Senate Republicans’ proposed legislation could have unique impacts on tribal nations.
U.S. Forest Service
Posted inArticles
MAGA and the developers are coming for your public lands
Sen. Mike Lee slips federal land privatization provision into Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Posted inArticles
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.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
As Trump comes after research, Forest Service scientists keep working
Scientists describe how they’re preparing for the upcoming field season despite the challenges.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
The hidden costs of wolf conservation
‘Pay for presence’ aims to compensate ranchers for predator-related losses, but Western states might not be able to afford it.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
How the feds abandoned reservations to burn
Tribal wildfire programs are underfunded and overburdened.
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.
Posted inArticles
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.
Posted inArticles
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.
Posted inArticles
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 inArticles
Forest Service pauses commercial huckleberry picking in Gifford Pinchot National Forest
The berries are a critical resource for the Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation and have become a big market of the Pacific Northwest food industry.
Posted inArticles
Judge rules federal job cuts ‘unlawful’
The Forest Service, Park Service and other agencies must immediately reinstate workers purged by Trump.
Posted inArticles
The Trump administration is trying to fire the ‘backbone’ of wildland firefighting
Last month’s terminations cut employees who serve critical support roles on fires.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
Losing more than a Forest Service job
Trail work, though underappreciated, made for a life well-lived in the woods.
Posted inArticles
How DOGE threatens the Forest Service and public lands
Workers describe projects on wildfire prevention, environmental restoration and trail repair halted by Trump administration terminations.
Posted inArticles
Trump and Musk take aim at the rural West
Spending cuts hurt communities, economies and public lands.
Posted inMarch 2025: The Berry Pickers
The true cost of the huckleberry industry
The Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation has wanted an end to commercial picking of a critical cultural resource for years. Finally, the Forest Service is expected to make a decision.
Posted inArticles
Poll finds majority of Westerners support climate action and conservation
Colorado College’s annual survey included residents of 8 Western states, the majority of whom identified as politically conservative or moderate.
Posted inArticles
People brace for impacts on land, water and wildlife after feds fire thousands over holiday weekend
Career employees told HCN they were unsettled by the termination email sent by HR, which cited ‘performance issues.’