A former national park supervisor explains how toilets may be clean this summer, but the parks themselves are actually ‘hollowed out.’
Public lands
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Trump administration budget cuts wreak havoc on trail maintenance
As tourism season begins, trail crews are facing disruptions in key trail maintenance projects.
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Public land sale a ‘frontal assault on tribal treaty rights’
Senate Republicans’ proposed legislation could have unique impacts on tribal nations.
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MAGA and the developers are coming for your public lands
Sen. Mike Lee slips federal land privatization provision into Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
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Protests greet Western governors in Santa Fe
After a bipartisan outcry, Senate proposal to sell public lands is blocked for now.
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What Sonoran Desert fungi are teaching scientists
The understudied mycorrhizal fungi are vital to ecosystems and may prove critical to the survival of fragile deserts stressed by climate change.
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Inside Utah’s PR campaign to seize public lands
Utah used actors, AI, stagecraft and NDAs as it sought to sway public opinion and take control of 18.5 million acres of federal public land.
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DOJ says presidents can revoke monuments, not just create them
The 1906 Antiquities Act gave presidents the power to protect objects on public lands. A Justice Dept. memo said the Act also ”carries with it the power to revoke.”
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Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land
The majority of public land is too fire prone and far away from communities to even make sense for housing, research shows.
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A proposed Utah uranium mine gets the Trump treatment
Feds approve contested facility in just 11 days.
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Federal workers say Biden’s BLM left them vulnerable to Trump
Documents show Interior rejected a union contract for employees at BLM headquarters days before the inauguration.
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Public lands for housing in Nevada and Utah called ‘giveaway’
Interested parties say water resources, tribal sovereignty and public engagement are threatened by the budget reconciliation bill’s amendment.
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Trump asks Congress to cut at the heart of the West
The White House wants to alter life for U.S. hunters, anglers, RVers, off-road-vehicle drivers, backpackers, birdwatchers and hikers.
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Our public lands must not be sold
Former BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning warns of the very real threat to the nation’s common ground.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
See 60 days of DOGE chaos
Charting the mass culling of the federal workforce.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
Threats to public lands called ‘outrageous slap in the face’
Broad support for public lands is forcing some Republicans to break with the White House while advocates rally to save them from sales.
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Trump to rescind the Public Lands Rule
The rule sought to elevate conservation’s status as a valid public land use, but Trump’s Interior Secretary stressed the importance of balancing development alongside protection.
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The crusade to end federal public lands in New Mexico
Howard Hutchinson, a private property rights activist, leads a coalition that’s quietly organizing a county-level rejection of the Antiquities Act.
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The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts
Forest Service stock animals are indispensable to trail work on public lands in the West. Trump’s radical upheaval is accelerating the death of a dying art.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
Meet the people who train wild horses
Volunteers sacrifice time, energy and money to help mustangs removed from the range find homes. Can they convince people to take them?