain West voters; majorities as high as 85% in one state (Montana) prefer to keep public lands in public hands.
- When given a direct choice, more than three voters to one favor protecting America’s natural resources and public lands rather than maximizing the land available for oil, gas drilling, and mining. This preference for protecting public lands is consistent across party lines, and concern over the impact of oil and gas drilling continues to steadily rise year over year.
- Across a variety of individual actions that give preferential treatment to oil, gas, and mining companies over national lands, over 70% of voters across Mountain West states opposed those actions.
- Regardless of party, Western voters demonstrate a clear preference and priority for renewable energy sources over fossil fuels, a pattern that has only increased over the past 14 years.
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Doug Burgum’s reflecting pool lies lead to an Oval Office showdown
U.S. Attorney and top D.C. prosecutor Jeanine Pirro brought a box full of evidence to a meeting with President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at the White House on Monday to prove that the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was caused by shoddy construction and not by vandals. Both Trump and Burgum had publicly rebuked Pirro for filing a motion last Friday to dismiss the felony case against Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the pool.
The motion blamed the Interior department for holding back critical evidence from prosecutors that they claimed they did not see until after they had secured the indictment for Hearn from the grand jury in D.C.’s Superior Court. The U.S. attorney’s office has also moved to dismiss criminal charges against three others accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool.
According to sources familiar with the Oval Office meeting on Monday, Pirro accused Doug Burgum of misleading Trump, making the case that Burgum had promoted a self-serving cover story to conceal his own missteps. Pirro said that her staff relied almost exclusively on claims by Interior department officials that extensive damage to the lining was caused by Hearn and other vandals who were observed tugging at or removing pieces of material from the wall. After reviewing thousands of pages of evidence, Pirro concluded the Interior department’s rushed timeline and “botched” renovation was responsible for the damage, and that bad information from Park Police officials had led her to cite “tremendous evidence” against Hearn that did not exist.
Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger writes in a new Westwise blog post about Burgum’s reflecting poll lies: “For six weeks, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the country that vandals gutted the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He said it on CNN. He said it on Fox. He said it was caught on camera and backed by eyewitnesses.” Groetzinger raises the question, if Burgum lied about the reflecting pool damage even after learning the truth, what other lies will he tell?
Quick hits Doug Burgum’s reflecting pool lies lead to an Oval Office showdownNew York Times | CBS News | USA Today
Energy developer backs off swapping solar farm for data center and gas plant Diné woman fights for water rights and environmental justice on the Navajo Nation’s Black Mesa Controversial mineral access deal takes Colorado oil and gas battle to a new level Former park ranger says removing placard at Grand Teton visitor center about a massacre of Blackfeet people is censorship The future of Wyoming’s federal coal reserves depends more on demand than availability American Prairie files lawsuit to halt BLM bison grazing decision U.S. Supreme Court sets date for blockbuster climate case Quote of the dayAll of the blame for this waste of taxpayer funds and lying to the public about it falls at the feet of Secretary Burgum and President Trump. The career staff at the National Park Service are some of the most dedicated and committed public servants who work every day to preserve and protect our national parks. They don’t deserve the blame for this mess.”
—Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, E&E News
Picture ThisSix years ago today, the Great American Outdoors Act became law, making one of the largest investments in America’s public lands in a generation.
Today, those investments are restoring historic landmarks, rehabilitating iconic roads like Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road, improving trails, and expanding access for millions of visitors.
Get outside and celebrate the great outdoors.
Photos of Going-to-the-Sun Road by @glaciernps
Featured image: Doug Burgum appears on CNN on July 5; Credit: Aaron Rupar/X.
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Federal government proposes steep cuts for Colorado River water use
After three years of intense and divisive negotiations, the seven Colorado River Basin states failed to reach a long-term agreement, forcing the federal government to step in.
Federal water managers on Friday announced a new 10-year plan to manage the Colorado River that opens the door to unprecedented water supply cuts. Arizona, California, and Nevada, the three lower basin states, could face up to 3 million acre-feet in water cuts. The upper basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming will also have to conserve up to 200,000 acre-feet, or 65 billion gallons in the coming decade.
The plan released Friday by the Interior department marks the first time federal authorities have stepped in to determine the management for the waterway that supports 40 million people, 30 Tribes, and 5.5 million acres of farmland across the Southwest. The new management framework comes amid an ongoing crisis on the Colorado River due to drought and overuse of the river’s dwindling supplies. As of last Thursday, Lake Powell was 22 percent full and Lake Mead was 27 percent full. Scientists have warned that warmer temperatures and drier soils caused by climate change are shrinking the river’s flow, as are winters with significantly less mountain snowpack, the source of the vast majority of the river’s water.
Burgum doubles down on debunked Reflecting Pool ‘vandals’ claimsU.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro asked a judge to drop the Trump administration’s case against David Hearn, a former U.S. Olympian, whom it had accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The Department of Justice said Friday that flawed installation, not vandalism, caused the liner of the newly renovated reflecting pool to peel. Despite the DOJ’s reversal, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum doubled down on blaming vandals, posting on X over the weekend, “The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool.”
Pirro said that DOJ prosecutors had been misled by the Interior department, which had awarded a no-bid contract to a first-time government contractor to repair the iconic landmark. Pirro blamed both the government’s vendor and the administration’s timetable, saying the pool’s poor state “was the result of a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration” on July 4.
Quick hits Federal government proposes steep cuts for Colorado River Basin statesDenver Post | PBS News | Colorado Sun | New York Times | The Hill | Reuters | Arizona Republic | The Guardian | Washington Post | KJZZ | CNN | Arizona Mirror | 8 News Now | Los Angeles Times
DOJ dismisses ‘vandalism’ charges while Doug Burgum doubles down on debunked claimsNew York Times | The Hill | Associated Press | Advocate | Reuters | NOTUS | Wall Street Journal
National park ranger quits, tours visitor centers to fight censorship More livestock grazing on public lands could spell trouble for ecosystem healthSierra Magazine | St George News
Forest Service moves toward unrestricted motorized access in area used by iconic western elk herd Utahns brave 100-degree heat to protest shrinking of national monuments Helicopter tried to pick up firefighters before deadly burn over in western Colorado The conflict over permanent climbing anchors in wilderness areas Quote of the dayThe last 20 years everybody has played this game which is, ‘Let’s wait on the hydrology and hope the hydrology bails us out,’ but that’s become a very dangerous game to play. If you have another crappy year like this year, you could be looking at 4 or 5 million acre-feet cuts, because the reservoirs would be completely empty.”
—Brad Udall, climate scientist at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center, Washington Post
Picture ThisCome celebrate the First Peoples of Yellowstone with us. From August 2–8, join Voices of Yellowstone near the North Entrance in Gardiner, Montana, for a week honoring the Indigenous cultures woven into this land: past, present, and future.
There’s a lot to take part in. An opening ceremony with the lighting of the teepees, guided cultural tours across the park (registration required), a native art market, live music, speakers, and a community potluck.
Voices of Yellowstone is hosted by @ynpforever in partnership with Yellowstone National Park, alongside the Pretty Shield Foundation, @rockymountaintlc, and @visitgardinermt. We hope to see you there.
Photos by Jacob W. Frank / NPS
Featured image: Colorado River Basin map. Source: usgs.gov
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New Mexico conservation leaders denounce attacks on national public lands, join campaign to Keep Parks Public
SANTA FE— Leaders from New Mexico advocacy groups and the Center for Western Priorities called on President Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and former New Mexico congressman and current Bureau of Land Management director Steve Pearce to stop attacking New Mexico’s parks and public lands.
At a live taping of The Landscape podcast, the Center for Western Priorities’ Keep Parks Public campaign highlighted the ongoing threats to American public lands, including the Trump administration’s aggressive attempts to lease public land for oil and gas drilling, funding cuts to national parks and public land management agencies, and efforts to cut the public and Tribes out of public land management.
“New Mexico’s public lands are being used as political pawns,” said Charlotte Overby, vice president of conservation field programs at the Conservation Lands Foundation. “The Trump administration is trying to strip protections from places like Chaco Canyon and national monuments through executive action, while Congress is mandating more lease sales and eliminating hard-fought, collaborative planning processes local people and the public worked hard to achieve. It’s not one attack, it’s a coordinated and systematic attempt to literally remove the public from public lands. Public lands belong to everyone, not to companies or a handful of wealthy individuals who seek to develop and profit off them.”
“Chaco is not a resource to be extracted, it is the origin of our Pueblo world, and this administration keeps treating it like an obstacle instead of a living homeland,” said Keegan King, executive director of the Native Land Institute. “First they came for the buffer zone. Now we’re watching the same pattern repeat across every corner of New Mexico’s public lands, monuments shrunk without our consent, tribal consultation reduced to a formality, decisions made in Washington before our governors ever get a seat at the table. The federal government has a trust responsibility to Tribal Nations, not a courtesy it extends when convenient. Every time these protections are stripped away, the cost isn’t just what’s drilled or logged, it’s the trust between our nations and this government, and that erosion doesn’t show up on anyone’s balance sheet.”
“Public lands are first and foremost ancestral lands of America’s Tribes. The larger threats we are seeing to public lands are threats to Tribal sovereignty, culture, identity, spirituality and subsistence,” said Andrew Black, director of Tribal lands and waters at the National Wildlife Federation. “Right now, energy dominance asks what can we extract from the land for the land is regarded as a commodity belonging to us. However, we must reverse this paradigm to see that we belong to the land as part of a larger interconnected community for what we do to the land, water, air, and wildlife we fundamentally do to ourselves. The challenge before us is not simply to preserve landscapes. It is to preserve right relationships —between people and the land, between generations, and ultimately between humanity and the larger web of life.”
“America’s public lands are under assault, and science itself is under siege. The very core of our national natural treasures and cultural sites and stories are being undermined through policy shifts, lack of public input, and staffing shortages,” said Elaine Leslie, executive council member with the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “Redefining what constitutes harm to species at-risk can only result in the demise of animals and their habitats already on the brink from impacts such as climate change, invasive species, resource extraction, and fragmentation. Our nation’s natural and cultural resources and history depend upon our collective voices to protect our public lands now and for generations to come.”
Audio, video, photos, and transcripts from today’s event and previous events will be available in the Keep Parks Public media archive.
The Keep Parks Public campaign is a project of the Center for Western Priorities, which is partnering with local conservation groups to elevate the voices of leading experts on threats to outdoor access, from budget cuts and funding freezes to attempts to sell off public lands entirely.
The Keep Parks Public tour kicked off in July 2025, making stops in Denver, Las Cruces, Tucson, Flagstaff, Moab, Salt Lake City, Grand Junction, and Jackson. This summer, we’re stopping in Santa Fe (7/30), Tucson (8/28), and more locations around the West.
The public is invited to share their thoughts and join the campaign to Keep Parks Public and stop the attacks on America’s public lands.
Top threats to New Mexico’s Public Lands- The Chaco Canyon buffer rollback
The Bureau of Land Management is moving to gut the 10-mile protective buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site sacred to more than 20 Pueblo tribes, implemented under the Biden administration. The Trump administration wants to eliminate the buffer as part of its “Unleashing American Energy” agenda, even though 90% of the surrounding terrain is already leased. BLM’s current proposal offers three options: eliminate the buffer entirely, cut it in half, or leave it intact. The public comment deadline just passed on July 29.Sen. Martin Heinrich and the rest of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have introduced a permanent fix to protect the region and its cultural sites: the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act, which would permanently bar new oil and gas leasing on federal lands within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, closing the door the administration is now trying to force back open. It’s currently stalled in Congress, but it’s the only proposal on the table that would take the buffer zone question out of the hands of whoever occupies the White House. - Monuments in the crosshairs
Mark Allison with New Mexico Wild warns that Trump’s decision to reduce Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah could put Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Rio Grande del Norte, and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks national monuments at risk. Leaked Interior Department documents have listed those three New Mexico monuments as potential targets for reductions, with Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks specifically named as one of six sites under consideration. - Wildland firefighting reorganization
The administration recently stood up a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service, consolidating firefighting away from individual Interior bureaus, including the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, and into one central office, over bipartisan congressional objections. Meanwhile, the Forest Service has already lost about 5,900 people, roughly 16% of its staff, through early retirements, resignations, and buyouts, with proposed 2026 staffing cuts of 30% or more on top of that. - Park staffing: a mixed but still bad picture
DOGE’s “Fork in the Road” email pushed roughly 2,400 NPS employees into early retirement or resignation in January 2025, about 12 percent of the workforce, and then Interior fired around 1,000 more NPS employees that February in what staff called the “Valentine’s Day Massacre.” Total NPS staff losses since then are estimated at 25 percent. Rep. Gabe Vasquez has said staffing at Carlsbad Caverns specifically has declined 20 percent, leaving the park unable to run regular visitation hours or after-school programs. That October, both Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands closed entirely during the 35-day-adjacent federal shutdown, with Rep. Vasquez warning “we’re going to see minimal staffing across our public land system.”This June, Vasquez sent Interior Secretary Burgum a letter demanding an explanation for why roughly $90 million in NPS entrance fee revenue, money meant for repairs at parks like White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns, was instead redirected to beautification projects in Washington, D.C., during peak summer visitor season.
- Congress eyeing public land sales
Sen. Mike Lee proposed striking a provision requiring Interior to maintain ownership of all existing National Park Service units, which would open the door to selling park land, in a state home to Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Bandelier, Chaco Canyon, and Valles Caldera. An earlier version of the reconciliation bill would have greenlit selling off roughly 1.23 million acres of public land, and even after that language was stripped, the bill still clawed back $267 million in committed park staffing funds. - Rolling back drilling accountability
BLM is proposing to slash lease bond minimums to 1950s and ’60s levels, cutting statewide bonds from $500,000 to $25,000 regardless of how many wells they cover, while eliminating methane waste minimization plans and leak detection and repair requirements. This directly undercuts rules credited with keeping New Mexico’s methane intensity in the Permian Basin at less than half of Texas’s, and threatens to stick taxpayers with a massive orphan well clean up bill. - Expanded oil and gas leasing across the Permian and San Juan basins
Since the “One Big Beautiful Bill” took effect on July 4, 2025, BLM has leased roughly 61,400 acres of federal land in New Mexico across three completed quarterly sales: 7,501.76 acres in July 2025 for $58.26 million, 20,399 acres in January 2026 for $326.8 million (nearly all in New Mexico, with a single Oklahoma parcel), and 33,530 acres in May 2026 that brought in just over $4 billion, the largest lease sale total in BLM history.More is coming. BLM has scheduled an August 19, 2026 sale offering 26 parcels totaling 20,334 acres across New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and has opened comment on a proposed November 2026 sale covering 30 more parcels totaling 8,071 acres in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. If the August sale goes through as planned, it would push the total leased in New Mexico since OBBBA past 80,000 acres in just over a year.
- Weakening the Endangered Species Act
The administration has proposed rolling back Endangered Species Act regulations that would severely limit how much critical habitat can be designated for species headed toward extinction, alarming conservationists about the Mexican gray wolf’s future. A related change opens New Mexico’s forests to logging and mining by loosening wildlife habitat protections. - Push to delist the Mexican gray wolf
The House Natural Resources Committee has advanced the Enhancing Safety for Animals Act with bipartisan support, which would strip federal ESA protections from the Mexican wolf entirely. Separately, federal and state agencies are preparing to downlist the wolf from endangered to threatened, even as at least 23 wolves have been documented in trapping incidents across New Mexico since 2022. - Budget: parks got a reprieve for FY2026, but FY2027 is a fresh fight
The FY2026 appropriations law, enacted January 23, 2026, gave NPS $3.267 billion, 54 percent more than what the administration had requested. That blocked what would have been a $900 million, 31 percent operations cut and the elimination of funding for roughly 350 park sites.The administration’s FY2027 budget proposal, released in April, seeks to slash $736 million from park operations and would shrink the NPS workforce from about 16,000 to roughly 13,000. Sen. Heinrich called it proof “this administration is not committed to keeping the Park Service intact” and warned it would gut the regional scientists, archaeologists, and historians parks rely on even if front-line ranger jobs are nominally spared. That budget fight will play out in Congress this fall.
Since 2012, the Center for Western Priorities (CWP) has been a leading source of accurate information about energy and public lands across the West. CWP advocates for responsible uses of American lands, including recreation, conservation, and renewable energy.
The Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF) is a national non-profit headquartered in Durango, Colorado, dedicated to protecting, restoring, and expanding National Conservation Lands.
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Trump admin swaps out solar project for data center on BLM land
The Bureau of Land Management has approved an AI data center on national public land that was originally approved for a solar energy project, without conducting a new review or taking public comment on the switch. The project is believed to be the first data center approved on BLM-managed public lands. However, the project is relying on prior approval for not a data center but a solar energy project, swapping out an energy-generating project for one that would consume more energy than the entire neighboring community of Boulder City, Nevada.
Townsite Solar 2, LLC, the project developer, originally received approval in 2023 to build a solar energy and battery storage project on a BLM-managed parcel within the city limits of Boulder City. Earlier this year, TS2 amended its application to develop a data center instead, which the BLM approved without seeking public comment on the new proposal. “We’ve had no conversations, there’s been no chance for the community or for the city to provide any input to the federal government,” said Boulder City spokesperson Lisa LaPlante. “This feels so unprecedented for us to have a project placed in our city without the chance to weigh in.”
The BLM justified its approval by claiming that a solar project and a data center are “substantially the same,” noting similarities in acreage, perimeter, construction time, and the size and shape of the facilities. Relying on this rationale, the BLM used a Determination of NEPA Adequacy to transfer the 2023 analysis and approval to the amended project. “It’s an extraordinary and liberal interpretation of existing law and regulations,” said Mike Ford, a former high-level official at the BLM.
According to reporting by Heatmap, the bait-and-switch approval may have had some help from the Bernhardt Group, the lobbying firm led by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Lobbyists from the Bernhardt Group were hired by Arevon, one of Townsite Solar’s financial backers, around the time when Townsite Solar 2 was preparing to shift from a solar project to a data center, though Arevon denies hiring lobbyists for the Townsite Solar project specifically.
“This was a bait and switch,” said Olivia Tanager, director of the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club. “If we allow this precedent to stand, the fear is that this could promulgate throughout not just Nevada, but all over the country in the interest of expediting data centers.”
Quick hits Pueblo leaders, New Mexico lawmakers speak out to protect Chaco Canyon This desert oasis is a biological wonderland. Trump’s border wall threatens to destroy it The U.S. has acknowledged Bears Ears and Grand Staircase as sacred for over a century, but keeps stripping away protections Trump admin eyes massive coal reserves under federal lands Lawmakers propose blocking controversial quarry expansion that threatens hot springsColorado Sun | Denver Post | Grand Junction Daily Sentinel | Westword
As climate lawsuits advance, the oil industry enters ‘panic mode’ Colorado River reservoirs hit record lows as Trump admin threatens major cuts Cheatgrass is invading the best sagebrush left in the West. How can Wyoming hold the line? Quote of the dayThe question before us is simple: What kind of legacy will we leave? Will we choose short-term extraction, or will we choose to protect one of the most important Indigenous cultural landscapes in North America, a place whose meaning reaches far beyond any single administration?”
—Cochiti Pueblo Governor Phillip Quintana, High Country News
Picture This@usinterior
High in the Olympic Mountains, the alpine tarns of Upper Royal Basin reflect some of the most rugged scenery at @Olympic_nps.
Jagged peaks and clear water = not a bad place to stop and stare for a while.
Photo by Hwei Ling Ng @thenomadicartist
Featured image: Aerial view of Boulder City, Nevada, and nearby Lake Mead, Doc Searls/CC BY 2.0
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Tribes removed from Bears Ears National Monument signs
One week after shrinking Bears Ears National Monument by 91 percent, the Trump administration has removed the seals of five Tribal nations from Bears Ears signs.
The Tribal seals represented members of the Bears Ears Commission, which includes the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation.
The Tribal Commission was first created in 2016 to help guide the management of Bears Ears in a manner rooted in Indigenous perspectives and place-based conservation strategies developed over centuries. But President Trump’s July 13 proclamation disbanded the Tribal Commission.
“They may be able to remove the signs and take down the Tribal seals, but they cannot erase who we are, our connection to Bears Ears, or our responsibility to protect it,” said Davina Smith-Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. “Bears Ears remains a living cultural landscape, and our commitment to this place continues.”
Lawmakers introduce bicameral Local Input ActYesterday, U.S. Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado and U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico introduced the Local Input Act. The bill seeks to protect the right of the American people to provide input on proposed oil and gas lease sales on national public lands, and would restore the Interior department’s ability to incorporate public comments into decisions on whether to nominate public lands for lease to oil and gas companies.
Quick hits Days after slashing Bears Ears, Trump administration removes Tribal seals from monument signs This dark money political operative could soon become Trump’s ethics chief Opinion: New BLM proposal and lease sales will devastate Colorado public lands, communities Colorado’s Glenwood Springs mayor pro-tem calls for action to stop limestone quarry Nevada lawmaker demands answers on BLM data center approval processNevada Current | Nevada Independent | E&E News | Las Vegas Review-Journal
Column: Understanding how Donald Trump sees public lands Wyoming outdoor rec board awards $1.9M in grants for trail building, campground fixes The Gambler 500: Junky old cars race on public lands to clean up trash Quote of the dayYou can’t persuade someone to value a wilderness they never understood in the first place.”
—Jim Pattiz, conservationist, filmmaker, and co-founder of More Than Just Parks
Picture ThisComputa, cancel that. Make more toads instead!
This year, conservation partners are reintroducing about 3 million Houston toad eggs into restored habitat in Bastrop County, Texas while improving the forests these endangered amphibians depend on.
No, the individual toads aren’t becoming the size of Labradors. There’s just going to be a whole lot more of them.
Check out our link in bio to learn more about how we’re working with private landowners to reconnect forests and breeding ponds so these tiny toads can safely disperse, find mates, and keep the next generation hopping.
Photo of immature Houston toad by Hannah Gilbreath/USFWS
Graphics by Erin Huggins/USFWS
Featured image: Bears Ears National Monument signs before and after the Tribal seals were removed. Photo used by permission
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Trump admin spends record amount of taxpayer money on no-bid contracts
In 2025, the Trump administration spent more taxpayer dollars on no-bid contracts than any other one-year period in the last 10 years, according to an analysis by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
No-bid contracts are contracts that the government arranges without a competitive bidding process, which takes place to maximize taxpayers’ value and maintain transparency. In 2025, the federal government spent nearly $263 billion on no-bid contracts. According to POGO, the administration is on track to spend $300 billion in 2026.
When narrowed down to no-bid contracts at the National Park Service, the ongoing overhaul of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool accounts for nearly all no-bid contract spending. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and President Trump have spent $16.4 million on the Reflecting Pool renovation, and it still isn’t complete.
Photo essay: Utahns gather across the state to show support for national monumentsNearly a thousand people gathered across the state of Utah on Monday to protest President Donald Trump’s illegal attempt to slash Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by roughly 90 percent each. Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger wrote a blog post featuring powerful photos from the protests.
Quick hits Most Utahns want to protect their national monuments. Trump had other plans The recreation sites threatened by Trump’s national monument shrinkage Jonathan Jarvis: Your fee dollars are not working Cost of no-bid contracts like Reflecting Pool renovation hit 10-year high Grand Teton National Park could near visitation record due to booming early summer Colorado drought increasingly linked to long-term climate change BLM rule changes to allow more cattle grazing on public lands in the West The Supreme Court shrunk clean water protections in the West. Colorado and New Mexico are restoring them Quote of the dayYour fee dollars are no longer working for you, but instead working at the whim of the President. As a result, projects across the National Park System that are truly in need of repair go unfinished.”
—Jonathan B. Jarvis, former director of the National Park Service, Jonathan’s Substack
Picture This @nationalparkserviceThe raccoon is a remarkable creature.
Part acrobat.
Part detective.
Part influencer
Part trash can consultant.
For ages, raccoons have been perfecting their craft: climbing trees, solving problems, exploring forests, and inspecting anything that looks even remotely interesting. Same. Minus the tree part.
They have the hands of a tiny burglar, the mask of a woodland outlaw, and the confidence of someone who leaves a Teams meeting the instant it appears to be over, disappearing into the night (or next call) before anyone can say, “Thanks, everyone.”
Each day (and mostly night), raccoons go about their important raccoon business, looking curious, clever, and occasionally like they were just caught doing something they absolutely knew they shouldn’t have been doing. FREEZE! They usually don’t seek fame or recognition. They simply continue their lifelong mission of exploring, investigating, and making humans wonder, “How did you even get in there?”
Remember, it’s best to admire raccoons and other wildlife from a distance. They’re fascinating neighbors, even if they have questionable boundaries, a suspicious interest in your trash, and absolutely no concern for your personal property. But they’re still wild animals. Help keep them wild by storing food properly, securing coolers and trash, and not giving them a reason to become professional campsite investigators.
NPS Images
(Featured image: Liner peeling off the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Photo by Aaron Weiss, Center for Western Prioriteis)
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“We’re powered by love”: Utahns gather across the state to show support for national monuments
Nearly a thousand people gathered across the state of Utah on July 20 to protest President Donald Trump’s illegal attempt to slash Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by roughly 90 percent each, stripping protection from nearly 3 million acres of public land in total. The rallies, organized by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, filled public spaces in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Provo, St. George, Moab, and Bluff.
Trump signed the orders on July 13, flanked by Utah’s congressional delegation and Gov. Spencer Cox. Protesters directed their anger at those officials, including Representative Celeste Maloy and Senator Mike Lee, who backed the rollbacks.
“I think that anybody who’s voted into office should listen to what the people want, and people don’t want this,” said Katie Panushka, a protester in Salt Lake City. “People don’t want this in Salt Lake. People don’t want this in Ogden, and people absolutely don’t want this at the Grand Staircase.”
Polling backs this up. A 2024 poll conducted on behalf of the Grand Canyon Trust found 71 percent of Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears as a national monument and 74 percent support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante, including majorities of Republicans. Three-quarters of Utah voters support presidents’ authority to protect public lands as national monuments.
For many demonstrators, the fight is personal. “We are not protesters. We are protectors,” said Corrina Bow, a Southern Paiute elder from the Kanosh Band, one of the Grand Staircase Tribes.
Trump also disbanded the Bears Ears Commission, a five-Tribe body that worked with the federal government to develop the monument’s management plan, breaking trust with those Tribes and ending the first official government-to-government public land management relationship in the country.
Despite the anger amongst Utahns over the cuts, Scott Braden, SUWA’s executive director, framed the rallies positively: “We’re not powered by grievance,” he said. “We’re powered by love of place and just wanting to see these places protected.”
Salt Lake CityMimi Ortega with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance speaks to protesters during the Monumental Day of Action outside the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, July ,20, 2026 in Salt Lake City. (Kim Raff/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, July, 20, 2026 in Salt Lake City. (Kim Raff/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, July, 20, 2026 in Salt Lake City. (Kim Raff/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, July, 20, 2026 in Salt Lake City. (Kim Raff/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
OgdenProtesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside Representative Blake Moore’s office in Ogden on Monday, July, 20, 2026; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside Representative Blake Moore’s office in Ogden on Monday, July, 20, 2026; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside Representative Blake Moore’s office in Ogden on Monday, July, 20, 2026; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
ProvoPeople protest Trump’s reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase on Monday, July 20, 2026 in Provo, Utah; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
People protest Trump’s reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase on Monday, July 20, 2026 in Provo, Utah; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
St. GeorgeProtesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside Representative Celeste Maloy and Senator Mike Lee’s offices on Monday, July 20, 2026 in St. George. Photo credit: Autumn Gillard, Southern Paiute Tribal member and coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
A protest sign with a statue outside Representative Celeste Maloy and Senator Mike Lee’s offices on Monday, July 20, 2026 in St. George, Utah. (David Becker/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside Representative Celeste Maloy and Senator Mike Lee’s offices on Monday, July 20, 2026 in St. George, Utah. (David Becker/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside Representative Celeste Maloy and Senator Mike Lee’s offices on Monday, July 20, 2026 in St. George, Utah. (David Becker/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
MoabPeople protest Trump’s reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase on Monday, July 20, 2026 in Moab, Utah (Niki Chan Wylie/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Davina Smith-Idjesa, the Navajo Nation representative and Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, stands with a protest sign on Monday, July 20, 2026 in Moab, Utah (Niki Chan Wylie/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
Bob and Mary O’Brien protest on Monday, July 20, 2026 in Moab, Utah (Niki Chan Wylie/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
BluffProtesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally at the edge of Bears Ears National Monument on Monday, July, 20, 2026 outside Bluff, Utah; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally at the edge of Bears Ears National Monument on Monday, July, 20, 2026 outside Bluff, Utah; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally at the edge of Bears Ears National Monument on Monday, July, 20, 2026 outside Bluff, Utah; CC0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Header image: Protesters participate in the Monumental Day of Action rally outside the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, July,20, 2026 in Salt Lake City. (Kim Raff/AP Content Services for The Wilderness Society)
The post “We’re powered by love”: Utahns gather across the state to show support for national monuments appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
200 million acres of public land are being reviewed by Interior
A new map released by The Wilderness Society (TWS) shows that nearly 200 million acres of public land could be affected by the Interior department’s ongoing review of wilderness study area and wildlands policies.
The map tracks designated wilderness, wilderness study areas, and lands with wilderness characteristics—all areas that the Interior department is evaluating to determine whether management policies should be “updated, clarified or revised to improve management and use of some of America’s most treasured landscapes.”
The 200 million acres under review include 9 million within national monuments, which demonstrates a striking vulnerability given President Donald Trump’s recent proclamations virtually eliminating Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments despite their widespread support.
TWS specifically notes that the current wilderness management guidance is what helps the country’s last remaining wild places retain their special qualities. “Weakening those protections would open the door to more development, extraction and unchecked motorized use in places that Americans value for hiking, camping, hunting, fishing and quiet recreation,” said Abby Tinsley, senior vice president of conservation programs at TWS.
The review is one of the administration’s several efforts targeting public lands, including the planned rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule, a rollback of motorized-use protections, and a reported plan to open more than 5 million acres of recommended wilderness in national forests to development.
Quick hits A new section of the billion-dollar border wall in Arizona is bent out of shape The refuge system is quietly falling apart Protesters rally in St. George after Trump administration slashes Bears Ears, Grand Staircase monuments Keeping coal plants open in Colorado could cost $87M, with consumers paying the tab Montana is selling more state trust land than it’s buying Brownsville groups ask judge to pause SpaceX land transfer from wildlife refuge Great Salt Lake hits lowest level in more than 3 years, but managers say conservation is paying off The feds no longer protect endangered species habitat. States say they can’t pick up the slack Quote of the dayI think one thing I would like to see Utah legislators acknowledge is that they did not consult with the Tribes, and it is important to speak with us about issues that affect our ancestral homelands, particularly when they’re working with the United States federal government.”
— Autumn Gillard, coordinator for the Grand Staircase Intertribal Coalition, St. George News
Picture This @utah_voicesTrump gutted Bears Ears from 1.35 million acres down to 121,000 acres and Grand Staircase–Escalante was slashed from 1.87 million acres down to 182,000 acres. That’s about 90%.
@senmikelee @mikeleeforutah
@senjohncurtis @curtisut
@govcox @spencerjcox
@repcelestemaloy @celestemaloyut
The original protections for Bears Ears were hard-fought victories spearheaded by a coalition of Tribal Nations; the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Tribe. These nations have stewarded these lands since long before the colonizers came to tear apart turtle island.
#grandstaircase #bearsearsnationalmonument
(Featured image: Chamisa Wilderness Study Area in California. Photo by Bob Wick, BLM, Flickr)
The post 200 million acres of public land are being reviewed by Interior appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
Who is Doug Burgum, really?
Forum of Fargo-Moorhead columnist Mike McFeely joins Aaron and Kate to trace Doug Burgum’s path from software tycoon to “opportunist” politician. McFeely outlines how Burgum abandoned his once-moderate image to become a die-hard Trump loyalist as Interior Secretary, all while chasing his future political ambitions and defending indefensible policies.
In the news: On Monday, Trump slashed Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by about 90% each (3 million acres total). SUWA’s Scott Braden joins the pod to explain the unlawful basis for the cuts, the elimination of the Bears Ears Commission, Tribal exclusion, and plans to challenge the reductions in court.
News- Day of Action on Monday, July 20th
- Trump Sharply Cuts the Size of Two National Monuments in Utah — New York Times
- How President Trump and Utah leaders lied and misled on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase — Center for Western Priorities
- McFeely: Doug Burgum’s very bad day — Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
- Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA)
- Mike McFeely’s column in Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
- 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: Burgum hearing ENR Apr 29
The post Who is Doug Burgum, really? appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
How President Trump and Utah leaders lied and misled on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase
Describing the monuments, Trump said they were set aside “for nobody to use, right? Can’t do anything. You can’t go hunting. You can’t go fishing. You can’t do anything. You can virtually not even walk on it.” MacGregor replied, “That’s exactly right, sir.”
This is completely wrong, and MacGregor knows it—as do Utah’s leaders. Hunting and fishing are explicitly allowed in both monuments, and are, in fact, managed by the state. In both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, hunting for deer, elk, bighorn sheep, black bear, mountain lion, and turkey is permitted. President Joe Biden’s proclamation restoring Bears Ears celebrated its “unparalleled rock climbing” at Indian Creek and its “hunting, backpacking, canyoneering, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking” destinations. His Grand Staircase-Escalante proclamation likewise highlighted “world-class outdoor recreation opportunities” including hunting, hiking, river running, and horseback riding. Far from being lands nobody can walk on, these are lands people come from around the world to see and use.
Monument sizeMacGregor also offered a misleading history lesson. She noted that “the first monument that was created was only 1,200 acres,” implying that Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden invented large landscape monuments, which is not true. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt, who signed the Antiquities Act, protected more than 800,000 acres at the Grand Canyon as a national monument, which eventually became Grand Canyon National Park. A year later, he designated 610,560 acres as Mount Olympus National Monument, now Olympic National Park.
Perhaps most misleading of all, the proclamations dismiss the landscapes themselves as “ordinary” and claim they should be smaller. The Bears Ears text writes off “deep sandstone canyons, broad desert mesas, towering monoliths” and calls the region’s cultural sites, like petroglyphs and pictographs “not unique,” while the Grand Staircase proclamation labels its cultural and paleontological resources as “relatively common.” In fact, Grand Staircase-Escalante makes more than 200 million years of Earth’s history visible through cliffs and plateaus, a landscape so rugged and remote it was among the last places mapped in the contiguous United States. The Kaiparowits Formation, located inside the monument, has become one of the most productive dinosaur laboratories on the planet, yielding more than two dozen species new to science, including horned dinosaurs found nowhere else on Earth. Just last month, scientists from the Natural History Museum of Utah uncovered a rare skeleton of a baby duck-billed dinosaur in Grand Staircase-Escalante. The canyons of Grand Staircase also hold one of southern Utah’s richest concentrations of Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan sites.
Bears Ears National Monument, Moon House site; Source: BLM/Bob Wick
Bears Ears contains one of the densest concentrations of archaeological and cultural heritage in the United States, an estimated 100,000 sites spanning thousands of years of continuous human presence, from Archaic hunters to the cliff dwellings, kivas, granaries, and petroglyph panels of the ancestral Puebloans. To the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute, and Zuni Tribes, the twin buttes and surrounding canyons are not relics but a sacred homeland, which is why the five Tribal nations came together to request landscape-scale protections in the first place. Scientists say these places cannot be understood as scattered sites, but as a single landscape whose trails, sightlines, and stories make the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Calling that “not unique” ignores the scientific record, as well as Tribal knowledge. And it also runs counter to the 1920 Grand Canyon legal precedent, which held that large landscapes themselves qualify as protectable objects.
Multiple use and miningThe White House fact sheet about the reductions bends the truth further. It promises the unprotected lands “will now be available for multiple-use, sustained-yield management,” as if monument status ended multiple use. It didn’t. Recreation of all kinds continues in both monuments, livestock grazing continues in all of the places it was allowed before the monument, and timber management for restoration and wildfire mitigation continues under existing law. Existing mining and drilling leases are also still valid inside a national monument. The White House also claims that the concept of “objects of historic or scientific interest” established by the Antiquities Act has been “stretched” to include landscapes. Roosevelt protected the Grand Canyon as exactly that kind of landscape object, and the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the designation in 1920.
The proclamations also lean on national security, claiming the Bears Ears region holds resources “vital to energy and resource independence,” including “critical minerals such as silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.” The Grand Staircase text lists fifteen minerals, from chromium to zirconium. The government’s own assessments undercut these claims. As the Deseret News notes, the Bureau of Land Management previously found that both monuments have little to offer in terms of oil and gas potential, and Utah’s Department of Natural Resources has stated there is “very little energy potential within Bears Ears.” The Kaiparowits Plateau’s coal exists but is uneconomic, too remote and infrastructure-poor to attract investors, with no active leases since the federal government bought out the existing ones in the 1990s.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument; Source: Azuki350/Wikimedia
Local supportBack at the White House, Representative Celeste Maloy of Utah claimed that both monuments were created “over the unanimous opposition of Utah’s federal delegation, our governor, county commissioners, the locals.” Some Utah politicians did oppose the designations. But casting them as the voice of “the locals” erases the Tribal nations, local business coalitions, and everyday Utahns who asked for these monuments in the first place. Neither proposal originated in Washington. Both were brought to the White House by people who live close to these lands and were refined through years of consultation with Tribes, communities, and recreation, and grazing permit holders. Today, polling shows 74 percent of Utah voters support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante protected and 71 percent support keeping Bears Ears protected. Colorado College’s most recent Conservation in the West poll found similarly overwhelming support among Utahns for leaving existing monument designations in place. If anyone is out of step with “the locals,” it is the delegation that stood behind the president as he signed these orders.
Conservation groups and Tribes are already preparing to fight the reductions in court, where the lies and misleading statements uttered in the Oval Office and embedded in the new monument proclamations will not fare well under legal scrutiny. And if the overwhelming online reaction to the reductions is any indication, they won’t age well in the court of public opinion either.
Feature image: Trump signs proclamations reducing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments, Juluy 13, 2026; Source: White House YouTube
The post How President Trump and Utah leaders lied and misled on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
Trump signs orders attacking Utah monuments based on false information
DENVER—President Donald Trump today signed proclamations attempting to shrink the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, reducing the size of each by about 90 percent. Bears Ears National Monument will be reduced by over 1.2 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be reduced by nearly 1.7 million acres.
During the signing, President Trump falsely stated that “You can’t go hunting, you can’t go fishing, you can’t do anything, you can virtually not even walk on it.” Deputy Interior Secretary Kate MacGregor followed up by saying, “That’s exactly right sir, so you are remedying that today.”
In fact, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase explicitly allow hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation inside the monuments, something that the State of Utah’s own hunting regulations confirm.
MacGregor also misled the president and reporters when she claimed that the first monuments Teddy Roosevelt protected under the Antiquities Act were small in size. In fact, Teddy Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to protect 800,000 acres of public land at the Grand Canyon. The Supreme Court later confirmed that such landscape-scale protections were proper under the Antiquities Act, and that large landscapes were considered “objects” under the Act.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Aaron Weiss:
“We all know that President Trump has very little understanding of what he’s told to sign. But Kate MacGregor knows better. Giving the president documents to sign based on false information is unconscionable. If she’s going to take over running America’s public lands while Doug Burgum plays pool boy, the least she can do is be honest with the president and the American people.”
The proclamations also attempt to open the land originally inside the monuments for sale or lease to oil, gas, mining, and logging companies beginning in 60 days. Weiss added:
“Senator Mike Lee’s attempt to sell off America’s public lands failed last year. Now he’s a sore loser, trying again with language in the president’s proclamation that makes it clear America’s public lands are up for sale. The people of Utah and the entire country have spoken with one voice: These lands belong to all of us, not Mike Lee, President Trump, or the mining companies his kids are in business with.”
The Bears Ears proclamation also attempts to disband the Bears Ears Commission, a body that was created at the request of the five Tribal nations that advocated for the designation of the national monument. The new proclamation would create a new “advisory committee” that drastically dilutes Tribal input.
Public opinion: When the first Trump administration asked the public in 2017, it received 2.8 million comments, 98 percent of them in support of keeping national monuments in place. A 2024 poll conducted on behalf of the Grand Canyon Trust found 71 percent of Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears as a national monument and 74 percent support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante, including majorities of Republicans. Three-quarters of Utah voters support presidents’ authority to protect public lands as national monuments. Across the West, Colorado College’s 2025 Conservation in the West poll found that 89 percent of Western voters, including 83 percent of Republicans, believe national monument designations made over the past decade should be kept in place.
The post Trump signs orders attacking Utah monuments based on false information appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
Trump plans secretive attack on Utah national monuments, underscoring unpopularity
DENVER—An attack on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments is reportedly scheduled to happen today at 4:30 pm ET behind closed doors at the White House, according to sources cited in news stories out of Utah.
President Donald Trump’s public calendar lists the 4:30 pm Oval Office event only as “sign an executive order,” with no mention of Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, or the roughly two million acres of protected public land on the chopping block. The signing is marked as closed to press, and the White House has no press briefings scheduled today.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Aaron Weiss:
“Planning this attack behind closed doors and providing no notice to the press, the five Bears Ears Tribes, or the public shows the administration knows it’s on the wrong side of history.
“When Trump tried to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase in 2017, he flew to Salt Lake City and announced it from the state capitol in front of Utah politicians. This time, the president wants as few cameras in the room as possible. The five Tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and the American people will learn what happened to their land from a press release.”
Public opinion: When the first Trump administration asked the public in 2017, it received 2.8 million comments, 98 percent of them in support of keeping national monuments in place. A 2024 poll conducted on behalf of the Grand Canyon Trust found 71 percent of Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears as a national monument and 74 percent support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante, including majorities of Republicans. Three-quarters of Utah voters support presidents’ authority to protect public lands as national monuments. Across the West, Colorado College’s 2025 Conservation in the West poll found that 89 percent of Western voters, including 83 percent of Republicans, believe national monument designations made over the past decade should be kept in place.
Background: President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, and President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 at the request of five sovereign Tribal nations. In December 2017, President Trump cut Bears Ears from 1.35 million acres to roughly 228,000 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from 1.87 million acres to about 1 million acres, the largest rollback of public lands protections in American history. Lawsuits from Tribes, conservation groups, and businesses challenging those cuts were put on hold in early 2021 and remain pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden restored both monuments in October 2021.
Learn more:
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Trump Orders Largest National Monument Reduction In U.S. History (2017) — NPR
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America to Trump and Zinke: Don’t touch national monuments – Westwise
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In defense of Bears Ears National Monument – Westwise
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STATEMENT on proposed Bears Ears National Monument management plan – Center for Western Priorities
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Bears Ears Plan Makes History – Grand Canyon Trust
The post Trump plans secretive attack on Utah national monuments, underscoring unpopularity appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
Trump expected to shrink Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order this afternoon shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Sources told ABC4 the signing is planned for 4:30 p.m. Eastern in the Oval Office. A White House official called the reports “pure speculation” in statements to multiple outlets.
This would be the second time Trump has attempted to shrink the two monuments. In 2017, Trump reduced Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly half. President Biden restored both monuments in 2021, and lawsuits over Trump’s original cuts remain pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently allowed a separate Utah lawsuit challenging Biden’s restoration to move forward.
Reducing or eliminating national monuments is a broadly unpopular idea across political parties. “The American people have made it clear over and over again that they want our national monuments protected, not sold out to drilling and mining companies. President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum would be wise to remember that,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss in a statement.
A 2024 poll conducted for the Grand Canyon Trust found 71 percent of Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears as a monument, and 74 percent support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante. Colorado College’s 2026 Conservation in the West poll found 91 percent of Western voters, including 87 percent of Republicans, want existing national monument designations kept in place.
Trump administration finalizes rule weakening endangered species protectionsThe Interior Department and NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule Friday redefining “harm” under the Endangered Species Act to exclude habitat destruction, reversing a long-standing interpretation. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the change “restores common sense, respects private property, provides much-needed certainty for landowners and follows the statute Congress actually passed,” while critics say it clears the way for oil and gas drilling, mining, and logging on habitat that imperiled species depend on. “For more than four decades, the definition of ‘harm’ recognized a simple truth: if you destroy the places wildlife need to survive, you are putting species on a path to extinction,” said Ben Greuel, wildlife campaign manager at the Sierra Club.
Quick hits Trump expected to shrink Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante national monumentsFox13 | ABC4 | Deseret News | KSL | Backpacker | Heatmap | KMYU | Center for Western Priorities [press release]
Trump administration finalizes rule weakening endangered species protectionsWashington Post | Reuters | E&E News | Associated Press | Fox 13 | Los Angeles Times
Park ranger exposes impact of 2025 public lands layoffs Interior proposes to rewrite grazing rules on 155M acres of BLM land ‘L.A. at rush hour.’ ‘Disney World.’ American national parks feeling the strain this summer Amid blistering drought, feds tap New Mexico aquifers to build border wall without permits Trump administration clears path for controversial Mojave Desert water pipeline Opinion: Selling off your off-road trails was never about affordable housing. Mike Lee’s latest vote proves Quote of the dayThere’s no money for overtime in a lot of national parks, there’s less people to save people when they get in trouble in national parks. So, less people to come for search and rescues, less law enforcement rangers to respond, less normal rangers to clean bathrooms. It is causing rangers to also have to go outside of their job description, which again is not what we signed up for, but we are public service, and a lot of us will do it because it’s for the greater good of the public.”
—Anonymous park ranger, Denver7
Picture This@u.s.forestserviceGolden hour? Nah, this is legendary hour.
Coconino National Forest offers a field of sunshine with a side of dramatic skies.
Drop a pin, drop your jaw and hit the trail in your big backyard.
(Forest Service photo by Deborah Lee Soltesz.)
Featured photo: Indian Creek at Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. Bob Wick, BLM
The post Trump expected to shrink Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
How Trump and Burgum hijacked the Park Service and America’s birthday party
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
- 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.
Judge orders Trump officials to reinstall signs about history, climate in national parks
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 planThe 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 Judge orders Trump officials to re-install signs and exhibits at national parks on topics like slavery and climate changeAssociated 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 Trump concedes a battle in his war against wind energy AI scans for wildfires, but in Arizona, humans are still on watch Senator Mike Lee says there should be consequences for states that sue over the Colorado River Trump leans on MAGA organizer to revive coal Do chainsaws belong in designated wilderness? Quote of the dayOften 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 @goldengatecanyoncpwBaby 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.
Interior lays the groundwork for attacks on wilderness and wildlands
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:
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:
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Interior puts wilderness study areas under scrutiny as “war on wildlands” widens – The Wilderness Society
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Wilderness Designation FAQs – The Wilderness Society
Feature image: Kiger Gorge at Steens Mountain, Oregon; Source: Masako Metz/@mypubliclands
The post Interior lays the groundwork for attacks on wilderness and wildlands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
Red tape isn’t the problem
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.
Trump’s new drilling rules encourage leasing where there’s no oil
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 outdoorsInterior 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 fishingThe Hill | Seattle Times | Hawaii News Now | PBS | Newsweek
Senate committee passes Mike Lee’s Roadless Rule repeal amendmentSalt Lake Tribune | MeatEater | Source NM | Outdoor Life | Missoula Current | More Than Just Parks | Cowboy State Daily
Inside America’s ugly birthday battle At least five states are bowing out of Trump’s ‘Great American State Fair’ At this New Mexico park, mountain bikers pedal amid hundreds of oil wells Interior puts wilderness study areas under scrutinyNational Parks Traveler | Sierra Sun Times
$103M in federal contracts flows to Freedom 250 events American Prairie, conservation groups appeal bison grazing decision Quote of the dayThe 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 @nationalparkserviceMe: 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.
Contracting firm run by Trump donor is building the border wall through Big Bend
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 CaucusA 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 Senators demand answers on Trump’s use of national park feesThe Hill | E&E News | Washington Post
2027 may be a disaster for public lands if this funding bill passes Lawsuit filed against USFWS over proposed wildlife refuge land swap with SpaceX Trump officials lay out aggressive timeline to build triumphal archWashington Post | Associated Press
Opinion: A land deal that is failing the people who live on the land Federal parks program gets good news after an uncertain year Trump administration asks judge to reject bid to halt White House UFC event Quote of the dayThe 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 @whitesandsnpsWhat’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.
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