Deep in the night on August 4, 2018, a trio of timber cutters bushwhacked into a steep valley thick with brush, wearing headlamps and carrying a chainsaw, gas can, and a slew of felling tools. Their target, a trifurcated, mossy bigleaf maple, towered above Jefferson Creek, which gurgled down the narrow ravine floor that drains the Olympic National Forest鈥檚 Elk Lake. Justin Wilke, the band鈥檚 captain, had discovered the massive tree the day before and dubbed her 鈥淏ertha.鈥�

Wilke had established three dispersed campsites in the Elk Lake vicinity, some 20 miles from the nearest town of Hoodsport, Washington, over the previous weeks. By day he scouted for the most prime bigleaf maples. He had illegally felled at least three in the area since April, but he considered Bertha the mother tree.

A carpenter by trade, Wilke, then 36, dabbled in odd jobs in construction, as a mechanic, on fishing boats, and in canneries, but like many across the peninsula鈥檚 scattered hamlets, he鈥檇 been a logger since his hands were sure enough to wield a chainsaw. A tattoo the length of his left arm read 鈥淲est Coast Loggers,鈥� his tribute to a heritage that began with his grandfather.

Honest work had grown scarce. Wilke and his girlfriend were camping on a friend鈥檚 property just outside the national forest to trim expenses and lived on his earnings from cutting illegal firewood and selling poached maple. The situation wasn鈥檛 tenable. He was hungry, and he needed a windfall.

Closing in on Bertha in the darkness alongside Wilke were Shawn 鈥淭hor鈥� Williams and Lucas Chapman. Thor had just sprung from a stint in prison two weeks earlier. A 47-year-old union framer, Thor had also dabbled as an MMA fighter and debt collector and carried a litany of past convictions ranging from assault and burglary to unlawful imprisonment. He hoped the job would deliver him back to his daughter and sometimes-girlfriend in California. Chapman, 35, was Wilke鈥檚 gopher, hired primarily to watch the campsites during the operation. The three were high on methamphetamines.

Though the relative humidity that night hovered around 75 percent, the air a pleasant 60 degrees, rainfall had been unusually sparse that summer. Higher than average temperatures ushered the typically wet Olympic region into a moderate drought. Smoke from various wildfires in British Columbia had clouded the air throughout the summer.

Bertha held a bee鈥檚 nest in a hollow at the base of her trunk that made chainsaw work problematic. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going over there,鈥� Thor, who was allergic to bees, protested. At their campsite two days earlier, he鈥檇 been stung on the hand and suffered mild anaphylaxis after he sipped a can of Four Loko with a bee in it. 鈥淚鈥檒l take care of it,鈥� Wilke said.

Accounts of who did what next vary, but someone pulled out a can of wasp killer and sprayed the hive to little effect, then doused it in gasoline and lit a match. The offended bees clouded the air. Flames sprouted up Bertha鈥檚 trunk and expanded in the underbrush at her roots.

For the next hour, Wilke, Thor, and Chapman beat the burgeoning fire with sticks, kicked dirt over it, and used Gatorade bottles to quench its tongues with creekwater. 鈥淟et鈥檚 go,鈥� Wilke finally ordered. 鈥淚t鈥檚 out.鈥�

By the time the poachers left, cold and wet from splashing in the waist-deep river, all clear signs of flame had vanished. The first gauzy motes of dawn lightened the sky. In the leafy silence that followed the thwarted thieves鈥� retreat, beneath the duff at Bertha鈥檚 roots, still-hot embers smoldered and crept through the forest, invisible but surging with the breaking day.

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Growing up in the Tom Miner Basin near Yellowstone National Park, Malou Anderson-Ramirez had few encounters with grizzly bears. However, as conservation efforts led to a growing bear population, her family鈥檚 ranch began facing livestock losses. In response, they adjusted their operation and land ethics to continue raising cattle in harmony with the native predators, inspiring their community to do the same. Despite the challenges, there’s a deep sense of gratitude for life in such a beautiful place鈥攑erfect for raising a glass of bourbon on the rocks and savoring the moment.

Established in 1872,聽聽was crafted to honor the sprawling wonder of America鈥檚 first national park. It鈥檚 what first inspired us to create approachably smooth whiskey for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and why we still do it today.

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When I was 16 years old, my father鈥檚 mother, whom we called Meemaw, gave up the ghost. We all flew down to Fort Worth, where, per her wishes, my dad hosted a wake filled with live music, stiff cocktails, and loose stories. (Meemaw was, among other things, a former vaudeville performer and the sister of a legendary jazz drummer.)

The next morning, we drove to the cemetery. In the surreal haze of my grief-softened, hangover-warped brain, the place struck me as bleak and strange and sad, but not in a gothic or gloomy way. It billed itself as a 鈥済arden of memories,鈥� but upon entering, I saw there was nothing gardenlike about it. It was essentially one huge lawn, composed of scratchy, heat-tolerant Texas grasses, like the upper surface of an enormous kitchen sponge. Here and there, far from Meemaw鈥檚 grave, a few small trees attempted, unsuccessfully, to quell the rage of a Texas sun. The only flowers I saw were made of plastic, and the only animals, other than us, were flies.

The day turned out to be a fiasco, in a darkly comedic way that my grandmother, who was an inveterate smartass, would probably have appreciated. First the florist failed to arrive, so there were no flowers. Then, looking over the headstone, my sister Alexis noticed that someone had gotten the date wrong. It said, erroneously, that Meemaw had died at the age of 95, rather than 85. There was some discussion that day of having it fixed, but it was ultimately deemed too much trouble. The error was written, as they say, in stone.

At the site of Meemaw鈥檚 grave, each of us read a short letter we had composed, telling her how much we loved her and how deeply we would miss her. Then we placed the letters inside the grave. While we went about this solemn little ritual, the gravedigger, an off-puttingly upbeat guy in his thirties, stood off to the side, watching us with evident curiosity.

After we had all finished, he spoke up.

鈥淣ow I know it鈥檚 not really my place, but I had a suggestion for y鈥檃ll,鈥� the chipper gravedigger said. 鈥淚鈥檝e got some Ziploc bags there in my truck. What if you were to put the letters in them Ziplocs, and that way, if the young one there鈥濃�攁nd here, he pointed to me鈥斺�渆ver wants to come back with kids of his own one day and read these letters again, they鈥檇 still be intact.鈥�

My dad, who had inherited his mother鈥檚 preternaturally razory wit, thought this suggestion over for a moment, then replied: 鈥淲hen my mother went to the grocery store, she always chose paper over plastic. So I think we鈥檒l just stick with that.鈥�

At the time, what struck me as farcical about this suggestion was the notion that I would one day want to return here, kids in tow, to dig up my own grandmother鈥檚 grave. (One can only imagine the stares this would draw from the gentle people of Fort Worth.) But now, with the benefit of two decades of hindsight and a lot of time spent thinking about land and human bodies and how the two commingle, what seems even more absurd to me is the idea that I鈥攐r anyone, really鈥攚ould ever want to visit that hot, dead, rot-resistant landscape ever again.

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I have a secret fascination with the (MWOB), the weather station situated atop America’s windiest mountain.

Every few days, the scientists living inside the MWOB publish an or an about the extreme conditions on the , and the photos or videos always boggle my mind. Plunging temperatures mixed with fog will occasionally transform the peak into a hockey rink, and wind-whipped blizzards will make the observatory tower look like a The Empire Strikes Back. Last week, two interns saved a that landed on the observatory after its eyes froze shut (they warmed it up, named it , and released it back into the forest).

But the big story at MWOB this winter has been the wind. According to a by weather forecaster Charlie Peachey, the observatory was battered by gusts over 100 miles per hour for 39 consecutive hours in late February. During this stretch, the weather station recorded one gust of 161 miles per hour. This was the second-strongest gust recorded at the station since 1994 and the 20th strongest聽gust ever recorded.

“For all but two staff members at the observatory, that was the highest wind gust that any current staff has ever experienced,” Peachey wrote. Peachey added that the observatory staff often brag about the wind events they’ve personally experienced at the station. The handful of meteorologists and forecasters who man the station are split into two crews, and each crew lives in the station for one week at a time. Alas, Peachey was offsite when the 161-mile-per-hour gust hit, so zero bragging rights for him.

Peachey was confident that the windy conditions in February would continue when he and his crew returned in early March. And when Peachey began crunching weather data collected from other stations across the Northeast, he predicted that another major wind event would batter Mount Washington on Friday, March 7.

He was right. As the day unfolded, the gusts returned, first topping 120 miles per hour before they increased. A gust knocked out electricity to the MWOB offices at the base of Mount Washington while atop the peak, blowing debris and gusts battered the observatory.

Now, here’s why Peachey and the other MWOB forecasters are a different breed. My assumption is that most rational human beings would happily stay in a warm and cozy office and simply listen to the building creak and groan under the force of the violent gusts. But MWOB workers, of course, want to know what a 130-mile-per-hour gust actually feels聽like. So, Peachey and his crew zipped up their parkas and wind pants and walked out into the melee. You can check out their hijinks below.

They sat on the frozen concrete and allowed the gale to push them across the ground like sticks blown across your patio by a leaf blower. Yep鈥攊t’s like a Buster Keaton scene, just add the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme music.

Of course, then the team had to army crawl back to the observatory doorway, which wasn’t easy.

“After a few seconds of crawling, I realized that my 20-foot journey might not be possible,” Peachey wrote. “Wind gusts of 120 mph+ were attempting to pick me up and blow me across the deck at every chance they got, so I had to begin army crawling with my chest to the ground to make it to the starting line.”

I may not be part of the MWOB staff, but I believe Peachey and his cohort officially earned their bragging rights, even if the gusts they surfed only topped 138 miles per hour.

Predicting the weather on Mount Washington during transition seasons is famously tricky due to the topography and the swirling weather along the east coast. Models can only tell a meteorologist so much, and Peachey and his team had to rely largely on their own intuition to predict the storm. This鈥攁nd many other reasons鈥攊s why educated human beings will always be needed to forecast the weather. “As meteorologists, it is our job to interpret when these errors exist in the model and then use our judgment to think of what will happen,” he wrote. “It is one of the reasons why a knowledgeable human forecaster will always be better than a single computer model.”

That, and a computer is far less graceful at butt-sliding.

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Photographer and filmmaker Nate Dodge joins Yellowstone Bourbon master distiller Steve Beam for a ride of a lifetime: a helicopter tour of Yellowstone National Park. The two get a bird鈥檚-eye view of America鈥檚 first national park, including sightings of its diverse wildlife.

Gaining an even deeper appreciation for the remarkable landscape, Dodge and Beam get their boots dirty by lending a hand to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Established in 1872,聽聽was crafted to honor the sprawling wonder of America鈥檚 first national park. It鈥檚 what first inspired us to create approachably smooth whiskey for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and why we still do it today.

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Who needs a conventional vacation when you can have adventure with a side of quirky? Like a-forest-of-cars-turned-into-art kind of curious? For that, you have to visit Nevada. The Silver State welcomes the bizarre, celebrates the off-kilter, and nurtures the outrageous鈥攆rom the sea-level sand beaches of the Colorado River to the towering peaks of Great Basin National Park. And all of it is happily served with some of the wildest adventures in the country. Here are ten ways to get a little out there in Nevada.

The Extraterrestrial Highway

With the U.S. government officially investigating unexplained sightings, the world has gone crazy for UFOs. Nevada? It鈥檚 been ground zero for the phenomenon for decades. Driving Nevada State Route 375 puts you in the heart of the mystery, passing as close as allowed to the Nevada National Security Site and the top-secret military base Area 51. You鈥檒l also have the chance to snack on alien-themed jerky, take photos with out-of-this-world murals, and grab a burger at the UFO-themed Little A鈥橪e鈥橧nn. Just leave time to shop for souvenirs at the Alien Research Center, where a two-story silver alien welcomes you at the front door. The truth is right here.

Massacre Rim Dark Sky Sanctuary

Nothing gets the imagination going like a sky painted with stars. Is there life beyond our planet? Was that a meteor cruising across the sky鈥攐r something else? Nevada is home to some of the darkest skies in the lower 48, particularly at the Massacre Rim Dark Sky Sanctuary. In fact, this remote area located 150 miles north of Reno is so dark that it鈥檚 been designated one of the darkest places on Earth by . The rim is a 1,200-foot-tall escarpment that rises dramatically above a broad valley, giving you the perfect perch for spotting the show. Bring a telescope, or just your naked eye, and you鈥檒l be able to see constellations like Orion鈥檚 Belt and gasp at the Milky Way, which on clear nights looks like an angel spilled fairy dust across the sky. There鈥檚 no bad time to see the stars, but for a real spectacle, show up on a moonless night in July or August when the Perseid meteor shower is at its most active. Camping? This is an extremely remote area with no services; BYO everything, and be prepared to be self-sufficient.

Out There in Nevada

So many people think that Nevada is just the Strip and then a vast expanse of nothingness. They couldn鈥檛 be more wrong. Nevada is filled with hidden gems if you dare to explore. 鈥�, photographer and adventurer

International Car Forest of the Last Church

Have you ever looked across a desert expanse and thought, 鈥淵ou know what this field needs? A bunch of junk cars sticking out of the ground.鈥� Not likely. But that鈥檚 the inspiration that struck local artist Mark Rippie, who broke the Guinness world record for the largest car forest鈥攁 title he still holds. Located outside Goldfield, the International Car Forest of the Last Church boasts more than 40 cars, trucks, and buses sticking out of the ground. Walking through the car forest is a surreal stroll through the desert on a dusty path, which features sprouted vehicles fantastically decorated by artists from around the world. After exploring the art, take a stroll through Goldfield, a living ghost town (population around 250), which in the early 1900s was Nevada鈥檚 largest and richest city (population around 20,000).

Jarbidge

One of Nevada鈥檚 quirkiest charms? The remote outposts where modern pioneers are putting old mining towns back on the map. To experience one of the best, make the trek to Jarbidge, considered the most remote town in the lower 48, with a permanent population in the low double digits and no paved roads within 20 miles. Located at the bottom of a canyon, the historic town is the site of the last gold rush in America鈥攁nd the last stage-coach robbery. Grab a drink in one (or both!) of the town鈥檚 two historic saloons. The Red Dog Saloon still sports the original bar top, while the Outdoor Inn has a full menu, as well as ten rooms and occasional musical performances on the front porch. You鈥檒l also find working craftsmen like glassblowers and woodworkers operating studios on Main Street. Bonus: Jarbidge Wilderness Area is nearby and boasts 150 miles of hiking trails that traverse wildflower meadows and 11,000-foot peaks.

The Clown Motel

Clowns. They鈥檙e either a source of joy or the cause of great anxiety, depending on your perspective. Either way, you can lean into the wacky world of these colorful entertainers in Tonopah at the Clown Motel, which the owners call 鈥淎merica鈥檚 scariest motel.鈥� Each room is decorated in wild circus colors, while the themed rooms go a bit further with decor evoking classic horror films like The Exorcist, IT, and Friday the 13th. It鈥檚 not all scares, though: There鈥檚 also a collection of more than 5,000 different clowns.

Great Basin National Park

Here鈥檚 something really unusual: a gorgeous national park with near-zero crowds. While many national parks are busier than ever, Great Basin National Park, in eastern Nevada鈥檚 high desert, is one of the least visited units in the entire system. The 77,180-acre playground is packed with unusual finds, like the state鈥檚 only glacier, some of the oldest trees in the world, and an expansive cave system where scientists are still discovering new species of life.

Amargosa Big Dune Recreation Area

Nature puts on its own strange show in southwestern Nevada, where the sand sings to you. This rare phenomenon鈥攚hich happens at only a few dozen places around the world鈥攐ccurs when strong winds cause the sand to shift, creating a high-pitch singing sound. Amargosa Big Dune Recreation Area encompasses five square miles of shifting sand dunes, some of which are 500 feet tall. Located along the , Amargosa serves up the closest dunes to Las Vegas and is a popular destination for off-road enthusiasts, but it鈥檚 worth showing up just for the sweet song of mother nature.

Gold Butte National Monument

A trip here is about as close to time travel as most of us will get. At the 300,000-acre Gold Butte National Monument, petroglyphs transport visitors back 12,000 years to when Indigenous cultures created the area鈥檚 many paintings and carvings. And the rock art is just part of the attraction at Gold Butte, as the landscape is an otherworldly, Mars-like collection of red and tan sandstone outcroppings rising from the desert floor. Head to Little Finland, an area within the monument that boasts multiple panels of these pictures into the past, as well as surreal, goblin-shaped rock formations.

Guru Road and Black Rock Desert

The Black Rock Desert is totally unique: a 800,000鈥揳cre expanse of dry lake beds, hot springs, and canyons. Skirting it, the mile-long Guru Road accesses a series of open-air art exhibitions, from inspirational sayings painted onto stone to a larger-than-life tribute to Aphrodite. All of the art was created by artist DeWayne 鈥淒oobie鈥� Williams, who found a creative way to stay busy during retirement. Wander this eclectic road and you鈥檒l find stone tablets etched with aphorisms, a tribute to Elvis, and maybe strangest of all, the Desert Broadcasting System, which includes several TV frames, each offering panoramic views of the desert. After touring the artscape, explore the landscape. Off-road travel is popular in the adjacent Black Rock Desert, as is soaking in hot water. Head to for a hot tub with a desert view.

Big Bend of the Colorado

A sandy swimming beach in the middle of the desert? Yeah, that鈥檚 a surprise. It鈥檚 also beautiful. And oh-so refreshing on a hot day. Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation Area protects two miles of sandy beach along the Colorado River where the water is Caribbean clear. Before you take a dip, make a detour into the nearby resort town of Laughlin to take a contemplative stroll through the famous Laughlin Labyrinths.

奥别鈥檙别 鈥攜our official resource for exploring the Silver State鈥檚 sometimes surprising, always exciting towns, cities, and public lands. With travel tips and inspiration straight from the heart of Nevada, we鈥檝e got you covered. All you need to do is get a little out there.

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A published in the American Chemical Society鈥檚 Environmental Science and Technology Letters is raising concerns about the pervasive presence of 鈥渇orever chemicals鈥� 鈥� also known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) 鈥� in something many triathletes have on their bodies 24/7: watch bands.

These synthetic chemicals, notorious for their persistence in the environment and human body, are now being found in common consumer products, with fitness tracker and smartwatch wristbands being the latest addition.

鈥淭hese PFAS are pretty nasty chemicals as a class,鈥� says Graham Peaslee, professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and corresponding author on the study. 鈥淎ll of them that we found are toxic, a couple of them are bioaccumulative, and all of them are persistent.鈥�

This group of chemicals, which comprise more than 14,000 individual compounds, is particularly resistant to heat, water, and oil, so they鈥檝e been used in products like stain-resistant fabrics, food packaging, cosmetics, firefighting foams, and non-stick cookware. But it鈥檚 been well-established that PFAS are linked to serious health issues including multiple types of cancer, suppression of the immune system, thyroid disease, decreased fertility, and liver and kidney damage.

Forever Chemicals in Watch Bands Study Overview

For the study, researchers analyzed 22 watch bands, from a mix of brands and price points, for the presence of PFAS. The bands, which included brands like Apple and Fitbit, were all purchased from Amazon or Best Buy, or were donated. Of the bands, 15 of them had the presence of these 鈥渇orever chemicals,鈥� and all were in very high concentrations. The researchers found one particular compound, PFHxA, in abundance 鈥� many times higher than what has been found in recent studies of cosmetics, food packaging, and school uniforms.

PFHxA being found in such extremely high concentrations is bad news for people who wear these watch bands for 12-plus hours per day. It gives the chemical significant opportunity to transfer through the skin. In addition, with athletes wearing these bands during exercise means additional sweat contact and open skin pores. And showed that PFHxA can be dermally absorbed, especially in the presence of sweat.

鈥淚f you wear these daily, over long periods each day,鈥� Peaslee says, 鈥渢hen you undoubtedly are getting some exposure.鈥�

Should You Replace Your Watch Band?

Before you burn your watch band, rest assured that PFAS are already in your bloodstream 鈥� they are in the blood of 100% of people in North America, says Peaslee, 鈥渢hanks to our pervasive use of it from the 1950s onward.鈥� Whether or not you use consumer products with PFAS directly, once they鈥檙e discarded into landfills, they break down and make it into our drinking water, our irrigation water, and then into us.

鈥淚鈥檓 not too worried about the exposure, in terms of, we鈥檙e exposed day and night to everything else,鈥� Peaslee says. 鈥淭his is one more, but the next time you buy one, you really want to read carefully.鈥�

While the study鈥檚 authors didn鈥檛 disclose specifically how each brand tested, they did provide information to help you determine whether your current watch band likely has PFAS.

First, seek out the materials in your own multisport or GPS watch band, if they鈥檙e listed (sellers are not required to publish materials, but some do). If any publish that they鈥檙e made with fluoroelastomers, fluorine, or the abbreviations FKM, FEK, FEKK, and FEKM, steer clear 鈥� they very likely have PFAS. For Garmin wearers, the company has been working to (PFOA and PFOS) from their products, including watch bands, though that doesn鈥檛 mean all Garmin watch bands are currently 100% PFAS free.

If your watch is made of other materials, such as silicone, nylon, or leather, 鈥渢hose are presumably not PFAS treated,鈥� Peaslee says 鈥� you should be safe to continue wearing and using them without risking exposure.

What to Look For in a New (PFAS-Free) Smartwatch Band

If you鈥檙e not sure what your watch is made of or you鈥檙e not confident it鈥檚 free of PFAS, Peaslee recommends being proactive. 鈥淚t鈥檚 well worth trying to replace them as soon as you can,鈥� he says.

And especially since it won鈥檛 be an expensive swap: The researchers found a correlation between the presence of PFAS and the price of the watch band. It was only the medium-priced ($15-$30) and expensive watch bands ($30+) that contained the chemicals 鈥� the bands less than $15 were unlikely to contain a fluoroelastomer, which the researchers presumed was due to the increased cost to manufacture using PFAS. You can also search for bands made from the materials silicone and nylon.

And hopefully, in not too long, we鈥檒l see more and more 鈥淧FAS free鈥� or 鈥渇luorine free鈥� labels on watch bands. Europe actually proposed a ban on PFHxA, Peaslee says, and 鈥淚 think there鈥檒l be more transparency in the future.鈥�

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Barely two weeks into his second presidential term, Donald Trump has already dramatically changed the policies governing public lands, outdoor recreation, and the environment.

On Monday, January 20, Trump renamed the country鈥檚 highest peak, 20,310-foot Denali, to Mount McKinley, replacing the indigenous title with that of the 25th president of the United States. The same day, Trump the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the 2016 international treaty to battle climate change. He on oil and gas leasing within the state鈥檚 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He requiring the National Marine Fisheries, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin pumping water from California鈥檚 San Joaquin Delta across the state鈥攁 move that could jeopardize endangered fish. And Trump announced a , which has a within the National Park Service.

These moves echo ones that Trump made during his first presidential term: like the controversial downsizing of Utah鈥檚 Bear鈥檚 Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by almost a million acres apiece and the different climate, water, and wildlife protections.

But critics may forget that, during his first term, Trump also signed into law a pair of very significant conservation bills. In 2019, the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act created 1.3 million acres of Wilderness and ten new Wild and Scenic River segments. It also increased the size of three national parks. Then in 2020, Trump encouraged the passage of the , which funneled $9.5 billion towards the infamous National Park Service (NPS) maintenance backlog. It permanently allocated $900 million annually to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the nation鈥檚 single largest source of outdoor recreation infrastructure funding.

What will the second Trump administration mean for public lands, the environment, and outdoor recreation? Nobody knows for sure. But we鈥檝e taken a look at the decisions Trump has already made, what he鈥檚 said he鈥檒l do, and a wish-list created by personnel from the previous administration, to make an educated analysis.

Hiring Personnel Who Appreciate Outdoor Rec and Industry

One of the former president鈥檚 first personnel nominees for his upcoming administration was North Dakota governor Doug Burgum to lead the Department of the Interior. The agency controls some 500 million acres of public land and oversees the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Critics have labeled Burgum a champion of the oil and gas industry, having led the state with the third-largest oil production and publicly criticized the Biden administration鈥檚 efforts to . At the same time, Burgum is himself an avid horseman, hunter, skier, and hiker and has been a booster of outdoor recreation in North Dakota, creating the state鈥檚 Office of Outdoor Recreation and allocating $1.2 million in grants for trail building.

Trump is also expected to name Burgum the administration鈥檚 energy czar, following through on his campaign promises to increase oil and gas production as a way to curb energy costs. Burgum鈥檚 nomination drew praise from the energy and mining sector. 鈥淗e recognizes that affordable and reliable energy along with American mineral production are critical to growing our nation鈥檚 economy,鈥� Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association told .

Conservatives argue that increased mining and domestic fossil fuel production could spur economic activity, but conservationists are bracing for the environmental blow. 鈥淧ublic lands are beloved and vitally important to people in this country. The first Trump administration treated these places like they鈥檙e meant to be dug up, drilled, or sold off for profit,鈥� David Seabrook, interim president of the Wilderness Society, said in a press release.

Despite Burgum鈥檚 alignment with the oil and gas industry, other sources within the outdoor recreation community told 国产吃瓜黑料 that the North Dakota governor represents a best-case-scenario nominee from the Republican administration. “Governor Burgum has shown a commitment to supporting outdoor recreation as an economic driver and a meaningful way to connect communities,鈥� said Jessica Turner, president of outdoor recreation trade association Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, in a press release. 鈥淎s an avid outdoorsman, we are hopeful that the governor鈥檚 long-time admiration of Teddy Roosevelt and deep understanding of business will help support and grow the recreation economy.鈥�

According to Cody Schulz, director of North Dakota Parks and Recreation, which oversees the state鈥檚 new office of outdoor recreation, Governor Burgum is 鈥渁n incredibly curious and collaborative leader who encourages his personnel to make decisions based on data.鈥�

Schulz says that Burgum鈥檚 efforts to improve outdoor recreation in North Dakota stem from his own passion for the outdoors, and from an understanding that the industry can be an important economic driver. 鈥淐onservation and outdoor recreation infrastructure draws both visitors and new residents to North Dakota,鈥� he says.

Burgum鈥檚 data-driven approach offers a ray of hope for fans of the Bureau of Land Management鈥檚 new Public Lands Rule, which considers recreation on equal footing with extractive industries like grazing and oil and gas when making land use decisions.

Moving the BLM Back to Colorado

In 2019, the Trump administration relocated the agency鈥檚 headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado. The relocation was touted as a practical move to get managers closer to the lands they managed and seen as a way to attract workers who may not have been able to afford D.C. ‘s notoriously expensive cost of living.

Eventually, the BLM鈥檚 headquarters was returned to D.C. by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2021. According to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report, collapsing the D.C. office drove out the agency鈥檚 most experienced employees and the number of vacancies. Out of 176 staff told to relocate, only 41 accepted their reassignments and the rest left their positions.

Tracy Stone-Manning, who was appointed by Biden in 2021 to lead the BLM, called the move 鈥渨ildly disruptive,鈥� in a . 鈥淚t鈥檚 years of opportunity cost when we could and should be focused on the work of the bureau, for public lands and the American people, and we had to instead focus on rebuilding the bureau,鈥� Stone-Manning said.

Lawmakers in Colorado, , have said that they support moving the BLM headquarters back to Grand Junction.

Taking Aim at Environmental Policy

The downsizing of Bear鈥檚 Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments was one of the former president鈥檚 most high-profile decisions on public land. While the cuts were reversed by the Biden administration, it鈥檚 possible that Trump will again shrink the monuments. Utah Republican Representative John Curtis told The Salt Lake Tribune he .

The first Trump administration championed mineral extraction and land development as a way to pump revenue into local economies and return power over protected lands to states. The administration also weakened several bedrock environmental laws. Probably most significant were alterations to protections afforded by the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).

In 2017, Trump鈥檚 EPA , which afforded protections to seasonal wetlands and streams, particularly prevalent in the arid, but recreation-rich western United States. Then in 2019, the administration changed the Endangered Species Act,聽removing protections for threatened species and making it more difficult to add additional species to the list. Agencies would also be allowed to conduct economic assessments when deciding whether a species warrants protection.

More subtle, but arguably more problematic, was the weakening of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the law that requires an environmental review and public comment period for every major project. It鈥檚 used on everything from major timber sales to ski resort development.

Jon Jarvis, director of the Park Service under President Barack Obama, said NEPA helped guide multiple policies during his time with the NPS, from the relocation of wolves to Yellowstone, to the altering traffic flow in Yosemite. 鈥淪unlight is a great disinfectant, and many of these agency plans would now be done in the dark,鈥� Jarvis told 国产吃瓜黑料.

Trump鈥檚 Interior Department made several other controversial moves during his first administration that directly impacted outdoor recreation. In 2017, the department made a unilateral decision to increase admission prices during peak seasons at the nation鈥檚 most popular national parks from $30 to $70. There was so much furor about the decision that the administration canceled those plans five months later.

Then in 2020, the department issued an order that allowed for e-bike use on any federal trail where regular bikes were allowed. Cycling advocates and at least one advocacy group applauded the decision that would allow better access for cyclists who rely on e-bikes. 鈥淭he Secretarial Order will help get public lands visitors out of their cars and beyond congested visitor centers and parking lots,鈥� wrote the cycling advocacy group People For Bikes at the time. More than 50 other recreation groups, however, formally objected to the policy, saying that the decision had been made without any study on its impact on wildlife and visitor safety.

This year, the Park Service ruled that it would make decisions on up to individual park units on a 鈥渃ase-by-case basis.鈥�

Creating Fewer National Monuments

Some Western conservatives would like to see the administration spearhead an effort to repeal or weaken the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows a president to create new national monuments. The law has been used in some 300 instances by presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to George W. Bush to protect millions of acres of federal land. Some of the nation鈥檚 most popular national parks began as monuments, including the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, and Grand Teton.

Only Congress can repeal a law in the United States, so abolishing the Antiquities Act would require a majority of both houses to want it gone. Given pro-monument public sentiment, that seems like a long shot.

More likely is a severe weakening of the law through the Supreme Court. Published in April 2022 by the conservative think tank The Heritage Project, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, known colloquially as 鈥淧roject 2025,鈥� outlines the steps such an effort might take. The document calls for a 鈥渄ownward adjustment鈥� of the nation鈥檚 national monuments, and then directs the republican President to 鈥渧igorously defend the downward adjustments it makes to permit a ruling on a President鈥檚 authority to reduce the size of national monuments by the U.S. Supreme Court.鈥�

Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly distanced himself from the document. But authors of Project 2025 have noted that other prominent conservatives support weakening the Antiquities Act. In 2021 Chief Justice Roberts signaled that he is looking for a case whose verdict could be used to curtail the ability of presidents to create large monuments.

It may also mean the loss of a Biden-era protections like a 10-mile oil exploration moratorium placed around New Mexico鈥檚 Chaco Canyon National Historical Park to help protect Native American antiquities, and one on 221,898 acres of Forest Service and BLM land on Colorado鈥檚 Thompson Divide, just northwest of Crested Butte. The latter was the result of years of work by an unlikely coalition of ranchers, hunters, anglers, mountain bikers, off-road vehicle users, and environmentalists to protect the habitat of elk, bear, deer, moose, mountain lion, and a pair of endangered species: Colorado River cutthroat trout and Canadian lynx. The Project 2025 document specifically targets both protections.

Also on the chopping block may be Biden鈥檚 public land order to Minnesota鈥檚 Boundary Waters Canoe Area for 20 years. The decades-long fight over proposed copper and nickel mines adjacent to the wilderness area was seemingly settled in 2023 with the order. At issue were concerns that mine waste would flow directly down the Kawishiwi River into the waterways of the nation鈥檚 most-visited Wilderness Area (some 165,000 visitors annually.) Project 2025 calls for that order to be reversed despite recent polling that shows 69 percent of Minnesota for the Boundary Waters.

All of these potential rollbacks fly in the face of what many Americans want, says Jenny Rowland-Shea, director of public lands for The Center for American Progress, a progressive research and advocacy group. She cites a , which found that 78 percent of Western voters want more emphasis on conserving wildlife migration routes, providing highway crossings, and limiting more development to protect wildlife habitats. According to the study, just 20 percent of voters want more emphasis on economically productive uses of land such as new development, roads, ranching, or oil and gas production.

鈥淭he United States is actually producing record amounts of oil right now,鈥� she says.

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On Monday, January 20, the presidency of Joe Biden came to an end. During his four years in office, Biden, 82, focused on issues that impact outdoor recreation, such as the preservation of public lands and conservation.

The centerpiece of Biden鈥檚 conservation policy was the , a commitment to conserve and restore at least 30 percent of federal public lands and waters in the U.S. by 2030. There are still five years left to go, but during his tenure Biden did protect more lands and waters than any president before him. Biden鈥檚 track record on public lands was far from unblemished, though. He also opened public lands for the extraction of natural resources, approved a massive oil extraction project, and oversaw a boom in domestic oil production.

We examined some of Biden鈥檚 actions that impacted public lands and the environment to try and determine how he compares to previous presidents. Here鈥檚 what we found.

Establishing and Expanding National Monuments and Other Protected Designations

Biden used his power granted by the Antiquities Act to create or expand , which is actually fewer than some of his democratic predecessors. Barack Obama 34 monuments; Bill Clinton did 22. Republican presidents historically have not established as many鈥擠onald Trump and George W. Bush created one and six, respectively. During his first term, Trump became the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to shrink a national monument, drastically reducing the size of Bears Ears. Biden restored the monument to its original size in 2021.

Designating national monuments isn鈥檛 the only method for presidents to protect public land. Biden also created six new national wildlife refuges, three national marine sanctuaries, and one national estuarine research reserve. He closed roughly 625 million acres of ocean to offshore drilling off of the Atlantic coast, part of the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast off of California, Washington, and Oregon, parts of Alaska鈥檚 Bering Sea, and the Arctic. Biden also prevented roads from being built through the Tongass National Forest, a huge swath of undeveloped land in Alaska.

In total, Biden protected 674 million acres of lands and waters, the most of any president in U.S. history. But the drawing and redrawing of the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument from one presidential administration to the next illustrates the sometimes tenuous nature of land conserved by executive action. Namely, that it is vulnerable to being overturned by subsequent administrations.

Opened Public Land to Drilling and Approving Oil Projects

During his 2020 campaign, Biden swore not to open any new public lands for drilling. And at first, he was true to his word, issuing an executive order that paused all new oil and gas leases. But in 2021,聽a federal judge struck down his ban on drilling, and public outcry ratcheted up amid rising gas prices. In 2022, Biden on his campaign promise and opened Bureau of Land Management land in Colorado, Nevada, North Dakota, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah to drilling.

Afterward, Biden鈥檚 administration approved additional oil and gas permits at a rate comparable to Trump during his first term. Biden also approved the massive, long-disputed Willow Project in Alaska鈥檚 National Petroleum Reserve, which will involve drilling up to 199 new oil and gas wells over 30 years.

Many of the leases approved by Biden were sold by former presidents鈥擟onocoPhillips bought the Willow project lease . Industry experts Biden with investing in alternative energy sources that will lower demand for oil and gas in the long run, and the Inflation Reduction Act raised the cost of drilling on public lands going forward. But there鈥檚 no getting around the fact that U.S. domestic crude oil production grew to , ever, during his time in office.

鈥淓very day that you are allowing [the industry] to remain in the room, that you are indulging their fantasies about continued production, that you are allowing them to kind of peddle their false solutions and prolong their existence, you鈥檙e shooting yourself in the foot,鈥� Collin Rees, U.S. program manager for Oil Change International, in 2024.

Partnering with Indigenous Communities

Biden made history in 2021, when he appointed Deb Haaland聽Secretary of the Interior. Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, is the first Indigenous person ever to lead the department that houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Biden administration included Indigenous communities in planning and decision making around public lands, reaching 400 co-management and co-stewardship agreements with tribal nations.

Biden broke new ground as a president when he became the first to apologize to Indigenous Americans for the federal Indian Boarding Schools, a program designed to eradicate Indigenous cultures through the forced assimilation of their children. One of the new monuments established by the former president was the Carlisle Indian Boarding school, which commemorates that period of history.

The EXPLORE Act

President Biden signed the EXPLORE Act into law in January 2025, after it passed Congress with bipartisan support. The legislation contains more than a dozen outdoor recreation-related initiatives rolled up into one piece of legislation, including protecting the use of fixed climbing bolts in wilderness areas聽and streamlining the permitting process for guiding companies working on public land.

The Act doesn鈥檛 appropriate new funding, but it does provide directives to the various land management agencies to take on certain projects, like improving campsite infrastructure, building more restrooms on public land, and installing broadband in the national parks. Many of the EXPLORE Act鈥檚 provisions focus on increasing access to federal public land, extending an Obama-era initiative offering free national park passes for all fourth graders, making more infrastructure for people with disabilities, and expanding programs to get veterans outside.

Enshrining these priorities into law increases the odds that they鈥檙e enacted under following administrations, but agencies like the National Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management have struggled for years to meet existing mandates with insufficient budgets. The National Parks Service, for example, in 2023 that they have an estimated $23.3 billion backlog in necessary upkeep of existing infrastructure.

Policies to Fight Climate Change

Biden was lauded by environmental advocates for securing the in climate adaptation and resiliency projects with the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.

He also rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, an international commitment to reduce emissions that Obama signed in 2016 and Trump withdrew from when he took office in 2017. Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement again on January 20, 2025, the first day of his second term.

The Biden administration formed a program called Climate Corps in 2023. The corps was highly publicized by the outgoing administration as rebooting a popular New Deal-era jobs program, the Civilian Conservation Corps. But critics argued that the program was little more than a new label placed on existing federally-supported climate and conservation service jobs. The Climate Corps,聽which the administration initially said would create 300,000 new jobs, didn鈥檛 secure any funding from Congress. When it finally , it amounted to little more than a website listing states鈥� existing climate and conservation positions that were already paid for through programs like Americorps.

Congressional Republicans vehemently opposed the Corps (Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell 鈥減ure socialist wish-fullment鈥� and 鈥渕ake-work programs for young liberal activists.鈥�) With Biden out of office, the 鈥淐limate Corps鈥� heading has and the is inactive. But many of the actual jobs that had preexisted the Corps, and were briefly pulled under its umbrella, will remain.

There were some service-oriented jobs programs that created new opportunities for young people to work and gain skills in conservation and environmental stewardship during the Biden administration, mostly operating at the state level. The Maryland Climate Corps, for example, launched in 2023, and a dozen other states established or expanded corps of their own.

What Will Biden鈥檚 Public Lands Legacy Be?聽

The full extent of Biden鈥檚 impact on the outdoors may take years to fully understand. Some of his policies are likely to be undone by the Trump administration, which has to shrink national monuments and environmental regulations. His failure to follow through on campaign promises, like the Climate Corps and a ban on new drilling leases, may feel like missed opportunities.

However, the Biden administration did set a new standard for empowering tribal nations to be partners in managing the federal lands that are their ancestral homelands. And the priorities for land management agencies passed in the EXPLORE Act, which address pressing issues for outdoor recreation, are codified into law and more likely to endure from one administration to the next.

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