The Trump Administration plans to lay off more than 2,000 employees of the Interior Department, including hundreds of workers from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management.

That’s which was posted on October 20 in the Northern District of California’s San Francisco division. According to the document, 2,050 workers across 89 Interior Department units are targeted for termination.

In a statement provided to听翱耻迟蝉颈诲别,听the Interior Department said that the proposed layoffs predate the current federal shutdown.

鈥淪ince the start of the current administration, with several court ordered pauses, the Department of the Interior has repeatedly reviewed and evaluated its current workforce and its Departmental needs,” the statement says. “This includes examining efficiencies, reducing redundancies, as well as offering deferred retirement programs and exploring options related to reductions in force (RIFs).”

The proposed cuts come as the federal government enters its third week of shutdown. Throughout the federal shutdown, President Donald Trump has repeatedly .

Government Executive,听a publication covering federal agencies, the layoffs are currently paused under a court order. On Wednesday, October 15, district judge Susan Illston labeled the cuts illegal . The court filing listing the layoffs was disclosed on October 20 as part of the temporary halt on the firings.

If approved, the cuts would leave major vacancies across agencies that oversee public lands and outdoor recreation. The Hill,听the layoffs target 474 employees from the Bureau of Land Management, 143 from the Fish and Wildlife Service, and 272 from the National Park Service. Of the 270 NPS cuts, 180 would be from parks in the Southeast, Northeast, and Pacific West regions of the agency.

Other cuts would target the United States Geological Survey, which is slated to lose 335 positions. The Office of the Secretary, the staff that serves current Interior Department Secretary Douglas Burgum, would lose 770 positions.

The proposed cuts mark the administration’s latest attempt to cull the workforce and budget at agencies that oversee public lands听and outdoor recreation. In February, the Trump Administration fired thousands of National Park Service employees鈥攊t targeted workers with so-called “probationary” status, which included workers who had recently been hired into new positions.

The administration then offered buyouts and early retirement to NPS and other Interior Department workers.听A federal hiring freeze prevented these agencies from filing many of the vacancies opened by the layoffs and buyouts.

The culling of federal agencies has provoked stern warnings from nonprofit groups and other organizations that work to protect public lands and the agencies that manage them.

On October 20, Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s lands protection program, called the latest proposed layoffs “sabotage,” in a statement sent to media outlets.

鈥淭he American people will ultimately pay the price for these planned layoffs at Interior,” Manuel said. “From national parks to wildlife refuges, staff at agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service protect and preserve our shared natural heritage. The Trump administration is deliberately hollowing out the federal agencies charged with safeguarding our environment to serve the corporate polluters who see our public lands as something to exploit, not protect.鈥�

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President Trump just took a significant step toward opening a roadless stretch of Alaskan wilderness to mining. In an announced Monday, October 6, the president approved the Ambler Road Project, a proposed 211-mile industrial access road to allow mining of minerals, including copper, cobalt, and gold.

The new road will run through the second-largest protected area in the National Park Service (NPS) system. Extending west from Dalton Highway, a 414-mile road system that runs north of Fairbanks to Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean coast, the road will culminate in Alaska鈥檚 remote Ambler Mining District. Most of this ecosystem has remained virtually unchanged by human contact.

鈥淭his is no ordinary road鈥攊t鈥檚 an industrial corridor through intact forests and Alaskan landscapes long enough to connect Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia. Moreover, it would divide the migration route of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, causing irreversible damage,鈥� said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, in a .

Gates of the Arctic is one of eight official national parks in Alaska,听encompassing more than 8.5 million acres, making it the second largest in the U.S. after the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, also in Alaska. There are no roads into the park, so visitors must fly in a small aircraft often equipped with floats or tundra tires. Because there are no trails into the park, river crossings are also necessary for those hoping to hike in, according to the .

Caribou in the Gates of the Arctic undergo one of the largest migrations in Alaska through the Central Brooks Range to the north slope every summer, and south in the winter. For Alaskans who live a subsistence lifestyle, the National Park Service says 鈥渃aribou are a lifeline.鈥�

鈥淭hey are a main subsistence food source for Native residents in Arctic Alaska. Many of these subsistence users identify themselves as “caribou people,” revealing just how deeply rooted caribou are in the history, traditions, and psyche of the people in this region,鈥� NPS on its website.

, the White House said the road will enable access to previously mined minerals and spur the economy of the Last Frontier state. In addition to approving the project, the Whtie House also made the federal government a ten percent shareholder of Trilogy Metals, the mining company. Alaskan Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski have the reopening of the project.

The gravel road and mining project was approved in Trump鈥檚 first term in 2020, but was put on hold after conservation groups sued the administration, citing environmental concerns. The Biden administration later blocked the project after an analysis found future development would threaten caribou, other wildlife, and Alaska Native groups that rely on subsistence hunting and fishing.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will next be required to conduct environmental analysis and review. Because the permit was previously denied, the BLM will also need to provide a different interpretation of the proposal for approval.

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If Congress doesn鈥檛 agree on a short-term spending bill to maintain funding for the federal government by September 30, a shutdown may be on the horizon. And if the U.S. government indeed shuts down, many former national park employees think national parks should, too.

Dozens of former national park superintendents and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks (CPANP) urged Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in an open letter to 鈥減rotect our parks and public lands by closing them if a government shutdown occurs.鈥�

鈥淎s former superintendents of national parks across the country, we write to you with an urgent appeal to protect our parks and public lands by closing them if a government shutdown occurs,鈥� the group wrote in the . 鈥淧ast shutdowns in which gates remained open with limited staff have hurt our parks: iconic听symbols cut down and vandalized, trash piled up, habitats destroyed, and visitor safety jeopardized. If you don鈥檛 act now, history is not just doomed to repeat itself, the damage could in fact be much worse.鈥�

Congress determines the National Park Service (NPS) annual budget because the bureau is housed within the Department of the Interior. When Congress fails to pass a budget, shutdowns may occur. During federal closures, government programs and sites considered non-essential to national security or safety鈥攕uch as those run by the NPS鈥攁re at risk of losing both funding and employees.

The federal government has experienced at least 14 shutdowns since 1980, according to the听, a nonprofit think tank. But the government has only shut down twice in the 21st century. The first occurred in 2013, when over 400 national park locations closed. The most recent shutdown, which took place in December 2018, is also the longest in U.S. history, lasting for over 34 days.

In the past, these shutdowns 鈥渉ave hurt our parks,鈥� wrote CPANP in the latter. The advocacy group comprises 4,600 current, former, and retired NPS employees and volunteers.

During the 2018 shutdown, some 80 percent of Park Service employees were furloughed; however, many of the country鈥檚 most iconic parks remained open, managed by a bare-bones crew. At the time, 国产吃瓜黑料 reported that there was no one to collect park fees, guide tourists, plow the roads, or clean overflowing pit toilets. Trash was being cleared only by a few volunteer groups in a handful of popular sites.

In advance of a possible shutdown in the fall of 2023, some state governors, including Katie Hobbs of Arizona and Utah鈥檚 Spencer Cox, announced they would use state funds to keep national parks open. The 2023 shutdown was averted, however, and it remains unclear whether similar state-led initiatives will keep parks funded and open in a possible 2025 shutdown.

According to the CPANP, keeping national parks open during a government shutdown, particularly in the current context, could lead to worse outcomes than in the past. National parks are already under pressure to remain open amid severe workforce reductions, due to a swathe of budget cuts implemented by the Trump Administration in the spring.

鈥淪ure, we can keep everything open,鈥� an anonymous NPS ranger told 国产吃瓜黑料 in April after a round of cuts earlier this year. 鈥淏ut who wants to recreate in a park with broken down facilities and no maintenance and no search and rescue?”

The CPANP says any attempt to keep parks running during the shutdown would be courting disaster.

鈥淚f national parks are to be open to visitors when National Park employees are furloughed, these nascent issues from the summer season are sure to erupt,鈥� the CPANP letter states. 鈥淟eaving parks even partially open to the public during a shutdown with minimal鈥攐r no鈥攑ark staffing is reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk.鈥�

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It鈥檚 6:15 P.M. on a Thursday in late August, and there鈥檚 a short line to get into Fisher Brewing in Salt Lake City, Utah. The beer hall sits within walking distance of at least 20 or so nonprofit organizations.

Strolling from the bar to a seating area I pass Millennial hippies, bored looking Gen Zs, clean-shaven sales bros, a woman in pink kitten heels, and a group of academic looking Boomers. The hodgepodge has come for the The Center for Western Priorities’s (CPW) 鈥淜eep Parks Public鈥� campaign, a multi-state speaking tour focused on the preservation of public lands. Utah is the group’s fourth state after Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

In each location, the group has brought together various agencies, elected officials, and the public to talk about the ongoing battle to protect the country鈥檚鈥攁nd particularly the West鈥檚鈥攑ublic lands. CPW staffers are also recording episodes of as they travel.

The CWP’s idea for the events came out of the recent political fight to stop the federal government from selling millions of acres of public lands. The sale was initially proposed by Utah Republican Mike Lee, and it was soundly defeated in July.

People take their seats as the panel discussion begins. Away from the crowd, I see a middle-aged man sipping his beer. I ask why he came to the event. 鈥淔or me, public land is medicine,鈥� Russell Daniels, a Salt Lake City photographer tells me. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 replace it once it鈥檚 gone. The public wants to keep these lands public.鈥�

The Mike Lee Effect

Mike Lee’s name is repeated again and again as the evening unfolds. 鈥淢ike Lee gave us the best gift he could have given us, which is that he made this issue so high profile,鈥� Kate Groetzinger, CWP communications manager and host of the podcast, says.

I look around the room and see proof of Groetzinger’s opinion. All 150 seats for the Salt Lake City event were reserved prior to the event, and as the panel begins to speak, it is standing room only.

In June 2025, Lee made headlines for his added provision to President Trump鈥檚 so-called 鈥淏ig Beautiful Bill鈥� that called for auctioning off as much as 3 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property across 11 western states.

Nonprofits like the CWP rallied against the proposal, but so did conservative lawmakers and right-leaning online communities.

The opposition was amplified in places as unexpected as , and opponents rallied under the tagline 鈥淣ot One Acre.” Hunter Nation, a non-profit group for hunters, posted its opposition to the sale of any public lands on social media.

Eighty-five Wyoming businesses signed a letter to their senators telling them that the state鈥檚 outdoor recreation, tourism, and culture 鈥渋s under threat by a concerted movement to transfer or sell federal public lands.鈥�

Ultimately, five House Republicans (Mike Simpson of Idaho, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Cliff Bentz of Oregon, David Valadao of California, and Ryan Zinke of Montana) and four Republican senators (Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy of Montana, and Jim Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho) said they did not support the plan.

On June 28, Lee from the megabill. Lee’s defeat represented a watershed moment for the groups fighting for public lands.

鈥淓veryone knows about it now,鈥� Groetzinger says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 this growing awareness that public lands are under attack. And I think that just doesn’t sit well with people.鈥�

Lessons Learned from Defeating Lee

In the month after Lee’s defeat, conservation groups and lawmakers have considered a similar question: What can defenders of public land learn from the bipartisan alliance?

“We learned that the people who populate Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana are the same type of people who populate Colorado and New Mexico,” John Hickenlooper, Colorado’s Democratic senator, told听翱耻迟蝉颈诲别听on a phone call. “We have the same bias. We want to protect our public lands for our descendants. And that is a pretty powerful political force.”

Hickenlooper and his staff watched as online opposition built toward Lee’s proposal in May and June, and noticed that some of the loudest voices came from right-leaning groups. Hunters, anglers, and even farmers and ranchers said that the public land sale was a bad idea. On social media, the Democratic senator and his staff amplified these voices.

“We would repost some social media from others and often times it was from conservative groups,” Hickenlooper said. “I was enthusiastic, because it showed that social media could bring together discordant groups of people around a common goal.”

Hickenlooper said the outpouring of opposition also showed that voters didn’t trust Lee’s justification. Lee framed the public land sale as a way to combat the housing crisis gripping cities and towns across the west. Hickenlooper said his office received hundreds of letters from local elected officials across Colorado saying that the idea would not solve their problems.

“We got 62,000 emails and letters from 50 county commissioners, mayors, and elected officials鈥攁bout a third of them Republicans鈥攁ll of them opposed to this. These are people whose positions are dependent on them getting more housing,” he said. “They brought up that there are already processes in place to build on this type of land.”

“People could tell this was a bait-and-switch,” he said.

At the Utah event, Scott Braden, executive director of the Southern Wilderness Alliance, tells me that the biggest lesson was that the fight grew from a regional one to a national one.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 because he listened to constituents here in Utah,鈥� Braden says. 鈥淚t was because there was a nationwide response. People in all 50 states called their senators. That鈥檚 what matters.鈥�

Not All Public Lands Battles Are United

Not all public land fights are as unified as the battle against Lee. In June, the Trump Administration rescinded the so-called Roadless Rule, a prohibition of road construction and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of roadless Forest Service territory.

In a statement issued by the Western Caucus, House Representative听Zinke called the move “a victory for Montana, public lands, and forest management everywhere.” Zinke said that the roadless rule鈥攚hich the CPW supports鈥攚as an impediment to wildfire management.

While speaking on the podcast, Doug Tolman with the group Save Our Canyons, says the wildfire argument is misinformation. 鈥淚’m afraid of a ski reserve development in pristine, forested land,鈥� he says. 鈥淚’m afraid of increased logging and mining in areas that are not currently used for that and roads being built to access private parcels of land to build luxury developments.鈥�

Tolman says he is worried, but hopeful that eventually, people outside the traditional conservation community will get involved.

鈥淚 have seen a few attempts to get hunting and angling communities engaged, but it is not nearly as strong as the public land sell-offs at the moment,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 am curious though, if those communities might step in with a heavier hand once the comment periods open and all the press releases are out in the coming weeks.鈥�

The Fight Continues

Groetzinger says that, after the Lee fight, people are paying more attention to public land issues. 鈥淣ow people who didn鈥檛 even know what BLM lands were six months ago are on alert. Next time, they鈥檒l be ready,” she says.

Groetzinger and others expect future fights to erupt around a long list of public land issues. Continued budget and staffing cuts听to the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service are expected.

Throughout the spring, both agencies underwent major staffing cuts. Erika Pollard of the National Parks Conservation Association tells the attendees that that the NPS听has lost more than 5,000 employees since January, with the threat of another thousand cuts looming. Behind-the-scenes specialists鈥攖hose who safeguard water quality, air quality, and long-term planning鈥攁re the ones who risk being cut.

鈥淔or people going to the parks right now, it might look like everything is fine, but we know it鈥檚 not,鈥� Pollard says. 鈥淭he administration is basically forcing the parks to keep their visitor services open uninterrupted. We are really seeing an all-out assault on our national parks and our national park system like we鈥檝e never seen before.鈥�

There are setbacks to Biden administration-era plans to establish a historic resource management plan for sacred tribal lands like Bears Ears National Monument. Another podcast guest, Davina Smith, of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, says that while it鈥檚 moving forward, she鈥檚 devastated by the dismissal of staffers she鈥檚 worked with to make the plan a reality for two years.

鈥淭hese efforts at cutting the budget, cutting the workers, and ruining morale are a cynical attempt to make public lands management in America fail,鈥� Scott Braden, the executive director of the Southern Wilderness Alliance tells the crowd. 鈥淎nd that becomes the justification for those who want to seize and sell off public lands.鈥�

Decades-long conservation laws are also at risk. After about an hour of discussing various setbacks in protecting Utah鈥檚 public lands, an audience member has a question. She jokes that she鈥檚 never learned so many acronyms in one night before. Then she pauses, and with a voice of sincerity asks: 鈥淪o, what do we do?鈥�

The answer is unsatisfying, if simple: get involved, stay involved, and make your voice heard. 鈥淚t really is going to take all of our voices, all of the different pieces of our public lands puzzle and the people who love these places to really make some change,鈥� Pollard says.

国产吃瓜黑料 articles editor Frederick Dreier contributed to this report.

The post What Was Learned From the Latest Fight Over Public Lands? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In 2022, a conservation nonprofit called the Deschutes Trails Coalition (DTC) started working with the U.S. Forest Service to build and maintain hundreds of miles of hiking trails in central Oregon.

The agreement was pretty straightforward: DTC would pay two employees to pitch in alongside the Forest Service鈥檚 own trail crew, which numbered six. The eight-person team would repair bridges, clear overgrowth, and cut out trees that had fallen across the trails over the winter鈥攙ital work that kept 1,200 miles of trails open to hikers.

As the relationship evolved, the Forest Service struggled to maintain its workforce. In September 2024, then-USFS chief Randy Moore said it wouldn鈥檛 hire back 2,400 seasonal employees for 2025, including most of its trail crews. Then, in March 2025, the Trump Administration fired 3,400 full-time USFS employees.

The staffing woes within the agency forced the DTC to step up. This summer, the nonprofit has paid for five staffers to do trail work. The USFS, meanwhile, employs just one.

鈥淥ur crew kind of absorbed them, rather than the other way around,鈥� says Jana Johnson, executive director of the DTC. 鈥淥ur roles just flip-flopped.鈥�

Across the country, nonprofits like the DTC are navigating similarly chaotic situations, fueled by the rapid change to federal agencies that oversee public land. On January 20, the same day he was inaugurated, President Trump froze all federal hiring by executive order. In February, the administration announced its staffing cuts to National Parks and the National Forest Service. Thousands of veteran USFS employees then took voluntary retirement or deferred resignation agreements.

Legal challenges have since reinstated some of those employees, but the USFS hasn鈥檛 divulged how many employees were fired or left the agency this year (the USFS didn鈥檛 respond to 翱耻迟蝉颈诲别鈥檚 request for comment). Meanwhile, the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, stripped funds from other USFS programs: old-growth forest protection, climate resilience and forest health programs, and tree planting efforts.

The chaos at the Forest Service and other federal land management agencies has left public lands increasingly reliant on nonprofit partners like the DTC. The problem with this new model? Grants and funding from federal agencies鈥攎oney that many trail building nonprofits rely on鈥� is also drying up. And now, some nonprofits like the DTC are starting to feel the pinch.

Nonprofits Are Operating in a New Era

If you visit a national forest in 2025 and come across someone clearing a trail, cleaning a bathroom, or collecting campsite fees, chances are high that they work for a nonprofit organization rather than the Forest Service.

The operational structure involves both parties. Johnson told 国产吃瓜黑料 that the DTC operates with a great deal of autonomy when it works on public lands. Projects are assigned or approved by a USFS trails manager, but daily work plans are under the purview of DTC鈥檚 trails coordinator and trail crew leader. DTC interviews and hires its own employees, signs the paychecks, and purchases tools, hard hats, and work trucks.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very new world,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the only paid crew working on the Deschutes National Forest now.鈥�

Employees wear DTC shirts, rather than USFS uniforms. Training, like First Aid classes and chainsaw certifications鈥攐nce the responsibility of the USFS鈥攁re now run by DTC and another local nonprofit, the Central Oregon Trail Alliance.

In some ways, arrangements like this are business as usual. The USFS has long relied on nonprofit partners, contractors, and volunteer crews to supplement its recreation and trails programs, which include tasks like clearing trails and patrolling campgrounds. The big difference for 2025 is that nonprofits are no longer confident if or when the federal government will pay for the work.

Prior to 2025, the DTC was paid by the USFS through funds approved by the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020. The group signed an agreement with the agency in 2023, and was due about $200,000 in funding in 2025. That payment has yet to materialize.

鈥淭he message was, 鈥榃e really don鈥檛 know if or when these funds will make it to you,鈥欌�� says Johnson. The USFS did not respond to听国产吃瓜黑料’s听request for comment.

Scrambling, Johnson managed to secure three different state-level grants in time to hire a full trail crew for the season.

鈥淲e got really lucky, and it bought us a little bit of time to figure out how we鈥檙e going to fundraise in the future,鈥� Johnson says.

The grant money comes with limitations, though. First, the cash is temporary. Next year, Johnson will have to reapply or find new grant money elsewhere. Secondly, the restrictions on the cash are tight. Under its original funding agreement with the Forest Service, DTC could work on any trail in Forest Service territory. The state grants, however, are for specific trail projects.

Johnson says that this is a common pitfall at nonprofits like DTC鈥攖here鈥檚 grant money out there for 鈥渟exy鈥� projects like new trails, bridge building, and watershed restoration, but not routine maintenance. But in a typical year, this maintenance can spell the difference between an open or a closed trail.

鈥淭hese grants are really project specific. Basic maintenance鈥攍ogging out, clearing brush, cleaning drains鈥攖hose do not count as a project. Very few grants will cover basic maintenance,鈥� she says.

Where Will the Money Come From?

The financial pressure that DTC and other trail nonprofits are under is unlikely to abate anytime soon. President Trump鈥檚 will axe more than $4 billion from public land management agencies. In June, he signed an executive order mandating the Forest Service transfer its $2.4 billion wildland firefighting program to the Department of the Interior within 90 days, and cut all firefighting funds at the agency for 2026.

A further $1.6 billion in USFS cuts would deliver a 34 percent cut to payroll, a 50 percent cut to forest maintenance and improvement, and remove the agency鈥檚 forest and rangeland research program entirely.

At the DTC, this new funding situation has forced Johnson to rethink where the group鈥檚 money comes from. The group has tools to purchase, work trucks to maintain, and rising costs-of-living in an expensive mountain town to contend with.

鈥淔undraising has become a much greater focus,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檒l continue to do some of the things that have been successful, like going after grants. That said, grants are becoming more competitive, so we need to expand.鈥�

One example is DTC鈥檚 $1 for Trails program, which recruits businesses to collect $1 voluntary donations from customers. For now, the program is small: it has generated about $220,000 since it began in 2018, and only a handful of local hotels and resorts participate. The funds don鈥檛 stay with DTC either. Instead, they鈥檙e doled out to a number of local nonprofits for small projects, like replacing trail signs and hosting volunteer maintenance days.

Johnson says expanding the program is a top priority. 鈥淚 think it has great potential to fund the trail program into the future,鈥� she says.

Combined, the state grants, the fundraising efforts, and the potential for restored federal funding leaves Johnson confident that DTC will navigate the 2025 trail work season and prepare for the future. She knows that鈥檚 not the case for every nonprofit.

鈥淲e are extremely unique in central Oregon that we have so many individual partner groups and nonprofit groups that are able to pick this up,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ost places around the country don鈥檛 have the nonprofit infrastructure that was already in place here.鈥�

A Model for Public Land Funding Is Quickly Reshaped

Around the country, a number of similar nonprofits have had difficulties navigating the funding crisis brought on by the Trump administration.

The Pacific Crest Trail Association, which oversees the famed hiking route in California, Oregon, and Washington, decided not to hire six seasonal trail workers this year due to funding concerns. It canceled 50 weeks worth of planned trail projects, and pulled out of most of its commitments working with AmeriCorps-funded conservation corps.

AmeriCorps crews are facing their own funding crisis. In April, the Trump administration . Since then, some regional programs, like the Lakes Region Conservation Corps, have been forced to shutter entirely. Others have been largely unaffected so far.

Montana Conservation Corps CEO Jono McKinney says his program, which hires nearly 400 AmeriCorps听members each year, hasn鈥檛 lost its AmeriCorps funding. Similar to DTC, though, McKinney says other federal grants and payments have been delayed.

鈥淭here鈥檚 over $1 million in trail program funding under review that we鈥檙e counting on,鈥� McKinney says. 鈥淓very day I wonder, 鈥楢re we next? What can we count on?鈥欌��

Some nonprofits are turning to fundraisers to replace missing federal dollars. After learning in February that all five Forest Service trail crew workers in the Sitka Ranger district had been fired, Sitka Trail Works, a trail nonprofit in Alaska, launched a funding campaign to hire the crew on as employees.

鈥淲e were already working super closely with the USFS folks in the field,鈥� says executive director Ben Hughey. Results were mixed: Sitka Trail Works raised over $60,000 and hired four trail workers; none of the Forest Service workers took the job. Instead, several returned to the USFS after a court order forced the agency to reinstate their positions in March. Others had already moved on to other jobs with better pay. 鈥淭rail work is a skilled trade. Why not quit, get your contractor鈥檚 license, and make three times as much money?鈥� Hughey explains.

One uncommon success story is the Nevada-based Great Basin Institute. In the three years since CEO Peter Woodruff assumed leadership at GBI, the organization has doubled in size to more than 1,000 employees and increased total revenues from $20 million to $50 million. GBI has staffers and researchers tackling nearly every subset of conservation work: trail maintenance, forestry, wildfire prevention, wildlife biology, even running visitor鈥檚 centers. They partner with nearly every federal agency that manages public lands, including the Forest Service, Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management.

Woodruff says that, despite the recent growth, GBI is currently navigating what amounts to a financial tightrope. It hired about 100 more employees in 2025 compared to the previous year, but also faced serious funding concerns. The Nevada Conservations Corps鈥攖he trail maintenance program that鈥檚 part of GBI鈥攊s funded in large part by AmeriCorps grants, which face an uncertain future under the Trump administration. This March, all payments to GBI from the Forest Service were put on hold for several weeks. And the Forest Service has not approved any new funding for GBI鈥檚 forestry work in 2025, even for projects that had already been OKed.

Through one lens, public land agencies鈥� increased reliance on nonprofit partners could be seen as a benefit. After all, both GBI and DTC have managed to expand and hire more employees, even as they navigate an uncertain future. For both groups, there is no shortage of work to be done. But Woodruff ultimately sees the current funding landscape as a poor replacement for functional federal agencies. In an ideal world, he says federal agencies would have suitable budgets, and organizations like GBI shouldn鈥檛 have to exist.

鈥淭o see a public servant workforce get replaced with this smattering of different uniforms and backgrounds and organizations鈥攚hat happened to the vision of a park ranger?鈥� he says. 鈥淵oung people don鈥檛 grow up wanting to work for GBI, they want to work for the Park Service or Forest Service. When people lose faith in that, or they鈥檙e seeing the career so clearly jeopardized, or treated with such disdain, that鈥檚 a huge loss.鈥�

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Tamara Pogue is a member of the Board of County Commissioners in Summit County, Colorado. Her primary focus is finding community-based solutions to workforce housing challenges and maintaining affordability for working families in our mountain community.听

When Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) proposed selling off millions of acres of public lands across 11 western states, he falsely claimed it would help solve the West’s affordable housing crisis.

It took about a minute to realize how unserious Senator Lee鈥檚 proposal actually was. It wasn鈥檛 about housing. In fact, there were no provisions for affordability, and worse, no guardrails to prevent the country鈥檚 wildest peaks and breathtaking vistas from being sold to the highest bidder.

But now that the political whiplash has subsided, and听 from the Senate鈥檚 sweeping reconciliation bill, the question remains: Could public land be used to house听people?

To be sure, the vast majority of our public lands aren鈥檛 suitable for housing. They aren鈥檛 near a town. They lack road access and basic infrastructure, like water and sewer. In fact, most of these lands are being used at their highest and best purpose: for wildlife habitat and public recreation鈥攖he entire point of 鈥淎merica鈥檚 best idea.”

There is, however, another idea for housing on public lands that鈥檚 already being put to work today.

In 2018, the bipartisan Farm Bill signed by President Trump, enabled the long-term leasing of Forest Service (USFS) administrative sites to entities like the one I help manage听as a key to addressing the west鈥檚 housing crisis.

These 鈥渁dmin sites鈥� aren鈥檛 the wild and scenic places where we play鈥攊n fact, you鈥檝e likely driven by them without giving them a second glance. They鈥檙e boneyards for equipment, with old buildings that sometimes serve as housing for Forest Service wildland firefighters, or they even sit empty.

Summit County, Colorado, signed a lease on a USFS administrative site near the town of Dillon back in 2023. This parcel, located across the street from the town, and just a mile from a major grocery store, is now the site of a development that will contain up to 162 units of housing for critical USFS firefighters, rangers, and other workers in the county.

The land has been surveyed, the utilities are available, and the buildings have been designed鈥攁ll without the need to sacrifice, or wantonly sell, any of the amazing public lands we听here in Colorado’s high country cherish and welcome millions each year to enjoy.

Repurposing these sites through legislation that already exists is a model built on a partnership with the USFS, and one that keeps whole what makes our economy run and our people thrive. Now, we need the current Administration and new USFS leadership to continue to collaborate with us to see this project through to completion.

There鈥檚 a silver lining to the justified panic over the sale of public lands. It shines a bright light on an important conversation about housing and public lands that my fellow commissioners and I, along with our friends at the Forest Service, are eager to share. It also offers D.C. policymakers a chance to advance housing solutions that the public can actually get behind.

The post Op-Ed: Selling Public Lands Won鈥檛 Fix the Housing Crisis in Ski Towns. But This Policy Helps. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In 2020, David Litt, former senior speech writer to President Obama, moved from Washington DC to the Jersey Shore, and felt the need for a jolt of life amidst the pandemic. So he did what anyone would do: David decided he needed to learn to surf. As a sensible Yale-educated, New York Times best selling author, David knew he needed help. And that鈥檚 how he ended up bobbing in the ocean with someone who could not be more dissimilar to him, his tattooed, truck driving, death metal enthusiast, Joe Rogan superfan, brother-in-law, Matt. The sea salt comedy of errors, became the basis of David’s brand new book “It’s Only Drowning: A true story of learning to surf and the pursuit of common ground.” And while it hilariously recounts David鈥檚 learning process, the book is also a surprising investigation of the current American culture war, the roles David and his brother-in-law have been cast into, and how, as unlikely as it would seem, a sport like surfing can help bridge the fissures of class and culture.

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There鈥檚 a new plan in Washington D.C. to auction off public lands, and this one involves millions of acres spread across nearly a dozen Western states.

The latest stipulation would require the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell off roughly 3 million acres by 2030.

On Tuesday, June 10, this plan was added to the draft legislation of President Donald Trump鈥檚 tax and spending megabill by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the U.S. Senate.

This sprawling piece of legislation, called 鈥淥ne Big, Beautiful Bill Act,鈥� passed the House of Representatives in early June, and is currently under debate in the Senate.

Sources told听The New York Times that two Republican lawmakers鈥擬ike Lee of Utah and Steve Daines of Montana鈥攚orked closely to decide on the plan.

Previous plans to sell off public lands have been met with public outcry. An earlier version of the Big, Beautiful Bill Act included a smaller selloff proposal, suggesting the liquidation of nearly 500,000 acres of public land in Nevada and Utah.

This provision was axed before the bill passed the House of Representatives, after backlash from the House鈥檚 Public Lands Caucus, a bipartisan group led by New Mexico Democrat Gabe Vasquez and Montana Republican and former interior secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke called the measure his 鈥淪an Juan Hill.鈥� He has previously told 国产吃瓜黑料:听鈥淭he idea that you鈥檙e going to sell public land to get out of debt is folly.鈥�

This latest鈥攁nd substantially larger鈥攍and sale proposal was announced by Lee, who is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Specifically, the reconciliation bill鈥檚 language dictates that 鈥渘ot less than 0.50 percent and not more than 0.75 percent鈥� of all BLM land be sold to the private sector, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior. Identical language and percentages dictate the sale of National Forest land as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.

The BLM manages 245 million total acres, and the the Forest Service manages 193 million acres. Under the plan’s rules, up to 3.29 million acres of public lands would be placed on the auctioning block.

Lawmakers have said the sale of public lands would raise funds for the federal government and clear land for housing development. The plan would put public lands in 11 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Zinke鈥檚 state, Montana, is the only Western state excluded from this updated proposal.

The that national parks, national monuments, and designated wilderness areas would be exempt from auction, and land near existing population centers would be prioritized. The bill also mandates that any public land sales must occur solely for 鈥渇or the development of housing or to address associated community needs,鈥� but it leaves the definition of these 鈥渁ssociated community needs鈥� up to the Secretaries concerned.

鈥淪enate Republicans have finally said the quiet part out loud,鈥� said , the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 鈥淭hey want to put millions of acres of our public lands up in a fire sale, destroy the investments that have created thousands of manufacturing and clean energy jobs 鈥� including in their home states, and obliterate programs that lower energy costs for everyday Americans.鈥�

The plan received immediate criticism from nonprofit groups and organizations that work in conservation and outdoor recreation.

鈥淲hat some may see as a barren lot on a map on a Senator鈥檚 desk may actually be where a community hikes after work, rides their ATV, or teaches their kids how to hunt turkey or ride a bike,” reads a statement from Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, a lobbying group for the outdoor recreation industry. “And once these treasured places are sold to private industry, they are gone forever, and in the case of this proposal, can be used for any purpose after ten years.”

David Willms, associate vice president for public lands at the National Wildlife Federation, called the plan “orders of magnitude worse than what the House proposed last month.”

鈥淢andating the fire sale of up to two-and-a-half million acres of public land violates more than a century of land stewardship, threatens wildlife and clean water, runs directly against widespread public opinion, and will not begin to solve either the budget crisis or the affordable housing crisis,” he said.

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The Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA), the non-profit organization responsible for preserving and promoting the听West Coast鈥檚 iconic 2,650-mile trail, announced on Wednesday that it will drastically reduce its planned program of work in 2025. According to a statement on the organization鈥檚 website, the decision is a result of delayed grant funding, which is part of the administration鈥檚 efforts to reduce federal spending.

The PCTA partners with the US Forest Service (USFS) to collaboratively manage the PCT and relies on federal funding, volunteer hours, and fundraising to support trail maintenance and repair projects, the hiring of trail crew leaders, and more. PCTA CEO Megan Wargo wrote in the statement that this week鈥檚 announcements have caused great uncertainty about the organization鈥檚 capacity to support hikers.

Wargo announced that the organization will cancel 56 weeks of planned trail projects in 2025 due to the funding loss. They鈥檒l likely be unable to hire six trail crew leaders, who are responsible for providing trail-building expertise and coordinating volunteer efforts. According to the PCTA, the reduction is equal to 鈥渕ore than one full year鈥檚 worth of trail crew maintenance. 鈥�

鈥淐utting back needed trail maintenance will directly affect the PCT experience this year and in the future, and surely will increase the amount and cost of work we will need to address later,鈥� Wargo wrote in the statement. 鈥淗ikers, equestrians and local trail communities will feel this as they traverse the magnificent lands through which the trail passes.鈥�

, the PCTA historically relies on a $667,000 federal grant each year to fund trail projects, along with funds from the and disaster relief funds. The Chronicle wrote that these sources make up about 48 percent of the PCTA鈥檚 yearly budget and that that money 鈥渂ecame imperiled last month when President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to halt spending. About a week later, the Trump administration withdrew the freeze but said it is withholding federal program funding pending internal reviews.鈥�

The PCTA specified several trail projects that will be eliminated or delayed These include 鈥渄ry masonry work around Donner Summit near Truckee; stone step repairs in Inyo National Forest near Mount Whitney; creek crossing repairs in Sierra National Forest outside Mammoth Lakes, and rehabilitation around Snow Creek Village near the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County.鈥�

鈥淭hose unmaintained spots are going to be hell for hikers,鈥� PCTA Advocacy Director Mark Larabee told the Chronicle.

In the statement on the PCTA鈥檚 website, Wargo called on volunteers to help fill in the gaps left by the funding freeze. She wrote that the organization will continue to lean on volunteer labor and donations to address trail maintenance projects and advocate for the future of the PCT. Wargo also encouraged hikers to contact their senators and representatives to speak up for the PCT and public lands everywhere.

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Canada鈥檚 border authority expanded on its decision to bar Pacific Crest Trail hikers from crossing into the country earlier this week, noting that its new policy mirrors the United States鈥� refusal to permit southbound hikers to begin their hikes by crossing the border into American territory.

In , the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) confirmed it would no longer issue permits for PCT hikers to cross into E.C. Manning Provincial Park at the trail鈥檚 northern terminus, and said that the change would 鈥渇acilitate monitoring of compliance of trail users鈥� as well as increase security at the border. In addition, the agency noted that the move 鈥渁ligns with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who does not allow travellers to enter the U.S. from Canada on the trail.鈥�

Northbound thru-hikers will now need to end their trips by backtracking to the nearest road crossing at Harts Pass, roughly 30 miles away; those who still wish to hike the extension of the trail into Canada will then need to travel to the nearest border crossings at Osoyoos or Abbotsford, both of which are roughly 60 straight-line miles from the trail.

In a blog post, the called the announcement 鈥渄isappointing,鈥� but acknowledged the CBSA鈥檚 points, including that the new policy mirrors one that the U.S. has long held.

鈥淗ikers and equestrians should turn around after reaching the Northern Terminus,鈥� the group wrote. 鈥淲e ask that everyone travels with the utmost respect for nature by practicing gold standard Leave No Trace practices. This area will experience increased use now that more people are traveling this section of the PCT twice.鈥�

The change comes at a tense time for U.S.-Canada relations, as on imports from it and Mexico on February 1 if the two countries don鈥檛 take steps to deter unauthorized crossings. This week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police unveiled a new fleet of leased Black Hawk helicopters that it is using to step up enforcement along the border.

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