In absence of federal meetings, nonprofits step up to hold public comment on Forest Service plan to lift protections from roadless areas.
U.S. Forest Service
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
Forest Service overhaul sows confusion, concern
In the Trump administration’s reorganization of the struggling agency, painful echoes of BLM’s past moves.
Posted inArticles
Why intentional fires can still be safe during this dry spring
Land managers are finding pockets of cool, wet conditions, allowing them to safely reduce future fire risk.
Posted inArticles
Bureau of Indian Affairs could face reorganization, deeper staff cuts
Tribal leaders say previous cuts have already impacted the government’s ability to carry out programs in Indian Country.
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.
Posted inArticles
Skimo is hot, in hot times
The newest Olympic winter sport arrives just as snow droughts are becoming more likely.
Posted inArticles
‘Train Dreams’ is an ode to the lonely labor of forestry
In the new film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella, I saw my own Forest Service career reflected back at me.
Posted inArticles
The nation’s trails are disappearing
Government-issued maps offer a promise for safely exploring our public lands, but they no longer reflect the reality of what’s actually on the ground.
Posted inArticles
Congress passes environmental funding without Trump’s deep cuts
But the bipartisan effort still trimmed climate research and fails to solve agencies’ chronic underfunding.
Posted inArticles
6 takeaways from our public-lands grazing investigation
Subsidies prop up ranching, grazing degrades the land and politics underpin the system.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Cascades frogs vanished from Lassen Volcanic National Park in 2007. Now, they’re back.
With careful site selection and antifungal baths, scientists are staging a frog comeback in the park.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
How ranchers accused of breaking the rules dodge oversight
Elected officials interfere with agency efforts to protect the land.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Congress made it easier to ignore grazing’s harm to public lands
Federal law requires agencies to review the environmental impacts of grazing, but government employees allege the system is riddled with loopholes.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
The wealthy profit from public lands, and taxpayers pick up the tab
Roughly two-thirds of grazing on Bureau of Land Management land is controlled by just 10% of permit holders.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
How we reported Free Range, our grazing investigation
Data and analyses used in the stories.