Western Priorities

DENVER—A new analysis by the Center for Western Priorities found that 99.0 percent of the 134,312 public comments posted on the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) proposed revision of the Travel Management Rule oppose the Trump administration’s plan. The 30-day comment period closed September 23.

USFS manages more than 380,000 miles of roads and 165,000 miles of trails. The 2005 Travel Management Rule requires national forests to designate the roads, trails, and areas open to motor vehicles and keeps other routes closed. The proposed revision to the rule would reverse that, presuming existing roads, trails, airfields, and other access routes are open to motorized vehicles by default unless a closure is required by law or justified by documented resource, safety, use-conflict, or maintenance concerns. It would also require annual review of every closed or highly restricted route, and allow aerial imagery to serve as evidence that a route existed. It also proposes new rules for e-bike use and off-route motor vehicle use for big-game retrieval, firewood collection, and dispersed camping.

Key findings:

• 99.0 percent of posted comments opposed the revision

• 0.4 percent supported it

• 0.6 percent were neutral or off-topic

• Of the 0.4 percent of comments supporting the revision, nearly a third supported it solely because of the proposal to reclassify Class 1 e-bikes as non-motorized vehicles

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein, who performed the analysis:

“Once again, Americans have shown up in overwhelming numbers to oppose reckless actions on public lands. The Trump administration asked the public whether every road and trail in our national forests should be open to motorized vehicles by default, and the answer was a resounding no.

“There are places where motorized vehicles belong and places they don’t. The American public clearly gets it. But the Trump administration either doesn’t understand, or doesn’t care.”

The results align with earlier CWP analyses that found universal opposition to the Trump administration’s public lands rollbacks. In September 2025, more than 99 percent of approximately 183,000 comments opposed repealing the Roadless Rule. In November 2025, 98 percent of comments opposed rescinding the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule. The Forest Service is currently accepting public comments on the proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, which protects the more than 44 million acres of national forest land outside of Colorado and Idaho, where state-specific roadless rules apply. The agency extended that comment period deadline to October 6. Comments can be submitted on regulations.gov.

Methodology:

CWP downloaded all 134,312 comments posted to docket FS-2026-0100 on regulations.gov as of September 24, 2026, 07:57 AM MT. Each comment was classified as supporting, opposing, or neutral/off-topic using a combination of keyword matching and a large language model. CWP staff manually audited the labels on a random sample of 300 comments, which oversampled for “support” and “neutral/off-topic” comments. The audit revealed a labeling accuracy rate estimated at 99.9 percent accurate.

Learn more:

• Trump wants to open nearly all national forest trails to dirt bikes and ATVs — Grist

• Off-roading on federal lands in Colorado could expand with expected Trump reversal — The Colorado Sun

• USFS’s own analysis shows Roadless Rule repeal would harm wildlife, water, and rural communities — Westwise

• Comment analysis finds over 99% opposition to repealing 2001 Roadless Rule — Center for Western Priorities

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Concern about data centers on public lands is building in the West as the Trump administration weighs at least 12 proposals covering more than 17,600 acres across six states. Earlier this week, members of Arizona’s congressional delegation demanded answers from the Bureau of Land Management about four data center proposals covering roughly 3,000 acres of public land in the state. In a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, congressional members asked for details on each project and for the plans for public input and environmental review.

“There’s been, unfortunately, a lack of transparency by the Trump administration. We found out about the proposed four data centers on BLM land in Arizona from a media source in Washington, D.C.,” said Representative Greg Stanton of Arizona.

In Idaho, there is a proposal for a four-million-square-foot data center and natural gas power plant on up to 3,700 acres of BLM land southeast of Boise, near the Blacks Creek Reservoir bird reserve. “I honestly don’t know how we would be able to keep up with that in terms of energy demand, water demand, in the region, which is already so tight,” said Lisa Young, director of the Sierra Club’s Idaho Chapter.

Meanwhile, in Nevada, BLM has asked the Interior Board of Land Appeals to set aside its approval of a right-of-way amendment that would put a data center near Boulder City on land permitted for a solar plant. Boulder City opposes returning the decision to BLM without commitments to environmental review and public involvement. A recent Pew Research Center survey showed that nationally, 60 percent of Americans say they would be uncomfortable with a new data center in their area, including 54 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats.

Pitkin County approves Maroon Bells permit

Pitkin County commissioners voted on Wednesday to approve a special use permit to take over daily operations of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area from the U.S. Forest Service starting in 2027. The permit still needs final approval from the Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the agency has not said how many acres the county would manage or released a map of the permit area. The Forest Service’s 15-day comment period has not yet been published in the Federal Register. “Pitkin County is stepping in because the federal government failed to fund one of the most iconic landscapes in the country,” said Aaron Weiss, CWP’s executive director. “Congress sets the Forest Service’s budget, and it’s Congress’s job to fund our public lands so the federal government can manage them for everyone.”

Quick hits DOGE memoir skips the part where children died and taxpayers got ripped off

Westwise

Colorado regulators approve stronger rules to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production

Colorado Public Radio

Opinion: The grassroots revolt against pollution is growing

Newsweek

Interior department blocks $428k for cultural resource projects in Yellowstone

Buckrail

National Trust, after battling with Trump, to announce legal defense fund

Washington Post | Washington Sun | Associated Press

Nearly 6M gallons of oil, gas, and waste product spilled in these western states

Deseret News

Opinion: A nature-friendly clean energy future

Ground Shift

As bears ‘spin out’ in southern Montana, wildlife managers are at wit’s end

High Country News

Quote of the day

Our national inheritance hangs in balance today. It is not an exaggeration to say that this moment is existential. For our field, for the communities we serve, and for generations to come.”

—Brent Leggs, President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Associated Press

Picture This
@usinteriorChub in the tub,
Chunk in the trunk,
Salmon gets spotted,
Salmon gets dunked.

Big on the belly,
Thick through the thighs,
Winter is coming,
Supersize.

Tune is to the live-cameras for all the fat bear fun. See who can pack on the pounds to be the winner of this year’s Fat Bear Week contest: https://explore.org/

Photo of bear 747 by L. Law

 

Featured photo: Lake Mead and Boulder City, Nevada. Source: Doc Searls/Wikimedia

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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order making changes to how presidential authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA) is delegated. Previously, the president delegated a variety of authorities under the DPA to the Secretary of Energy. Trump’s executive order amends the delegation of some authorities to include both the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of the Interior, “with respect to all forms of energy under their purview, each of whom may exercise such delegated authority independently of the other.” At a time when our national public lands are already under attack, this hands Interior Secretary Doug Burgum a new way to ignore land protections and avoid following environmental laws under the guise of national security, with few guardrails or opportunities for the public to weigh in.

First passed in 1950, the DPA was originally designed to give the president limited authority to ensure that domestic industry can meet the country’s national defense needs. Over time, the DPA has been reauthorized and modified to expand the definition of “national defense” to include preparedness for national emergencies and other non-military needs. Presidents have also delegated some of these authorities to executive branch agencies. But why delegate authority to the Secretary of the Interior, whose job is to manage national parks and public lands? And why go to the trouble of stating explicitly that the Interior secretary can act independently?

One likely answer is that this is part of the larger Trump-Burgum agenda to dismantle national parks and other public lands that for-profit companies see as a nuisance standing in the way of expanded exploitation and the pursuit of greater private profits. While there are a number of legal and valid ways for companies to extract natural resources from national public lands, there are processes and guardrails in place to give the public an opportunity to review proposals and weigh in, and to ensure that other resources on those lands are being appropriately considered and protected. The Trump administration, however, has been working hard to eliminate as many of these as possible, to make it easier for companies to extract resources without having to engage with the public or conduct environmental reviews.

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

Another possible answer is that Doug Burgum just isn’t that interested in being Interior secretary and is looking around for assignments that bring him closer to Trump, such as personally overseeing Trump’s vanity projects in Washington D.C., or that would give him a more prominent role in global conversations about topics he finds more interesting, such as energy extraction to serve the AI industry. Early on in his time as Interior secretary, Burgum delegated most of his responsibilities to DOGE operatives, who immediately attempted to dismantle the agency through a variety of funding and staffing cuts.

Burgum also took on the job of chair of the National Energy Dominance Council, a new entity created by a February 2025 Trump executive order. The NEDC exists primarily to hold meetings on energy issues and hasn’t had much of an impact, but it gives Burgum some fancier hats to wear. Being Interior secretary makes him chair of the NEDC, and being chair of the NEDC gives him a seat on the National Security Council, a long-standing and legitimate entity with influence on U.S. foreign policy.

Burgum’s resume-building aside, expanded delegation of DPA authority is concerning for national public lands for a few reasons. Many DPA authorities become available during a “national emergency,” and during what most Americans would consider a true emergency, this makes sense. However, the Trump administration has abused the concept of an “emergency” to create open-ended blanket justifications for not following laws it finds inconvenient. The “national energy emergency,” put in place by the Trump administration in January 2025, has been used to justify policy actions to boost oil and gas drilling, prop up coal, and increase domestic mining and mineral processing, among other things. Similarly, the “border emergency” has been used to justify the militarization of public lands across the southern U.S., including the construction of a border wall through Big Bend National Park and the bulldozing of a sacred Tribal site in Arizona for border wall expansion.

With these “emergencies” in place, it’s already easy to use DPA authorities to advance the Trump administration’s policy priorities. The latest executive order gives an additional agency head the power to lean on national security to justify policy changes that will impact over 500 million acres of national public lands. Burgum would have at his disposal a new set of tools that could enable him to use national security as an excuse to prioritize oil and gas production, expand mining, or approve data centers on national public lands.

Clark Mountain in the Mojave National Preserve, near the site of a proposed gold and rare earths mine; Matthew Dillon via Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

This is concerning enough under the existing DPA. What if the DPA were updated to give agency heads even greater authority to waive laws in the name of national security? A proposal considered earlier this year would have done exactly that. The DPA Modernization Act would have expanded the authority agency heads have to waive regulations that implement environmental laws and the authorities available during a national emergency. While this particular proposal was shelved in favor of a “clean” reauthorization of the DPA without these changes, this proposal or one like it could come back in the future, including later this year when Congress considers the National Defense Authorization Act.

Between the “national energy emergency” and the “AI arms race,” it’s clear that Trump and Burgum are looking for any way they can tie national public lands to national security so that they can get environmental protections out of the way of extracting resources and building data centers, all while avoiding taking public comment on proposals they know are overwhelmingly unpopular with the public. They’re also failing: despite policies put in place to address the “energy emergency” and escalate the development of AI, energy prices are persistently high, and opposition to the data centers that support AI is intensifying. Perhaps the Trump administration should focus on something Westerners actually want: policies to ensure that outdoor recreation, clean water, and wildlife habitats on national public lands are protected for future generations.

 

Featured image: Bears Ears National Monument, an area that has drawn interest from uranium and coal mining companies; BLM Utah

The post Trump hands Burgum a new way to bypass public lands protections appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER — Pitkin County commissioners voted unanimously today, September 23, to approve a special use permit for the county to take over daily operations of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) starting in 2027. The permit, which does not specify how many acres of public land the county would manage, still needs final approval from USFS and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Forest Service says the Maroon Bells Scenic Area runs at a deficit of more than $300,000 a year, and White River National Forest officials cited budget constraints, hiring difficulties, and deferred maintenance as reasons it can no longer afford to manage the area. Pitkin County Open Space and Trails has been partnering with the federal government at Maroon Bells for decades and the county has the resources and experience to take on day-to-day operations. But to help cover operating costs, the county has proposed increasing the vehicle day-use fee from $10 to $30 and the nightly campground fee from $15 to $33.

Last week, USFS said it would add a 15-day public comment period before approving the permit, changing its original plan to approve it without public input. The Forest Service intends to approve the permit using a categorical exclusion, which allows the agency to bypass the environmental review usually required under the National Environmental Policy Act. As of today, USFS has not released a map of the permit area.

Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Aaron Weiss, executive director for the Center for Western Priorities:

“The Forest Service actually listened to the public and plans to open a comment period, and that’s an important precedent to uphold. But a comment period only works if people know what they’re commenting on. We still haven’t seen a map or been told how many acres the county would manage. The public can’t meaningfully weigh in when they don’t even know the scope of this proposal.

“Pitkin County is stepping in because the federal government failed to fund one of the most iconic landscapes in the country. Handing operations of public lands to whoever wants to cover the bill sets a dangerous precedent. It’s only a matter of time until an agreement like this one comes to a county that isn’t interested in prioritizing conservation and recreation—and the Trump administration is eager to privatize our public lands whenever it can. Congress sets the Forest Service’s budget, and it’s Congress’s job to fund our public lands so the federal government can manage them for everyone.”

The Forest Service comment period has not yet been published in the Federal Register.

Learn more:

• Forest Service adds comment period for PitCo’s Maroon Bells operations takeover — Aspen Journalism
• Advocates are concerned that Maroon Bells move signals shift towards privatization — Aspen Public Radio
• Amid restructuring talk, Forest Service says it can no longer manage popular Maroon Bells recreation area — Aspen Public Radio
• Pitkin County and U.S. Forest Service Explore Expanded Partnership for Management of Maroon Bells Scenic Area — Pitkin County
• Forest Service plan would cut the public out of Maroon Bells management decision — Westwise
• The Maroon Bells belong to everyone. Why are we treating them like a business? — Westwise

The post STATEMENT: Pitkin County votes to approve special use permit for operations of Maroon Bells Scenic Area appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The Interior department is blocking 133 National Park Service agreements with outside partners, holding up $25.9 million in funding for parks. These blocked agreements are available to view in a new interactive map from the Center for Western Priorities. Each agreement on the map lists the park or office that requested it, the partner that would have done the work, the dollar amount, and the National Park Service’s own written statement of what disapproval means for that site.

Interior disapproved 140 agreements on August 7 at 61 parks, offices, and programs in all seven National Park Service regions, as the Washington Post reported earlier this month. A handful have since been appealed, and 133 remain disapproved. The work they would have funded includes fire preparedness, hazardous tree removal, archaeological surveys, endangered species recovery, trail crews, and seasonal staffing.

Parks and their partners had already secured the money through congressional appropriations, existing federal programs, and internal funding. Interior’s review was the final step before the agreements could be signed and the money released. Interior told the Washington Post it had disapproved agreements with groups “actively working against the best interests of the American people and the priorities of this administration.” NPS staff reported they received no explanation beyond a note in the records reading “Disapproved by DOI.”

“Every one of these projects had its funding secured, and parks were counting on the work getting done. Blocking these agreements did not save a dollar. It pushed the work down the road and likely made it even more costly in the future,” said Kate Groetzinger, Center for Western Priorities communications director. “At Joshua Tree, for example, national park staff wrote that without approval for their projects, wildfires there will be larger and cost more to fight.”

Interior plans National Park Service overhaul

The Interior department’s reorganization of the National Park Service could begin rolling out in phases before the end of the year, according to internal draft documents viewed by Politico and previously reported on by the Washington Sun. The plan would reorganize parks into “hubs,” with senior officials overseeing construction, visitor services, cultural resources, and science for surrounding “spoke” parks. Leaked documents released by Wes Siler‘s Newsletter earlier this week show it would eliminate the agency’s seven regional directors and roughly 1,100 management positions. The draft documents say the changes will not require layoffs “at least in the short term.”

Quick hits Two decades of travel management decisions on verge of reversal

Grist | Mountain Journal | More Than Just Parks [map]

Two pilots killed in helicopter crash while fighting Yosemite wildfire

New York Times | Wildfire Today | The Guardian | Fox Weather | ABC30

Inside the long and deliberate collapse of America’s public land funding

Outdoor Life

Nevada is suing over Colorado River regulations. There could be impacts for Colorado

Colorado Sun

Scientists link fossil fuel producers to the West’s worsening water shortages

Yale Climate Connections

US judge declines to block transfer of wildlife refuge land to SpaceX

The Guardian | Border Report

Opinion: It’s time to engage

RE:PUBLIC

Poll shows majority of Arizonans are against eliminating national monument lands

KTAR

Quote of the day

The budgets that are being put forward, along with the DOGEing that happened to our public land employees — that is being done to break the agencies. These aren’t normal cuts. These are drastic cuts.”

—Land Tawney, co-chair of American Hunters & Anglers, Outdoor Life

Picture This
@nationalparkservice

It’s fall y’all!

The leaves are changing, temperatures are cooling (not for everyone, we know), and somewhere in the distance, you can already hear the faint, unmistakable strains of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” being defrosted from its annual cryogenic chamber.

Wait. Hold up. Give fall its due! As of today, in fact. It’s the official first day of fall, otherwise known as the autumnal equinox, the yearly occasion when humanity briefly remembers that the Earth is, in fact, tilted.

Fall is a great time to experience our national parks. The trees put on a spectacular display of color, the air gets crisp, and Fat Bear Week kicks off, giving us the rare opportunity to celebrate bears for doing what bears do best: eating an alarming amount of food and preparing for winter.

Not a fan of fall? That’s okay. Just three months until winter.

NPS Photos

Featured photo: Disapproved National Park Service agreements interactive map, Center for Western Priorities

The post New map tracks $25.9 million in NPS projects blocked by Trump administration appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

This summer, America’s national debt crossed the $40 trillion mark—a grim milestone that put an exclamation point on the abject failure of DOGE, Elon Musk’s effort to reshape the federal government. This week, Tyler Hassen, the former oil executive who ran DOGE’s operation inside the Interior department, published a memoir of revisionist history titled Inside DOGE in which he tries to rehabilitate his and Musk’s image. But DOGE’s record is permanently written in scars across American landscapes and etched on the headstones of hundreds of thousands of children.

Hassen, who now runs a cleaning supply company that has pivoted to building AI data center infrastructure, concedes in the Wall Street Journal that DOGE never dented the national debt. “Did we achieve it? Of course not,” he writes, before dismissing critics as quibbling over the definition of savings and calling for a permanent DOGE housed in Congress. He cites a $215 billion savings tracker; POLITICO examined $32.7 billion of DOGE’s claimed contract savings and could verify only $1.4 billion.

The memoir does not mention that the National Park Service has lost roughly 4,000 permanent employees since DOGE’s arrival, about 24 percent of its permanent workforce; or that the U.S. Geological Survey fell from 8,400 employees to 6,800. Hassen defends the layoffs on the grounds that firing people is simply how capitalism operates. “It isn’t personal. It isn’t cruel,” he writes. Records obtained by E&E News show Interior spent $156.5 million on administrative leave between Trump’s second inauguration and the end of 2025, paying employees to stay home for months. That figure covers only the Office of the Secretary and excludes every Interior bureau.

Hassen at the White House, New York Post on X.com

Hassen closes his WSJ op-ed by invoking his five-year-old daughter and the debt she stands to inherit. He should sit her down and explain the rest of it: how his buyouts left taxpayers paying employees to sit at home and do nothing instead of protecting our public lands; that the federal government spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in a single year, six times what it spent in 2023; that the debt passed $40 trillion on August 18, which made the number printed on his own book jacket obsolete five weeks before it shipped; and that he admits in print that none of it worked, and then asks for a chance to do it again.

Hassen should also explain the part that never shows up on a savings tracker. Independent modeling found DOGE’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development led to at least 750,000 deaths in the first year alone, most of them children. Yet Hassen complained to the Washington Post that the media treated “every reduction as a moral offense,” as if hundreds of thousands of dead children are an acceptable price to pay for imaginary savings.

Across America’s public lands, thousands of park rangers are gone. Hydrologists who measure what’s left in the Colorado River are gone. Scientists who protect imperiled species are gone. Tyler Hassen got paid for eleven months, then got a book deal, then got a job building data centers. Everyone else got the bill. He calls this moral and patriotic. Millions of Americans would choose a different word.

For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox, or subscribe to our podcast, The Landscape.

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Oil and gas operators reported more than 2,400 spills across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025, releasing a combined 5.8 million gallons of liquid, according to the annual Western Oil and Gas Spills Report from the Center for Western Priorities.

New Mexico operators reported 1,277 liquid spills, up 13 percent from 1,133 the year before, totaling 3.56 million gallons. A single OXY USA water storage tank failure accounted for nearly half of that volume on its own. Gas releases from venting and flaring fell eight percent, but operators still wasted 9.8 billion cubic feet of gas, in a state that produced 16 percent of the nation’s crude oil in 2025. Colorado spills fell 11 percent to 338, though volume nearly doubled to 794,000 gallons. Wyoming was the only state where both spill count and volume declined, dropping to 786 spills and 1.43 million gallons.

This year, CWP also analyzed Colorado’s historical spill filings and found 6,084 records between 2016 and 2025, with annual filings jumping more than fifteen-fold since 2020, from 125 that year to 1,948 last year. These are spills that were missed by operators for years before a well was plugged. Most of these spills surfaced only when companies plugged wells or tore down old equipment. This reveals that most spills go unreported despite the state’s strong reporting requirements, and implies the actual scale of spills and leaks is much bigger than this report captures, not just for Colorado, but in all three states.

“With the Trump administration pushing even more oil and gas drilling on public lands, this problem is set to increase rather than improve,” said Kate Groetzinger, CWP communications director. “We could be building out clean energy. Instead, we’re doubling down on dirty oil and gas production.”

Why submitting a public comment still matters—and how to write a good one

On a new episode of The Landscape, Kate and Aaron talk to Nick Holshouser, a data analyst with Wandering Nature, LLC, who is analyzing the public comments coming in on the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the 2001 roadless rule in real-time at roadless.org, and Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, about public comment periods under the Trump administration. We cover why you should still submit public comments (even though the Trump administration probably isn’t interested in your opinion) and how to write a comment that requires an agency response and helps build the legal record against bad agency actions.

Quick hits Trump administration says developers, loggers can kill endangered species

Stateline

Another flash flood hit the Grand Canyon, setting back recovery from a deadly flood weeks ago

Outside

Colorado agencies call for removal of Roan Plateau parcels from federal oil and gas lease sale

Summit Daily

St. Mary’s Glacier, a Colorado landmark, has melted amid a record-hot summer

Aspen Times | Colorado Sun

Leaked documents reveal Trump’s plan to take control of your national parks

Wes Siler’s Newsletter

National park rangers have a mental health problem. Could it get worse?

Scienceline

The roadless rule is facing repeal, experts want to be clear about wildfires and roads

WXPR

Opinion: Montana mines and how we move forward

Flathead Beacon

Quote of the day

Unless you’re wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘I’m here to draw the blood of endangered species,’ you’re basically off the hook.”

—Brett Hartl, Center for Biological Diversity government affairs director, Stateline

Picture This
@usinteriorSome places remind you just how vast and extraordinary this country really is.

At Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona, layers of sandstone twist, fold and sweep across the landscape at White Pocket, creating a scene that hardly looks real.

Managed by @mypubliclands, this remarkable landscape is part of the millions of acres of public lands that belong to all Americans.

You may never stand in this exact spot, but images like this give all of us a chance to appreciate the incredible beauty of our country.

Photo by BLM

 

Featured photo: BLM truck and oil and gas infrastructure. Source: BLM Colorado

The post At least 2,400 oil and gas spills occurred across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025 appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

DENVER—The Center for Western Priorities today published an interactive map of the 133 National Park Service partner agreements that were disapproved by the Department of the Interior on August 7, blocking $25.9 million in funding. Parks and their partners had already secured the funding for these programs from congressional appropriations, existing federal programs, and internal funding. The Interior department review was the final step before the agreements could be signed and the money released.

The disapproved agreements were first reported on by the Washington Post earlier this month. Interior told the Washington Post it had disapproved agreements with groups “actively working against the best interests of the American people and the priorities of this administration.” NPS staff reported they received no explanation beyond a note in the records reading “Disapproved by DOI.”

Explore the map

Every agreement appears on the map with the park or office that requested it, the partner organization that would have carried out the work, the dollar figure attached to it, and the National Park Service’s own written statement of what disapproval means for that site. The complete dataset is available to download as a CSV.

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

“Revoking funding for organizations that support America’s national parks shows how much disdain Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has for America’s public lands. The Interior department says these groups were ‘working against the best interests of the American people.’ That makes no sense. Anyone working to make our parks better, safer, and cleaner is clearly working in America’s best interest.

“Every one of these projects had its funding secured, and parks were counting on the work getting done. Blocking these agreements did not save a dollar. It pushed the work down the road and likely made it even more costly in the future. At Joshua Tree, for example, national park staff wrote that without approval for their projects, wildfires there will be larger and cost more to fight. Let’s hear the Interior department explain why that’s a good thing for the American people.”

Methodology:

The map draws on data from the National Park Service’s Financial Assistance Submission Tracker, with status as of September 9, 2026 and subsequently provided to the Center for Western Priorities. The August 7 batch held 140 requests; seven have since moved to another status and are excluded. Project descriptions and impact statements appear as written in the records. Full methodology, a data dictionary, and the source code are published at github.com/Center-for-Western-Priorities/2026-NPS-Agreement-Disapprovals.

Learn more:

• Trump administration blocks $25 million in funding for national parks — Washington Post

• Gold statues and staff cuts: How Trump has disrupted America’s parks — New York Times

The post STATEMENT: New map tracks $25.9 million in NPS projects blocked by Trump administration appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron talk to Nick Holshouser, a data analyst with Wandering Nature, LLC, who is analyzing the public comments coming in on the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the 2001 roadless rule in real-time at roadless.org, and Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, about public comment periods under the Trump administration. We cover why you should still submit public comments (even though the Trump administration probably isn’t interested in your opinion) and how to write a comment that requires an agency response and helps build the legal record against bad agency actions.

News

• Trump is considering more data centers on public lands than previously known – The Washington Sun
• Forest Service adds comment period for PitCo’s Maroon Bells operations takeover – Aspen Journalism

Resources

• Roadless Rule repeal live comment analysis
• Submit a comment on the proposed Roadless Rule repeal
• Watch this episode on YouTube (coming soon)

Produced by Aaron Weiss, Lauren Bogard, Kate Groetzinger, and Lilly Bock-Brownstein
Feedback: podcast@westernpriorities.org
Music: Purple Planet
Featured image: Stand of Ponderosa Pines in Grassy Valley by Deer Creek on the Malheur National Forest in North Eastern Oregon; Source: USFS/Flickr

The post Why submitting a public comment still matters—and how to write a good one appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Legacy spills and leaks analyzed in this year’s report raise new questions about decades of undetected pollution

The following release was updated on 9/22/26 to correct these two errors:

In the Wyoming section, the release stated that Merit Energy reported seven spills in 2025. Merit Energy actually reported 30 spills and ranked seventh among Wyoming operators in total spill count in 2025. Merit spilled the most volume of any operator. 

In the Colorado section, the release referenced “a single spill of 445,284 gallons in the Piceance Basin by QB Energy Operating.” The largest single spill was approximately 352,800 gallons of produced water, spilled by QB Energy in the Piceance Basin on December 2, 2025. QB Energy’s total reported spill volume across 46 incidents in 2025 was 445,284 gallons.

DENVER—Each year, the Center for Western Priorities analyzes oil and gas spills reported by companies to state regulators in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico—the top oil and gas producers in the Intermountain West. This year, companies in these states reported over 2,400 liquid spills in 2025, releasing at least 5.8 million gallons of oil, produced water, and other toxic, drilling-related fluids.

This year’s report also reveals a problem regulators are only beginning to understand. In Colorado, the number of spills discovered at well sites during decommissioning has grown sharply over the past several years, from 125 in 2020 to 1,948 in 2025, a more than fifteen-fold increase. Since 2016, operators and regulators have identified 6,084 of these legacy contamination sites. These are spills that were missed by operators for years before a well was plugged. Weld County alone accounts for 87 percent of the total, and three companies, Noble Energy, Kerr-McGee, and PDC Energy, are tied to more than three-quarters of these historical spills. Fewer than one percent of these spills and leaks were caught by routine state inspections; the rest surfaced only when a well was being decommissioned.

The magnitude of these historical spills dwarfs what shows up in the state’s annual spill reporting: the 6,084 legacy spills uncovered since 2016 already outnumber the 3,642 spills Colorado has logged through its standard annual reporting system since 2017, revealing that most spills go unreported despite the state’s strong reporting requirements. This implies the actual scale of spills and leaks is much bigger than this report captures, not just for Colorado, but in all three states.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from report co-author and Communications Director Kate Groetzinger:

“Across all three states, a pattern is consistent: spill counts can rise or fall year to year, but the volume of oil, produced water, and methane released into the region’s air, soil, and waterways remains substantial, and thanks to the Colorado historical spill data, decades of contamination is only now coming to light.

“While increased regulations seem to have had some effect in curbing methane waste in New Mexico, oil and gas production still generates significant air pollution that Westerners shouldn’t be forced to live with. With the Trump administration pushing even more oil and gas drilling on public lands, this problem is set to increase rather than improve. We could be building out clean energy. Instead, we’re doubling down on dirty oil and gas production.”

In New Mexico, oil and gas companies reported 1,277 liquid spills in 2025, up 13 percent from 1,133 the year before, totaling 3.56 million gallons, a 75 percent jump from 2024. Nearly half of that volume, 1.66 million gallons, came from a single incident: an OXY USA produced-water storage tank failure. Removing that spill brings New Mexico’s 2025 volume below 2024’s. Oil and gas companies in New Mexico also reported 37,207 gas releases, wasting 9.8 billion cubic feet of methane, enough to heat roughly 127,000 average American homes for an entire year.

In Wyoming, companies reported 786 spills in 2025, down from 825 in 2024. The total volume spilled in Wyoming fell 21 percent, from 1.81 million to 1.43 million gallons, driven mostly by a drop in produced water releases. Converse and Campbell counties, both in the Powder River Basin, accounted for 39 percent of the state’s incidents. Crowheart Energy reported the most spills of any operator, at 102, while Merit Energy spilled the most volume, at 303,565 gallons.

In Colorado, oil and gas companies reported 338 spills in 2025, the fewest since the state began tracking in 2017 and down 11 percent from 378 in 2024. But the volume spilled nearly doubled from 2024 to 2025, from 436,000 to 794,000 gallons, largely because of a single spill of 352,800 gallons in the Piceance Basin by QB Energy Operating—almost half of the total volume spilled in Colorado in 2025. As in past years, roughly half of all spills statewide occurred in Weld County.

The full report, including state-by-state data on operators, counties, and fluid types, is available at the following links:

• Overview 2025

• Colorado 2025

• Colorado Historical Spills

• New Mexico 2025

• Wyoming 2025

The post ANALYSIS: Annual report finds at least 2,400 oil and gas spills occurred across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025 appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The U.S. Forest Service announced on Friday that it will conduct a 15-day comment period before signing off on a special use permit for Pitkin County, Colorado to manage operations at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area. The opportunity for public comment was added following pressure from public lands advocates, including the Center for Western Priorities. The comment period will begin after county commissioners vote on the special use permit this Wednesday.

The agency still intends to approve the permit using a categorical exclusion, which lets it skip the environmental review and public comment process required under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Forest Service has not yet released a map or an acreage number for what the permit would cover. “The public can’t meaningfully participate if USFS is withholding key information about the scope of what it’s proposing,” said CWP executive director Aaron Weiss.

Pitkin County has partnered with the Forest Service on operations at Maroon Bells for decades, but the partnership is not a solution for a lack of federal funding. “We feel like this is the best path forward, and if we can all work together and get federal lands funded at a higher level, that one day, the county could give this back,” said Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. “Ultimately, we would like the federal government to fund their public lands.”

Scott Fitzwilliams, retired White River National Forest supervisor, worries the arrangement could set a dangerous standard. “Partnerships should add to the agency’s capability,” he said. “They should not become a mechanism to normalize the decline and dismantling of our federal agencies.”

How Trump has disrupted America’s national parks

The Trump administration diverted at least $67 million in national park entrance fees this spring to projects in Washington, D.C., including a no-bid contract to cover four statues near the National Mall in gold leaf, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times. Workforce cuts have left at least 20 percent of parks significantly understaffed. Roughly 1,500 repairs and upgrades at more than 200 National Park Service sites were labeled “low priority,” and most will go unfunded when the fiscal year closes September 30.

Quick hits Trump signs orders loosening hunting restrictions

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Trump says planned 250-foot arch will be ‘military complex’ for drones, snipers

Washington Post | USA Today | The Hill | Time | ABC | Associated Press

Quote of the day

Our parks tell the history of this country. You may not like the history, but it is the history, and so you should tell the story that did take place, not come in and edit.”

—Fran Mainella, former National Park Service director under George W. Bush, New York Times

Picture This @katmainppThe wait is finally over!

Fat Bear Week starts Tuesday, September 22, 2026. This year, 16 bears go head to head in a bracket-style competition to see which bear of Brooks River is the fattest. A fat bear is a successful bear, and Fat Bear Week celebrates the success of these wild, brown bears.

America’s natural and cultural landscapes that support these fat bears, embody an evolving national story. Katmai National Park and Preserve offers a powerful lens through which visitors can experience an important part of this story. This year, when America celebrates its 250th year of independence, the park honors the places that sustain its communities, whether human or wildlife.

Learn more at the fat bear link in our bio!

Graphics designed by hand by Sara Wolman, courtesy of explore.org #fatbearweek

Featured photo: Maroon Bells Scenic Area. Source: David Blackley, CC BY-ND 2.0

The post Forest Service adds comment period for Maroon Bells management decision appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

In Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service plans to let Pitkin County take over management of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area because it can no longer cover a $300,000 annual shortfall.

It plans to do this using a legal shortcut known as a categorical exclusion, which lets federal agencies skip the environmental review and public comment process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for decisions the government has already determined won’t significantly affect the environment. According to the Center for Western Priorities’ Lilly Bock-Brownstein, this could set a dangerous precedent for public lands.

The specific exclusion the Forest Service intends to use was written for small permits like mountain bike passes and backcountry ski guiding, not full management of one of the West’s most popular and iconic recreation areas.

Other areas have received much more thorough review than is proposed for the Maroon Bells. In 2024, the Forest Service proposed handing management of Sweetwater Lake, an 832-acre site in the same national forest, to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. It prepared a full environmental impact statement—a review that’s still underway. Maroon Bells would get none of that scrutiny.

Pitkin County has the third-highest per capita income in the United States and a dedicated open-space tax through 2040—a best-case scenario for this kind of deal. But if the precedent is set for categorical exclusions to be used as a shortcut to transfer land management, the same could happen at any underfunded site, in counties with fewer resources and less commitment to conservation, which could lead to logging, mining, and drilling.

According to Bock-Brownstein, the solution for budget and staffing shortfalls should be to properly fund the Forest Service.

“The Maroon Bells belong to everyone, and the public has a right to be part of the decision about how it is managed,” she wrote.

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Quote of the day

We need to modernize a system developed for a different era to respond to climate change, invasive species, increasingly severe wildfire, accelerating habitat loss, and evolving public expectations.”

—Mark Salvo, senior conservation advisor at Oregon Natural Desert Association, Ground Shift

Picture This @nationalparkservice

Put a bird on it.

Alright, folks. Tackle today like a hungry magpie or or similar cleaner bird perched on the head of a large mammal: focused, determined, and apparently willing to eat whatever’s crawling around up there.

You could also channel your inner elk or bison. Stand tall. Chew thoughtfully. Stare off into the distance as if you’ve just remembered an important meeting. And then crush those goals so thoroughly you’ll be saying, “Elk yeah.” Which is not a phrase anyone has ever needed to say, but here we are.

Fun fact: large herbivores like elk and bison are often visited by “cleaner birds,” such as magpies, which pick parasites from their skin or hair. The elk gets groomed. The magpie gets dinner. Everyone’s a winner. Maybe not the parasite.

NPS Photos

 

(Featured image: Maroon Lake at Maroon Bells. Photo by John Fowler, Flickr)

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A legal shortcut, rewritten last year, is about to decide who runs one of Colorado’s most visited landscapes

Update: On Friday, September 18, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it will conduct a 15-day comment period before signing off on a special use permit for Pitkin County to manage operations at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area. The Forest Service has not yet released a map or an acreage number for what the permit would cover.

The Maroon Bells Scenic Area draws more than 200,000 visitors a year and is the gateway to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, one of Colorado’s original wilderness areas. In May of this year, Pitkin County applied for a special use permit to take over day-to-day management of Maroon Bells, starting with the 2027 season. The White River National Forest says it can no longer cover a roughly $300,000 annual shortfall at the site and has told the county to finalize an agreement by fall or it will turn to a private concessionaire instead.

To authorize the management change, the U.S. Forest Service plans to use a categorical exclusion: a legal shortcut that lets federal agencies skip the environmental review and public comment process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on decisions the government has already determined won’t significantly affect the environment. The rules governing that shortcut were rewritten last year to remove the public notice step that it previously included, meaning this management change could occur with no opportunity for public input.

Pitkin County has partnered with the Forest Service at the Maroon Bells for decades, and it’s stepping in because the federal government says it can no longer afford to manage the site at a $300,000 loss. The county, which is home to Aspen, undoubtedly has the knowledge, ability, and resources to manage the area responsibly for recreation and conservation, but the process still deserves scrutiny. The use of a categorical exclusion to bypass the NEPA process means the federal government is handing off management of a major recreation area to a local entity without thoroughly examining the potential environmental and social impacts and without providing the public that owns the land with a chance to share their concerns about the plan.

What even is a categorical exclusion? As outlined in NEPA, categorical exclusions can be used for categories of activities when the government has determined that there would be “no significant impact” to the environment from the proposed activity covered by the categorical exclusion. Agencies can also adopt each other’s categorical exclusions. Previous administrations from both political parties have used both of these approaches for a variety of purposes.

But the second Trump administration is broadening the use of categorical exclusions, in many cases trying to use them as blanket exemptions from following the law at all, or greatly expanding the acreage to which they apply. To lay the groundwork for this approach, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) repealed its implementing regulations for NEPA via a rule that was finalized in January 2026. Among other things, this repeal included removing the 30-day public comment period for proposed categorical exclusions. Essentially, the public will have to take the government at its word that the activities covered by the proposed categorical exclusion will have no significant impact on the environment and will have no opportunity to raise concerns or offer evidence that the activity would, in fact, have an impact on the environment.

In April 2026, following the rule repeal, CEQ issued new guidance on the use of categorical exclusions, framing its approach as “CE-first” and promoting categorical exclusions as “a core feature of NEPA” rather than a process to create defined and limited exceptions. CEQ chair Katherine Scarlett described the guidance as intended to “help agencies identify an off-ramp from unnecessary levels of environmental review” during the permitting process.

Following these policy changes, the Trump administration has wasted no time putting it into practice. For example, in August, the Bureau of Land Management finalized an exclusion for forest and woodland density management that raised the area covered from 70 acres to 5,000.

The exclusion the Forest Service intends to use at the Maroon Bells, USDA-29c-USFS, covers the “issuance of a new authorization or amendment of an existing authorization for recreation special uses that occur on existing roads or trails, in existing facilities, in existing recreation sites, or in areas where such activities are allowed.” The examples written into the rule are all small permits or contracts, including mountain bike permits on trails already open to bikes, backcountry ski guiding, a one-time event at an existing facility, and a concession contract to run a campground that was already operating. None of the examples include full management of one of the West’s most popular and iconic recreation areas.

Shuttle to Maroon Bells Trailhead, Tony Webster

Until last year, the Forest Service’s NEPA procedures put two checks on that shortcut: The agency had to notify the public before deciding an exclusion applied; scoping, its regulations said, “is required for all Forest Service proposed actions, including those that would appear to be categorically excluded.” And before using an exclusion, officials had to weigh a list of resource conditions that specifically named congressionally designated wilderness. In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, the agency that houses the U.S. Forest Service) removed those procedures entirely, folding what survived into a single department-wide rule finalized this April. Whether a sensitive resource is enough to disqualify a project from the shortcut is now left to the responsible official’s sole discretion on a case-by-case basis.

Why this is wrong for Maroon Bells

The Maroon Bells agreement is wider-reaching than the permits that the categorical exclusion option was written for. The county’s ordinance authorizing the agreement says the Forest Service “has proposed issuing a Special Use Permit to authorize Pitkin County to assume responsibility for day-to-day operations, maintenance, visitor staffing, and natural resource stewardship at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area, while the federal government retains ultimate ownership and overarching regulatory oversight of the land.” The draft permit does not include an acreage number.

A concession contract to run a campground covers one campground, but this agreement covers operations, staffing, and resource stewardship seemingly across the entire scenic area. Professor Mark Squillace, who teaches natural resources law at the University of Colorado, made the same point in comments to the county and the Forest Service, saying that the exclusion “does not allow the wholesale transfer of management responsibility over the entire Maroon Bells Scenic Area.”

In 2024, the Forest Service proposed handing management of Sweetwater Lake, an 832-acre recreation area also within White River National Forest, to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. But for that transfer, the Forest Service announced it would prepare a full environmental impact statement, the most thorough review NEPA provides, and it ran a formal scoping process with public meetings and a comment period. That review is still underway. Sweetwater Lake received the most rigorous analysis available, while Maroon Bells would receive none.

Hiking above Sweetwater Lake, Matt Tomlinson

The risk of this approach may land back on Pitkin County. The Forest Service is not required to produce any NEPA documentation for this category, so there will be no federal record explaining the decision. If the permit and lack of environmental review are challenged, the county’s operating plan, reservation system, and new fee structure would sit in limbo while challenges play out in court.

Pitkin County’s commissioners and Open Space department have been careful stewards and clearly want what is best for the Maroon Bells. But a public process protects everyone’s stake in the site regardless of who holds office in the county. And the implications for this type of shortcut carry far beyond one county.

Beyond Pitkin County

The entire reason for this management change is money. Years of budget and staffing shortfalls have left the Forest Service unable to keep up the restrooms, trails, campgrounds, and visitor services at the site. The remedy for this issue should be to properly fund the Forest Service. National public lands belong to all Americans, and it should not be up to local governments to decide how they operate and who can visit them, as CWP noted in a previous blog post about this issue.

Pitkin County has the third-highest per capita income in the United States and an open space program funded by a dedicated property tax through 2040. It is close to a best-case scenario for this kind of arrangement with the federal government. But the precedent it sets will not be limited to counties with the resources and political will to properly manage areas like Maroon Bells. If a categorical exclusion can alter the management of a landscape this prominent with no public process, the same shortcut is available at any underfunded site, in counties with fewer resources, less capacity to run an operation at this scale, and less commitment to managing it for recreation and conservation. If the first question for managing public lands is “does it turn a profit?” then counties may quickly turn to logging, mining, and drilling rather than responsible stewardship.

West Maroon Creek, Steven dosRemedios

The Forest Service should complete an environmental analysis and open a public comment period before any permit is signed. Waiting for an environmental review is a smaller price than years of legal uncertainty at the Maroon Bells, and the next underfunded Forest Service site may not have a wealthy county willing to step up and take care of it.

The Maroon Bells belong to everyone, and the public has a right to be part of the decision about how it is managed.

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Latino Conservation Week kicked off this week at Ironwood Forest National Monument near Tucson—one of six national monuments the Trump administration has identified as candidates for size reduction to open the way for mining and drilling.

Ironwood Forest protects 129,000 acres of Sonoran Desert habitat and has served as a buffer against mining expansion since its 2000 designation. ASARCO’s Silver Bell mine has pursued a years-long push to expand into the monument to boost copper production.

“Public lands belong to all of us, not special interests,” said Rebecca Perez, Arizona conservation manager for The Wilderness Society. “Yet this summer, the Trump administration virtually eliminated Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments, making them vulnerable to mining and drilling.”

The threats to public lands extend beyond monument boundaries. The Center for Western Priorities’ Keep Parks Public campaign was in Tucson last month for a live podcast recording about damage to cultural sites and fragmentation of wildlife habitat caused by border wall construction. You can listen to the podcast here.

“We all must join together and understand that this is our land,” said Christine Flanagan, president of Friends of Ironwood Forest. “And as public land owners, we need to start acting together like we own this land.”

Events across the United States are being held through Sunday, September 20. Find an event near you.

Quick hits Tohono O’odham fight border wall on sacred, sovereign lands

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California lawmakers join together in a bipartisan push against proposed Yosemite land transfer

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Latino Conservation Week launches with call to protect public lands

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Studies link New Mexico drilling to radiation, air pollution, health risks

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Yellowstone National Park visits decline for 3rd month

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Drought leads to ‘unprecedented’ black bear conflicts in Wyoming

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Opinion: Wildfire strategy doesn’t need a winner

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Major Forest Service policies could be changing. Here’s what’s at stake

Montana Free Press

Quote of the day

We will not let this destroy our sacred sites, our burial sites, our holy places, the places of our ancestors. We will not let it destroy our environment. We will not let it further divide our people. We will not let it divide our reservation.”

—Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose, High Country News

Picture This @yellowstonenps

It’s migration time! But not all birds leave Yellowstone – several bird species stay in the park a bit longer and approximately 50 species reside here year-round.

Osprey usually stay through November. These birds are known for their excellent fishing skills – they dive into the water to catch fish with their sharp talons. Barbed pads on the soles of their feet help them grip slippery fish that can weigh up to 50% of their body weight!

Planning to go birding during your Yellowstone visit? Download our bird checklist from our website at: go.nps.gov/YELLbirds (link available in our bio)

 

(Featured image: Ironwood Forest National Monument near Tucson, Arizona. Photo by Bob Wick, BLM California. Flickr)

The post Latino Conservation Week highlights attacks on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

According to a new blog post by The Wilderness Society, the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes push to trade away a piece of Yosemite National Park to a private developer isn’t an isolated move—it’s one of at least seven similar efforts to privatize or dispose of public land.

Examples include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service handing SpaceX a chunk of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Interior’s removal of protections for 2.1 million acres of Alaska public land to clear the way for the Ambler Road mining project, and a federal housing task force identifying Bureau of Land Management land within 10 miles of any town of more than 5,000 people for potential disposal.

The push to privatize part of Yosemite National Park was first reported in late August by NOTUS (now the Washington Sun), which said that Interior is negotiating a swap that would give developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital a private access road to a planned resort in exchange for equivalent-value land elsewhere in California.

The Yosemite deal, The Wilderness Society wrote, sets “yet another chilling precedent of public land decisions made by the administration to directly benefit special interests.“

EPA removes limits on pollution from power plants

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced it will no longer regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas plants. The move finalizes the reversal of a Biden-era rule that estimates it would have saved thousands of lives, and begins the process of completely rescinding all remaining GHG emissions standards for power plants. The EPA said that greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have “no material impact on global climate change,” despite the fact that US electricity generation is responsible for a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Quick hits EPA erases limits on climate pollution from power plants

New York Times | CNN | The Guardian | Los Angeles Times | Washington Post

Secretary AI: Inside Burgum’s huddles with data center heavyweights

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Environmental groups protest BLM oil and gas auctions in Colorado

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Opinion: What Teddy Roosevelt knew and Trump doesn’t get: Public lands need science

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The Trump admin says repealing the Roadless Rule will reduce wildfires. A new study casts doubt on that

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Interior defends Utah monument reductions despite public outcry

KSJD

Yosemite development scheme recalls admin’s other public lands sell-off efforts

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Quote of the day

America’s public lands are among our nation’s greatest treasures. Protecting them requires more than celebrating them. It requires defending the science, scientific workforce, and public institutions that make stewardship possible.”

—Julian Reyes, Chief of Staff at the Union of Concerned Scientists, The Equation

Picture This @wyomingoutdoorcouncil

The Roadless Rule is in danger. Click the link in our bio and tell the Forest Service you value America’s last wild landscapes before the public comment period closes on Sept. 21.

 

(Featured image: Yosemite Falls at Yosemite National Park in California. webmink, Flickr)

The post Yosemite land swap is part of a bigger pattern of public lands giveaways appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The Interior department has disapproved $25 million in funding for projects at national parks, according to internal documents reviewed by the Washington Post.

The cuts will affect over 130 partnership agreements for projects like Native American burial mound protection, an endangered garter snake project, and sled dog care at Denali. The entire batch of projects had already secured funding through congressional appropriations.

Joshua Tree National Park was the most affected. The blocked partnership agreements would have supported at least 16 new jobs, helped recover areas in the park burned in wildfires, and prevented rodents from spreading hantavirus.

According to the documents, “If this work is not completed, the park will be unable to fight wildfire. Fires will be larger and fire suppression will be more expensive.”

Interior spokesperson Aubrie Spady said the move reflects the “administration’s objectives to make life more affordable for Americans, unleash domestic energy production and expand access to our public lands,” but she did not respond to questions about the money being redirected.

“The real question is where did this $25 million go to?” said Elaine Leslie, a former Park Service acting superintendent and wildlife biologist who reviewed the disapprovals list. “$25 million worth of funding was set aside for these projects. Where is it?”

Reflecting Pool contractor blames its flawed repair, not vandals, for failure

Atlantic Industrial Coatings—the contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool—has told the Trump administration that its own flaws in the repair caused the blue liner to peel. Up until this point, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has continued to claim that vandals were to blame for the liner’s failure.

According to documents obtained by the New York Times, Atlantic Industrial Coatings admitted it did not spray enough primer for the layers of the coating to stick together, and that it used two chemicals that turned out to be incompatible.

Quick hits Contractor blames its own repairs, not vandals, for Reflecting Pool failure

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Quote of the day

So, with the Antiquities Act, Congress delegated a one-way authority to the president to protect lands as national monuments. Congress did not delegate the authority to erase national monuments … that were proclaimed or protected by previous presidents. Congress reserved that power for itself.”

—Steve Bloch, legal director and attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Deseret News

Picture This @usinterior

Oh, to be a coyote napping on a warm rock at @saguaronationalpark.

Coyotes are built for desert life. These adaptable canines are most active around dawn and dusk, when Arizona temperatures are a little more forgiving.

They’re also opportunistic eaters, dining on everything from rodents and rabbits to insects, fruit and whatever else the Sonoran Desert puts on the menu.

Photo by Paige Wilton

 

(Featured image: Joshua Tree National Park in California. Tuxyso, Wikimedia Commons)

The post Trump admin blocks $25 million in funding for national parks appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

A majority of Utahns support restoring protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, according to a new poll commissioned by the Grand Canyon Trust. The poll was conducted by New Bridge Strategy and surveyed 500 registered voters.

President Donald Trump slashed the size of both monuments by roughly 90 percent in July and eliminated the Bears Ears Commission, which guided the management of Bears Ears and consisted of representatives from the Hopi, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute, Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribes. Roughly 3 million acres of public lands that now fall outside the monument boundaries are open for new mining claims starting today.

The poll results also show that a majority of Utah voters think Native American Tribes should have a strong role in public land management and support a president’s ability to designate national monuments. “These findings demonstrate broad public recognition that Tribal nations must remain meaningfully involved in stewardship and co-management of their ancestral lands,” Davina Smith-Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and a member of the Navajo Nation, said in a press conference Wednesday.

Autumn Gillard, a member of the Southern Paiute Tribe and coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, agreed, saying, “When Tribal voices are excluded, land management decisions lose generations of understanding that cannot be replaced by a short study or an administrative review.”

Maroon Bells fees to increase as county prepares to take over management

The Pitkin Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a special use permit to take over management of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area from the U.S. Forest Service in 2027. Forest Service officials justified the decision by stating that the funding available to manage the Maroon Bells Scenic Area has “not kept pace with the rising costs of sustainably operating and maintaining the area.” The special use permit would allow Pitkin County to run everything from day-to-day operations like staffing and maintenance but would still require raising visitor fees to help “support operational expenses.” The county wants to increase the day-use fee at the Maroon Bells from $10 to $30, while campground fees and wilderness permit trailhead parking would more than double. Will Roush, the executive director of Wilderness Workshop, said of the decision, “Transferring essential public lands management functions to counties and private contractors without any Forest Service public process is a dangerous precedent, and everyone who cares about our public lands should be concerned about what this means for their future stewardship and accessibility.” To learn more, read our Westwise blog post about this issue.

Quick hits Why the federal government is losing its war on fire

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Maroon Bells visitation fees to increase as county prepares to take over management

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Poll: Majority of Utah voters want protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante to be restored

Salt Lake Tribune | Utah News Dispatch | Inside Climate News | Native News Online | Fox13 Now | Grand Canyon Trust [poll results]

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Moab-Arches shuttle officially launches as agencies begin measuring impact

Salt Lake Tribune

New Mexico sues federal government for refusing to reimburse state for $61 million in wildfire costs

SourceNM

Opinion: Trump’s attacks on the environment are out of touch with America

TIME

Lawsuit says BLM Colorado oil and gas lease sales ignored critical wildlife corridors

Colorado Newsline | Colorado Sun

Quote of the day

This president labels his policies ‘America first,’ but on public lands and national parks he’s simply put America last. As someone who was in those rooms making the case, I could not be more disappointed. And it doesn’t need to be this way.”

—Benji Backer, founder and CEO of United By Nature, TIME

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@nationalparkservice

The National Park Service is honored to formally recognize the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial as an Affiliated Area of the National Park System.

This week, as the nation marks 25 years since September 11, 2001, this designation recognizes the enduring national significance of this place of remembrance and honors the 184 people who lost their lives at the Pentagon and aboard American Airlines Flight 77.

The two-acre outdoor memorial, which opened in 2008, is a solemn place of reflection and remembrance. The memorial features 184 illuminated units, each dedicated to an individual who was killed on September 11, 2001. Together, they create a lasting tribute to the lives lost and the families, friends, and communities forever changed that day.

NPS Photos

Featured image: Bears Ears National Monument – Moon House. Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.

The post As mining threat looms, poll confirms Utah voters want monuments protected appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Review of public comments finds oil, mining, grazing, and off-roading groups are asking the Trump administration to gut protections for every tier of the Wilderness system

 

DENVER—A review of public comments finds that drilling and mining associations, ranching groups, and off-road vehicle advocates are asking the Trump administration to weaken protections for congressionally-designated Wilderness, eliminate Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs), and cut off the wilderness designation pipeline on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

BLM solicited input earlier this summer on revisions to three manuals that together govern nearly every acre of land in the agency’s wilderness system and pipeline—those classified as Wilderness, WSAs, and Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWCs)—effectively inviting industry and motorized-recreation groups to rewrite the agency’s instructions for managing these areas. The comment period for all three closed August 14.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum deceptively framed the review as an effort to “expand access to outdoor recreation while ensuring public lands remain well managed, accessible and preserved for future generations.” According to this review by the Center for Western Priorities, industry and motorized-recreation groups used the comment period to ask for far more than expanded recreational access—many asked BLM to eliminate protections outright, in some cases permanently. If followed, these recommendations would lead to weakened protections for over 10.5 million acres of congressionally-designated Wilderness, the outright elimination of protections for over 11.2 million acres currently designated as WSAs, and the elimination of the LWC category entirely, according to numbers from the Wilderness Society. In total, this could affect over 90 million acres of public land.

The groups:

Western Energy Alliance submitted the most sweeping demands of any commenter. The oil and gas trade group asked BLM to “rescind and replace Manual 6320 [Considering Lands with Wilderness Characteristics in the BLM Land Use Planning Process] in its entirety” and make clear “that BLM cannot and will not move forward with designating LWCs in the future.” On the WSA front, the group argued BLM “should make clear that it has no authority to designate new WSAs,” citing a 2003 out of court settlement with the state of Utah, and said BLM should remove protections from all WSAs “that Congress has chosen not to designate as Wilderness.”

The American Exploration and Mining Association asked BLM to treat LWCs and WSAs as “temporary administrative classifications, not permanent designations” and to eliminate any land with mining potential from future WSA or LWC designations. The Public Lands Council, representing ranchers who graze livestock on public land, recommended “all existing WSAs be immediately evaluated for release.” Colorado Offroad Trail Defenders and a joint filing from the American Motorcyclist Association and One Voice argued BLM’s legal authority to inventory and protect wilderness-quality land lapsed when a one-time, congressionally mandated inventory period ended in 1991, and that the agency has no statutory basis to keep designating new protected areas.

The Utah Public Lands Alliance, an off-highway vehicle industry group, called for “resolving and releasing the remaining WSA estate” and a mandatory, recurring process to review and release LWCs. On the designated Wilderness front, the group submitted a comment letter asking BLM to loosen restrictions on fire management and motorized access in Wilderness areas, while separately accusing the agency of “administrative expansion” of Wilderness areas beyond what Congress authorized, warning against what it called “Wilderness by Adjacency.”

The Arizona Farm Bureau Federation and The American Farm Bureau Federation, asked BLM to release any WSA that has remained in that status for five years or more and to loosen motorized-access restrictions for grazing infrastructure inside areas designated as Wilderness. The Nevada Farm Bureau Federation submitted a proposed rewrite of the Wilderness manual’s grazing section that would authorize expanded motorized equipment use inside Wilderness boundaries.

Statements: 

“This isn’t a bunch of one-off comments. It’s a coordinated push by oil and gas, mining, grazing, and off-road groups to strip protections from the small share of public land where drilling, mining, and motorized recreation aren’t already allowed and to ensure no land gets protected as Wilderness in the future,” said Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger. “These comments are asking the BLM to actively ignore the law, which says that only Congress can release Wilderness Study Areas or designated them as Wilderness. They also seek to write their own laws into existence, creating arbitrary time limits and other litmus tests for the release of WSAs. If the administration follows this advice, it will end up in court for years to come.”

“Americans cherish wild public lands for wildlife habitat, clean air and water and the freedom these places provide us to explore,” the Wilderness Society’s Director of BLM Campaigns, Michael Carroll. “But, as expected, the oil, gas and mining industry has treated the administration’s review of these special places as a policy blank check to ask that the BLM open more wilderness-quality lands for development. They are insisting on backdoor changes to agency guidance that would subvert the law and effectively rob future generations of some of the last remaining wild places.”

“Some of the nation’s wildest places are at risk from the Interior Department’s latest ploy,” said Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Steve Bloch. “Southern Utah’s redrock country—a wild landscape beloved by Americans for generations—is especially at risk and in the crosshairs of this effort. This analysis confirms that the Trump administration has not only invited the fox into the henhouse but it’s helping to line up the chickens for slaughter.”

Background: 

The three manuals under review, Manual 6320, covering Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWCs); Manual 6330, covering Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs); and Manual 6340, covering land Congress has formally designated as Wilderness, correspond with different levels of legal protection and status for public lands managed by BLM. LWCs are the least protective: BLM can designate or release them entirely through its own land-use planning process, with no say from Congress. According to the Wilderness Society, BLM has identified roughly 69.6 million acres of LWCs that don’t overlap with existing WSAs.

The overwhelming majority of WSAs were created pursuant to a one-time, congressionally mandated wilderness review. Congress ordered the Interior Department, via the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), to inventory roadless BLM areas over 5,000 acres for wilderness character, with recommendations due by 1993. Only Congress can “release” them, either by designating them as Wilderness or explicitly withdrawing that status through legislation. According to the Wilderness Society, there are 11.2 million acres of WSAs currently administered by BLM.

Under Section 603 of FLPMA, BLM cannot unilaterally eliminate Wilderness Study Area status. FLPMA requires the agency to manage WSAs “in a manner so as not to impair the suitability of such areas for preservation as wilderness” until Congress decides otherwise. That non-impairment mandate stays in force until and unless Congress directs otherwise. The only way a WSA has ever formally lost its protected status is through legislation. BLM has no independent authority to do this through the rulemaking process, a manual revision, or a policy memo.

Designated Wilderness carries the highest protection of these categories and can only be revised or undone by an act of Congress. No group asked BLM to undo a Wilderness designation outright. Instead, industry and recreation groups focused on loosening the management of Wilderness areas, arguing BLM has managed those areas, and in some cases the land around them, more restrictively than federal law requires. According to the Wilderness Society, BLM currently manages 10.5 million acres of Wilderness.

For a map of potentially affected areas, please visit the Wilderness Society’s website.

Context:

Top Interior officials have publicly encouraged ideologically-aligned industries to submit comments on agency proposals, while admitting they largely ignore comments, feedback and petitions from supporters of conservation groups. Last month, Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen told oil and gas, mining, and logging industry leaders that “Public comment matters. Not the postcards that whatever environmental group sends. We always get a million postcards. That counts as one comment.”

Please note the Interior Department also opened comment periods on manuals used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS-HQ-NWRS-2026-2575) and the National Park Service (NPS-2026-0100) to propose, designate, and manage Wilderness and WSAs. Comments submitted on these dockets were not included in this analysis.

The post Industry and off-roading groups call for elimination of WSAs and weakened Wilderness protections appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed two lawsuits in federal court on Wednesday to challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of protections for endangered species and wildlife. The Trump administration has initiated a series of regulatory changes that opened the habitats of imperiled animals to drilling, farming, logging and other commercial activities. Both lawsuits argue that the changes violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The first suit asks the court to strike down a rule that redefined what it means to “harm” wildlife under the Endangered Species Act, a law Congress overwhelmingly passed in 1973 to prevent the extinction of imperiled plants and animals. The Trump administration tossed out the longstanding interpretation of “harm” and instead finalized a rule that said degrading the habitat of an endangered species would no longer be illegal.

The second lawsuit challenges two regulations issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One rule eliminated automatic protections for all species that are newly classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and the other allowed the government to consider economic factors, such as lost revenue for businesses, before designating areas as critical habitat for endangered species.

Rep. Zinke to introduce wilderness & recreation bill

Retiring Montana congressman and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced his intent to introduce the ‘A River Runs Through It Act,’ named after the famous Montana novella by Norman McLean. The bill would designate about 130,000 acres of new wilderness and protect parts of the Blackfoot River watershed while opening other areas to logging and motorized use. Another 60,000 acres would be designated for recreation, including snowmobiling, mountain biking, and off-road vehicle use. Zinke said he plans to introduce the bill next week. With roughly 40 working days before the House of Representatives adjourns its 2026 session, the timing will be tight for committee hearings or review by the Senate, though Zinke sounded optimistic and teased the possibility of a larger package of public lands bills before the end of the year. “We want to climb the same mountain,” Zinke told local media during a post-event press conference. “Maybe our paths are a little different in how to get there. But this is a made-in-Montana solution, which is so exciting.”

Quick hits Trump signs order giving Burgum authority to respond to ‘national energy emergencies’

The Epoch Times

States sue over Trump’s cuts to Endangered Species Act

New York Times | Colorado Politics | Stateline | Spectrum News | Reuters | Courthouse News | Salem Statesman Journal | Spokesman-Review

The U.S. is losing its ability to store water when it needs it most

Bloomberg News

New polling shows bipartisan support for conservation is climbing

RE:PUBLIC

Colorado has killed 294 bears this year, more than 3 times the number killed last year

Colorado Sun

Large solar project on Navajo Nation leaves residents skeptical

High Country News

Opinion: While Colorado and the West burn, Washington rearranges org charts

Colorado Sun

A beloved tree fell in Washington and people covered it with thank you notes

Washington Post

Quote of the day

History will not judge us by how many agencies we reorganized or how many political arguments we won. It will judge us by whether we had the courage to invest in the people, science, and institutions needed to protect our forests, our communities, and the firefighters who stand between them. The West is burning. It is time for Washington to stop rearranging org charts and start leading.”

—Scott Fitzwilliams, former supervisor of the White River National Forest, Colorado Sun

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@nationalparkservice

We’re thankful for the stories, not just the ones found in books.

The stories of the people who shaped our nation. The battlefields, homes, trails, rivers, and landscapes that hold clues to the past. The wildlife and natural processes that show us how connected we are to the world around us. From those preserved at Independence Hall and Gettysburg to the cultural traditions of the Great Smoky Mountains, the landscapes of Zion, and the living history found in parks across the country, your national parks are full of stories waiting to be explored.

Most of all, we’re thankful that we get to share them with you. Because every national park has a story, and there’s always another one waiting to be discovered.

#NationalParkWeek #ThankfulThursday

NPS Photo

Featured image: Bald Eagle soaring in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS.

The post 20 states sue over Trump’s cuts to protections for endangered species appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Joel Mayne is a motorcycle instructor and Desert Storm veteran who lives near the Wyoming border north of Craig, Colorado. Mayne is organizing fellow Moffat County residents to protest the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) sale of the mineral rights beneath Bakers Peak mountain, taking the fight all the way to the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C. In his November 2025 protest letter, Mayne said the elk migration path runs across the mountain and the peak provides high-priority habitat for mule deer and moose as well. “This region’s ecological sensitivity and biological significance demand a level of caution and stewardship consistent with both federal and state conservation mandates,” Mayne wrote. “I trust the BLM will uphold its commitment to responsible stewardship of public lands.”

Under the second Trump administration, the BLM has offered 287,765 acres in Colorado for oil and gas drilling, and is slated to offer more than 400,000 acres of land in Colorado by the planned December 2026 lease sale.

Mayne is not alone in his opposition to the BLM’s leasing plans in Colorado, as environmental groups, state wildlife officials, and local governments are protesting an unprecedented wave of public land oil and gas lease sales across the state. “We are seeing roadless areas leased, lands with wilderness characteristics, we are seeing places designated as outstanding waters leased, and it is hard to keep track,” said Peter Hart, legal director of the advocacy group Wilderness Workshop. “We are seeing these offered in every lease sale.”

Quick hits Trump is quietly planning to majorly change how national parks are run

NOTUS | Wes Siler’s Substack

Forest Service could open much more of Colorado’s 11 million acres of public land to motorized vehicles

Denver Post

Developers eye Native Nations, Tribal communities for new data center projects

Daily Montanan

Oil and gas lease sales meet local opposition in Colorado communities

Colorado Sun

Feds seek to ‘streamline’ Arctic oil permitting, ending environmental reviews of individual projects

Alaska Beacon

New Mexico town of 50 packs gym as residents push county to ban uranium drilling

The Cool Down

Data center planned on Nevada public land is temporarily halted

Nevada Public Radio

Trump signs order to remove protections for wolves

USA Today | Politico Pro | The Land Desk

Quote of the day

The folks who want to push forward their agenda of sales, extraction, development, and divestment don’t want us unified. They know they can’t win when we’re standing arm in arm. They know they can’t give away our public lands when we’re a concerted bloc. They can’t fight us all.”

—Jonathon Klein, editor-in-chief of RideApart

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@usinterior

You know what they say about small predators? Big personalities.

The American marten is a quick, agile member of the weasel family that makes its home in forests across northern North America. Don’t let that adorable face fool you. This little hunter is built to climb, chase and absolutely thrive in the woods.

Photo by @jacobwfrank

Featured image: Photo credit: BLM Colorado, Flickr

The post Oil and gas lease sales run into local opposition in Colorado appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.