In the weeks leading up to the shutdown, tribal nations hefted their political and economic capital to protect services for their citizens.
Department of Interior
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What the government shutdown means for public lands
Many parks will stay open, and oil and gas permitting will continue — even as tens of thousands of staff are furloughed at NPS, BLM and USFS.
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The Trump administration’s war on wind
How energy companies and states are navigating federal policy that’s hostile to wind.
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The dismantling of the Forest Service
The Trump administration’s plans would remake the agency and public lands. The deadline to comment is Sept. 30.
Posted inSeptember 2025: Who Controls Our Food?
What old growth forests have to do with your food
More than you might think.
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How Interior is using environmental laws to suppress renewable energy
The Trump administration is turning environmentalists’ legal playbook against them.
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The Trump team sets double standard on migratory bird rules
The administration said it will go hunting for cases of wind energy companies unintentionally killing migratory birds — something it has long argued is not a violation of federal law.
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An Interior Department veteran looks to the future
Jacob Malcom, founder of Next Interior, shares his fears for the agency and his hopes for a post-Trump reconstruction.
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Mass layoffs can move forward, with devastating impacts for conservation and science
‘Shortsighted’ cuts could eliminate bird banding program, federal bee research and much more.
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The Trump administration is asking park rangers to rewrite history
And some national park site staffers are pushing back.
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Protests greet Western governors in Santa Fe
After a bipartisan outcry, Senate proposal to sell public lands is blocked for now.
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What Sonoran Desert fungi are teaching scientists
The understudied mycorrhizal fungi are vital to ecosystems and may prove critical to the survival of fragile deserts stressed by climate change.
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DOJ says presidents can revoke monuments, not just create them
The 1906 Antiquities Act gave presidents the power to protect objects on public lands. A Justice Dept. memo said the Act also ”carries with it the power to revoke.”
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Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land
The majority of public land is too fire prone and far away from communities to even make sense for housing, research shows.
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A proposed Utah uranium mine gets the Trump treatment
Feds approve contested facility in just 11 days.
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Federal workers say Biden’s BLM left them vulnerable to Trump
Documents show Interior rejected a union contract for employees at BLM headquarters days before the inauguration.
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‘De-extinction’ isn’t real, but the conservation questions it raises are
In the age of gene editing, what does it mean to protect a species?
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
See 60 days of DOGE chaos
Charting the mass culling of the federal workforce.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
Threats to public lands called ‘outrageous slap in the face’
Broad support for public lands is forcing some Republicans to break with the White House while advocates rally to save them from sales.
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Trump to rescind the Public Lands Rule
The rule sought to elevate conservation’s status as a valid public land use, but Trump’s Interior Secretary stressed the importance of balancing development alongside protection.