This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking a major Endangered Species Act victory on Capitol Hill, proposed Forest Service rule changes that would open wilderness areas to chainsaws and fast-track mining exploration on national forest land, Interior and Agriculture secretaries facing congressional budget scrutiny, and a landmark master plan approved for California’s Great Redwood Trail. From federal wilderness policy to tribal treaty rights, these stories reveal the high stakes of public lands management in 2026.

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

House Republicans Pull Bill to Gut the Endangered Species Act

On Earth Day, House Republican leadership pulled the ESA Amendments Act from the floor just before a scheduled vote, offering a temporary reprieve for endangered wildlife protections. The bill would have rewritten key portions of the Endangered Species Act and significantly reduced protections for imperiled species. The pullback came in direct response to pressure from House Republicans representing Florida and New York, who had been lobbied earlier that week by a broad coalition of conservation groups — including the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Oceana, and American Bird Conservancy — participating in an Endangered Species Coalition fly-in that brought hundreds of local advocates to Capitol Hill.

We heard from Dalton George, National Organizing Director for the Endangered Species Coalition:

The one thing that I think everybody needs to understand is there is still such an immense amount of power you have by just getting folks to the Hill to share what matters to them and, and why they’re passionate, um, about wildlife.

Wildlife Corridors Act Introduced on Earth Day with Bipartisan Support

Also on Earth Day, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Wildlife Corridors and Habitat Connectivity Conservation Act, sponsored by Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). The legislation aims to protect and restore connected habitat for wildlife across the United States, addressing one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss. The bill arrives as Congress faces competing pressures over federal land management and species protections, making its bipartisan authorship a notable development.

Christian Hunt, Director of National Wildlife Refuges and Parks Program at Defenders of Wildlife, told us:

This bill would create a national framework by which to identify, designate, and manage, corridors for the benefit of wildlife across federal lands. It would require agencies to coordinate rather than planning in isolation. It would support collaboration with states, tribes, landowners, and, um, importantly, it would also authorize substantial annual funding. So taken together, we think it represents really a generational advancement in the evolution of public lands law.

Interior and Forest Service Budgets Face Congressional Scrutiny

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins both appeared before congressional appropriators this week to defend President Trump’s proposed budget. Burgum faced tough questioning from House Appropriations Democrats over deep cuts to Interior land management agencies and the legality of merging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement — agencies separated after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster — into the newly formed Marine Minerals Administration. Rollins was unable to provide a cost estimate when Senator Martin Heinrich directly asked how much the Forest Service reorganization would cost taxpayers.

We caught up with Tracy Stone-Manning, former Director of the Bureau of Land Management and current President of the Wilderness Society:

Of course, this is really bad for our public lands. It’s also really bad for people, public servants who for decades have served all of us in taking care of, of our shared public lands.

Forest Service Internal Emails Raise Alarm Over Chainsaw Use in Wilderness

Using FOIA requests, the organization Wilderness Watch obtained internal Forest Service emails that appear to show the agency reconsidering its longstanding interpretation of the Wilderness Act’s prohibition on motorized equipment — specifically, chainsaw use in designated wilderness areas. The emails indicate that years of pressure from outfitters and guides in Idaho led the Forest Service to bring in an external resource to re-examine this policy. Conservation advocates say the change would contradict the clear intent of the Wilderness Act, which restricts motorized tools with only rare exceptions, and argue that trail maintenance challenges are a staffing capacity issue, not an equipment issue.

Proposed Forest Service Rule Would Allow Mining Exploration Without Public Review

A quietly proposed Forest Service rule change would allow mining companies to explore up to five acres of national forest land without agency approval, environmental review, or public notice — a process conservation groups are calling “stealth mining.” Under the proposed “notice-level operations” concept, if the agency does not respond within 60 days of a company’s filing, exploration is automatically approved. The public comment period closed April 21st. Polling from the Center for Western Priorities shows 70 percent of Western voters oppose fast-tracking mining by limiting environmental reviews, and 65 percent oppose building industrial roads in undeveloped public lands for new mines.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest Suspends Commercial Huckleberry Permits for 2026

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest announced it will not issue commercial huckleberry permits in 2026, following consultations with the Yakama Nation, Tulalip Tribes, and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. The decision reflects the Forest’s commitment to tribal treaty rights, made at the tribes’ request. Personal-use huckleberry picking remains permitted under existing Forest regulations.

Great Redwood Trail Master Plan Approved in Northern California

The Great Redwood Trail Agency board approved its 738-page Master Plan, the long-awaited blueprint for a rail-to-trail conversion that will wind 231 miles through Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties along the former Northwestern Pacific Railroad line — part of a larger 320-mile project that will eventually stretch from the San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay. The plan is designed to serve hikers, cyclists, equestrians, kayakers, and commuters, while also functioning as an ecological restoration corridor. The approval is the result of more than three years of community engagement, and state officials are hinting a major funding announcement is coming soon.

Next Week

That’s our report for April 24, 2026.

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

Until then — Act Up and Run Wild.

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