This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking a proposed reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service, a sweeping Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations, a court ruling against the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, a public scoping period threatening Chaco Culture National Historical Park, commercial fishing access in Pacific Marine National Monuments, and a rare wave of conservation wins from San Francisco Bay to Arkansas. From federal agency restructuring to bedrock wildlife law, these stories define the stakes for public lands in 2026.

🎧 Listen to the full episode for context, analysis, and what to watch next.

Proposed U.S. Forest Service Reorganization

The Trump administration has put forward a sweeping reorganization of the United States Forest Service — a proposal our team is calling one of the biggest structural stories in federal land management in years. The full details of the plan, which could significantly alter how the agency operates across its 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, are still emerging. Conservation groups and agency watchers are closely scrutinizing what the reorganization would mean for staffing, resource management, and public access at the local level.

Court Rules Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan Violated Endangered Species Act

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act by relying on a flawed biological analysis in the creation of the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, adopted in 2023. The decision effectively prohibits the Forest Service from relying on the plan and returns management to the prior plan until a new biological opinion is completed. The suit, filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Mountain True, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity, centered on critical habitat for several endangered bat species. 

We heard from Alyson Merlin and Spencer Scheidt of the SELC:

“Most of the organizations that we represented and SELC itself were part of a collaborative partnership process that included a very diverse group of stakeholders from timber groups to game hunting groups to conservationists like us to put forward a series of recommendations for what the forest plan should look like. That process went well…and ultimately, the Forest Service decided to move forward with a forest plan that took almost none of those recommendations to heart…No one wanted to sue over this. We did it because the plan violated the law and because these forests, especially when looking at the biological opinion, these forests are some of the last best habitat for these bats. These bats…they can’t lose this habitat and survive.” – Alyson Merlin

“I feel like the Forest Service cut a lot of corners. It cut a lot of partners out, and it sort of went its own way. And the court called it out. And now it has an opportunity to fix those errors, to right those wrongs, to mend those fences.” – Spencer Scheidt

Trust for Public Land to Purchase Golden Gate Fields for San Francisco Bay Waterfront Park

The Trust for Public Land has signed an agreement to purchase Golden Gate Fields — the historic horse racing track that operated along the San Francisco Bay shoreline from 1941 until its closure in 2024 — for $175 million. The Trust plans to transfer the 161-acre property to the East Bay Regional Park District, creating a new public waterfront park that would connect a nearly continuous ten-mile stretch of open space along the Bay. The deal is expected to close early next year, with plans for wetland restoration, trails, expanded beach access, and possibly sports fields — a generational conservation win for one of the most densely populated shorelines in the country.

🎧 For more on the Trust for Public Land, listen to our recent Wild Idea episode with TPL President and CEO Carrie Bessnette Hauser

Arkansas Unveils Maumelle Pinnacles Master Plan for 24,000-Acre Recreation Corridor

Arkansas announced the Maumelle Pinnacles Master Plan this week — a landmark effort to expand outdoor recreation while protecting one of central Arkansas’s most important natural areas. The project spans more than 24,000 acres from downtown Little Rock to Lake Maumelle, calling for a connected trail network linking Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Rattlesnake Ridge, Blue Mountain, and surrounding conservation lands. Roughly 60% of the 28 planned trail and crossing projects are slated for completion within five years, with the full buildout unfolding over 15 to 20 years through collaboration among the Nature Conservancy, Central Arkansas Water, Arkansas state parks, and local governments.

Federal Court Upholds Federal Oversight of Florida Wetlands Permitting

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled last week that permits to build in Florida wetlands must remain under federal — not state — authority. The ruling upholds a 2020 decision finding that the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when they approved Florida’s state-run wetlands permitting program. Florida holds the second-largest wetland area in the country after Alaska, and developers had long viewed state control as a path to faster permitting approvals. The state and federal agencies now have 90 days to petition the U.S. Supreme Court, but for now, federal protections for the Florida panther, manatee, wood stork, and other imperiled species remain in place.

Southern Environmental Law Center Announces 2026 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award Winners

The Southern Environmental Law Center announced the winners of its 2026 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award in Charlottesville, Virginia. Catherine Coleman Flowers received the book award for Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope, a collection of personal essays on climate change, rural poverty, and underserved communities. Lindsey Liles received the journalism award for a Garden & Gun feature on the fight to save the red wolf, whose only remaining wild population survives in a small corner of eastern North Carolina — a reminder that the stories told about these places carry as much weight as the lawsuits and policy fights.

‘God Squad’ Votes to Exempt Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Operations from Endangered Species Act

In a move conservation groups are calling unprecedented and illegal, the Endangered Species Committee — known as the “God Squad” — voted unanimously to exempt all oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act. It was the committee’s first meeting in 35 years. The exemption, triggered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invoking a rarely used national security provision of the 1973 law, removes a National Marine Fisheries Service requirement that ships operate at safe speeds and monitor for whale locations. The Rice’s whale — with only about 51 individuals remaining, the only whale species endemic to the United States — is the most directly imperiled. Earthjustice has called the vote illegal and says it will go to court immediately; environmental groups had already filed suit before the meeting and say they will amend those lawsuits now.

We heard from former director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and friend of the pod, Martha Williams:

“When I look back on it, it appears…that the oil and gas industry chafed at literally having to pick up their own trash. And operate in a manner that doesn’t jeopardize the extinction of a critically endangered species, the Rice’s whale. And then you have Pete Hegseth, it seems like he seized an opportunity to either distract from or to turn the narrative on the war in Iran…It’s really hard for me to fathom and put words to what just… It just doesn’t make sense. It’s really baffling. It’s sloppy work, and it’s greed.”

Western Pacific Fishery Council Recommends Restoring Commercial Fishing in Pacific Marine National Monuments

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council took final action this week, recommending that the federal government restore commercial fishing access in portions of four Pacific Marine National Monuments: the Pacific Islands Heritage, Rose Atoll, Marianas Trench, and Papahānaumokuākea Monuments. The council considered approximately 70 written and oral public comments before voting. Proponents have framed the move as restoring access for local fishing communities rather than removing monument protections outright, though conservation groups have pushed back on that framing as they await a final federal decision.
Angelo Villagomez from the Center for American Progress shared these thoughts:

What we’re seeing with this administration is just the selling off of our public lands and waters and, you know, turning our natural resources into a balance sheet that can be sold…Public lands and public waters are as, as popular in the territories as they are in the rest of the country. You know, the idea of having these protected areas is an important part of the identity for Pacific Islanders. And not everybody wants to sell off all of our fish to industrial, industrial interests.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park Oil and Gas Leasing and Public Scoping Period

The Interior Department opened a 7-day public scoping period on March 31st as part of its proposal to reverse Public Land Order 7923, which has protected 336,000 acres surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from oil and gas development since 2023. If the order is rescinded, new leasing and drilling would be allowed within 10 miles of the park’s boundaries — on lands where the BLM has already leased over 90 percent of surrounding federal acreage and oil and gas companies have drilled more than 37,000 wells. The scoping period is your opportunity to weigh in before the window closes. Learn more and comment here.

Next Week

That’s our report for April 3, 2026.

We’ll be back next week with more land stories that matter.

Until then — Act Up and Run Wild.

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