Federal and state approaches to managing the Colorado River – as well as land and wildlife – reflect a lack of experience.
Public lands
Posted inArticles
The Continental Divide Trail is being militarized for the border wall
A new border wall has turned one end of the long-distance trail into a construction zone.
Posted inArticles
How Interior helped pushed bison off Montana’s federal lands
In an uncommon move, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum intervened in a case that involved the former legal clients of Karen Budd-Falen, one of his top deputies.
Posted inArticles
The billionaires’ club at the center of America’s public lands fight
A controversial land swap orchestrated by the mega rich could be ‘a harbinger of what’s to come’ for public lands under Trump.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The plight of the pinecone cowboy
The future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors. They’re slowly being starved out of existence.
Posted inArticles
As Roadless Rule rollback looms, grassroots hearings take root
In absence of federal meetings, nonprofits step up to hold public comment on Forest Service plan to lift protections from roadless areas.
Posted inArticles
Interior Department crafted talking points for public lands sell-off agenda
The agency’s leadership distanced itself from the controversial proposal even though staff helped research public-land sales.
Posted inApril 2026: Inside the Attack on Public Lands
‘Energy dominance’ agenda sidelines tribes
Changes to NEPA come at the expense of tribal consultation. The administration has changed or revoked rules and policies to prioritize extraction.
Posted inArticles
Tribal leaders reflect on a year of uncertainty — and possibility
Federal turnover and policy shifts have forced Indigenous communities to adapt.
Posted inArticles
A new era of industrial logging looms
Mapping the possible impacts of the Roadless Rule overhaul
Posted inApril 2026: Inside the Attack on Public Lands
The Trump administration sent Greater Yellowstone into chaos. What’s next?
The region survived a year of deep cuts and layoffs. Here’s who is picking up the pieces.
Posted inArticles
The public got one week to comment on Chaco Canyon drilling. It’s almost over
Indigenous leaders, New Mexico political leaders accuse feds of rushing a decision about the sacred site.
Posted inArticles
Forest Service overhaul sows confusion, concern
In the Trump administration’s reorganization of the struggling agency, painful echoes of BLM’s past moves.
Posted inIssues
How I found trans joy in backcountry splitboarding
Under an administration threatening my existence, I find self-love through movement.
Posted inArticles
War exposes the energy dominance lie
True energy independence comes from weaning ourselves from fossil fuels.
Posted inArticles
Public lands need less extraction and more rewilding
In the age of extinction, we need a new model for these landscapes and the communities that rely on them.
Posted inArticles
In major reversal, Interior allows top official with close industry ties to work on grazing policy
Karen Budd-Falen, the agency’s associate deputy secretary, had previously recused herself from working on grazing matters.
Posted inArticles
The BLM wants to ramp up logging. Oregonians aren’t so sure.
People are grappling with the agency’s notice that signals a significant increase in timber harvesting across 2.5 million acres.
Posted inMarch 2026: The Uncertainty of Farming in the Colorado River Basin
Black riders have always held the reins
What ‘High Horse’ gets right about Black cowboys and the West.
Posted inArticles
Trump’s BLM is going all-in on resource extraction
The agency’s new plan for ecologically significant areas of western Oregon is not responsible forest management.