This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking new federal directives reshaping wilderness management for climbing anchors and livestock grazing, a bipartisan bill that would restore nearly $2 billion annually for national park maintenance, and a legal battle over a proposed oil road through Utah’s most culturally significant canyon corridor. From the Senate’s quiet protection of Grand Staircase-Escalante to a federal court’s order restoring park displays, this week brought a complicated mix of setbacks and hard-won wins for public lands. 🎧 Listen to the full episode for context, analysis, and what to watch next.

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

Interior Department and Forest Service Issue Ambiguous Wilderness Directives on Climbing Anchors

The Department of the Interior and the Forest Service each issued broad directives this week on fixed climbing anchor installations in designated wilderness areas. The Interior directive cites the EXPLORE Act, passed by the previous Congress, and appears intended to exempt climbing anchors from the Minimum Requirements Analysis typically required for physical installations in wilderness, though the policy leaves considerable room for legal interpretation. The Forest Service issued a parallel statement affirming climbing as appropriate in wilderness and opened a 30-day public comment period on its directive. Learn more.

USDA Orders Expanded Livestock Grazing on National Forest Lands

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a directive this week ordering Forest Service employees to expand livestock grazing on national forest lands, building on a March 2026 memorandum of understanding between USDA and the Interior Department. The order would advance permitting on vacant and closed allotments and is framed as protecting roughly 23,000 permittees and delivering affordable American-raised protein to consumers. Critics argue the announcement sidesteps environmental review and subsidizes private industry at the expense of public lands, threatening critical habitat, riparian zones, and stream quality.

Senate Committee Approves Bipartisan America the Beautiful Act

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the bipartisan America the Beautiful Act (S.1547) by voice vote this week, advancing legislation that would reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund and provide nearly $2 billion annually for deferred maintenance in national parks and other federal public lands. The original fund, created by the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act, expired last year. The bill carries 64 Senate cosponsors; a companion House bill was introduced June 10 by Representatives Bruce Westerman and Jared Huffman. Experts estimate the maintenance backlog in national parks alone has reached $24 billion.

Senate Deadline Passes, Securing Grand Staircase-Escalante Management Plan

The Senate’s failure to advance S.J.Res. 109, a Congressional Review Act resolution targeting the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument management plan, before its June 11 deadline significantly raises the bar for any future repeal attempt, now requiring 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. The 2025 plan was finalized after a two-year public process and established a Tribal co-stewardship framework, formalized government-to-government consultation, and added protections for cultural sites, fossils, wildlife, and water resources. Tribal leaders celebrated the outcome as a victory for Indigenous sovereignty and ancestral stewardship.

Lawsuit Challenges BLM Approval of Oil Road Through Nine Mile Canyon

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the BLM over its April 2026 approval of a 5.3-mile road through Gate Canyon, a corridor leading into Nine Mile Canyon, often described as the world’s longest art gallery for its more than 10,000 archaeological and cultural sites. Approved without public notice or a comment period, the project would route up to 1,000 oil tanker trucks daily from the Uinta Basin. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance contend the approval violates the Endangered Species Act by ignoring threats to Mexican spotted owls; two earlier versions of the project were abandoned in 2015 and 2022. Learn more right here.

BLM Authorizes Private Aircraft Use in Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness

The Bureau of Land Management authorized private airplane use in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness in southern Utah by officially designating the previously unauthorized Keg Knoll backcountry airstrip as open to aircraft. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Wildlands Director Neal Clark called the decision a disservice to the landscape and to users seeking solitude, natural soundscapes, and non-motorized recreation, pledging the group will pursue every available avenue to challenge the ruling. The Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness, situated on the west side of Labyrinth Canyon north of Canyonlands National Park, was designated in 2019.

Former Big Bend Superintendents Challenge Border Construction — Comment Period Open Now

Six former superintendents and one former deputy superintendent of Big Bend National Park, representing more than 250 collective years of NPS experience, sent a second letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin highlighting contradictions between CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott’s public commitments and a $1.7 billion construction contract that includes plans for 205 miles of new roads, lighting, and utility infrastructure inside the park. The former superintendents offer specific recommendations to reduce harm and call for a genuine public comment process and a suspension of ground activity. A comment period on the border project is open right now: talking points to help you weigh in along with the comment link are found below:

Read the letter from former superintendents, and access Talking Points and guidance on how to comment.

Former Big Bend National Park superintendent Bob Krumenaker joined us:

“There’s not a single publicly elected Republican that I know of in the state of Texas that has come out saying we need to build a border wall or other massive infrastructure…Just about everybody agrees that technology and boots on the ground is adequate for this area, which has by far the least amount of border crossings of any part of the United States-Mexico border…It’s our hope to just shine as much light and make as much noise as we can in hopes that they will make some reasonable decisions going forward.”

Federal Judge Orders National Park Displays Restored After DEI Crackdown

A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered the Trump administration to reinstate displays removed from National Park sites as part of a government-wide crackdown on DEI content and climate change information. Judge Angel Kelley sided with a coalition of park advocacy organizations that sued the Interior Department in February, finding the administration had set “a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization” and that stewardship of park sites requires presenting history fully rather than in, as the ruling states, “favored fragments.”

Next Week

That’s our report for June 19, 2026.

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

Until then — Act Up and Run Wild.

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