This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking Farm Bill wilderness designations for Virginia, Arkansas, and Illinois; Kevin Lilly’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; Interior’s proposed rollback of oil and gas drilling safeguards; a leaked Flathead National Forest memo that would open recommended wilderness to off-road vehicles; an emergency Forest Service salvage timber declaration covering up to 11 million acres with a one-week comment period; NPS restrictions on fatality reporting; and the death of environmental journalist James Bruggers.

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

Farm Bill Draft Includes Wilderness Designations for Virginia, Arkansas, and Illinois

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman of Arkansas released the committee’s Farm Bill draft Wednesday, with a Forestry Title that includes several designative conservation bills approved by the committee earlier this year: two Virginia wilderness bills that together would protect over 100,000 acres of roadless area, an expansion of the Flatside Wilderness in Arkansas’s Ouachita National Forest, the Shawnee National Forest Conservation Act protecting approximately 13,000 acres in southern Illinois from commercial logging, and a feasibility study for designating the Benton MacKaye Trail through Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina as a National Scenic Trail. Being written into the base text makes these measures harder to strip out.

Virginia Wilderness Committee executive director Ellen Stuart-Haentjens shared why the areas in Virginia are so important:

“These two bills would protect mountain ecosystems that have critical headwaters that feed the Potomac and James Rivers, which are two major rivers in the Commonwealth of Virginia that flow directly into the Chesapeake Bay. So they provide drinking water for Richmond. They provide drinking water for Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia…So multiple large population centers as well as communities throughout benefit from this.”

Kevin Lilly Faces Senate on Grizzlies, Park Staffing, and ESA Reform

On June 24, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a confirmation hearing for Kevin Lilly, the acting Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife at the Department of the Interior. Committee Chair Shelley Capito pressed Lilly on ESA consultation streamlining and urged him to prioritize filling the permanent superintendent vacancy at New River Gorge National Park. Montana’s Steve Daines used his time to push for grizzly bear delisting. Democrats questioned Lilly on staffing cuts across the agency and the ongoing screwworm outbreak affecting livestock in the Southern United States.

Trump Opens Commercial Fishing in Pacific Marine Monuments

President Trump signed a proclamation on June 11 opening commercial fishing in portions of three Pacific marine national monuments. The move follows earlier administration actions rolling back fishing restrictions in both Pacific and Atlantic monuments. Supporters argue that prior prohibitions pushed American fishermen to compete against less-regulated foreign fleets in international waters. Critics called it “a reckless attack on the world’s greatest ocean sanctuaries” that “ignores science, undermines Native stewardship, and risks irreparable damage.”

Interior Proposes Major Rollback of Oil and Gas Drilling Rules

The Interior Department proposed two rule changes this week that would significantly reduce up-front costs for oil and gas drillers on federal land. Under the proposal, bonding amounts, the money companies must set aside to cover cleanup costs, would drop from $500,000 to $25,000. Public comment periods on lease sales would shrink from 90 days to 10 days, and the BLM would no longer screen proposed drilling parcels for conflicts with wildlife habitat. The National Wildlife Federation warned the reduced bonding rates would shift cleanup liability from the oil and gas industry to taxpayers.

USDA Announces $310 Million in Conservation Partnership Funding

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is accepting proposals for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program through August 24, 2026, with up to $310 million available, including a $30 million set-aside for projects involving Indian Tribes. The funding, authorized under the Working Families Tax Cut Act, supports farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners working on soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat. Both classic RCPP partnerships and alternative funding arrangements are eligible.

Leaked Memo Would Open Flathead Wilderness to Off-Road Vehicles

A leaked internal memo would open more than 190,000 acres of recommended wilderness in Montana’s Flathead National Forest to off-road vehicles, potentially unwinding a 2018 Land Management Plan developed through years of public input from motorized users, backcountry skiers, and horseback riders. Part of a broader directive affecting 5 million acres across Montana and Idaho, the memo has drawn confusion from conservationists and motorized user groups alike. Areas of concern include the Badger-Two Medicine, sacred to the Blackfeet Nation, and key grizzly and lynx habitat in the Whitefish Range. Advocates warn that restoring wilderness character once these areas are opened to motorized use is nearly impossible.

Glacier Senior Program Manager Sarah Lundstrom of the the National Parks Conservation Association shared more about how this all sits with her:

“I mean, it’s, it’s certainly disappointing to see, obviously, just all of that work being put under threat from a top-down decision out of Washington, D.C., like basically completely ignoring all the work that locals did. I think the other part of it is, is it, it takes the incentive for conservation groups to work in collaboration …It takes that away…we’re there to help timber get logs, and we’re there to help recreationists get trails, and we’re there to make sure that some spaces are put aside for conservation. And if we can no longer get and count on something like recommended wilderness being part of that, like, why show up?”

NPS Memo Prohibits Staff from Reporting Park Fatalities

The Washington Post reported this week on a December National Park Service memo prohibiting staff from confirming deaths, injury severity, or other details following fatalities inside national parks, a sharp departure from the agency’s longstanding practice of issuing releases within 24 to 48 hours of an incident. Staff may now only acknowledge that an incident occurred, provide a general location, and note that responders are on scene. Interior said the guidance creates a more consistent approach to communications; current and former rangers say it dismantles decades of public disclosure norms. About 350 people die in national parks each year.

BLM Moves Forward on Three Utah Travel Management Plans

The Bureau of Land Management announced this week it is moving forward on three Travel Management Plans in Utah: Trail Canyon, east of Zion National Park; Dinosaur North, near Dinosaur National Monument; and the Dolores River, northeast of Moab. Travel Management Plans govern where motorized recreation is and is not permitted on public land. The agency is currently accepting public comment on the Trail Canyon and Dinosaur North plans.

Laura Peterson, senior attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, shared her concerns:

“After years of dragging its feet, the BLM is suddenly racing ahead to finalize three plans for off-road vehicles, plans we expect will wrongly promote motorized recreation over the interests of all other public land visitors. These three landscapes highlight the beauty and diversity of public lands in Utah, but one thing unites them. None of them should be transformed from quiet, wild places into motorized playgrounds.”

Forest Service Issues Emergency Salvage Logging Declaration Covering Up to 11 Million Acres

The U.S. Forest Service announced Monday an emergency declaration authorizing salvage timber sales across up to 11 million acres in Idaho and Montana’s national forests, following significant blowdowns from high-wind storms in December and March that toppled trees in saturated soils. The public comment period opened June 22 and closes June 29, giving the public one week to weigh in on a project of this scope. Though the agency’s planning document anticipates a June 2027 decision, the emergency declaration means ground-disturbing work could begin well before that date.
Public Comment Guidance is available here.

Remembering James Bruggers, Environmental Journalist

James Bruggers, a giant of environmental journalism, died on June 16 at 68 from a rare and aggressive thyroid cancer. Raised in Michigan and educated at the University of Montana, Bruggers spent nearly two decades as the environmental beat reporter for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, then the final seven years of his career at Inside Climate News, covering coal mining, petrochemical development, and plastics pollution in the Southeast. A longtime board member and former president of the Society of Environmental Journalists, he was instrumental in establishing the organization’s annual journalism contest. He is survived by his wife, Christine.

Correction: Fixed Anchors and the Wilderness Installation Question

A clarification on last week’s report: the Wild Line stated that fixed anchors are generally viewed as installations subject to the minimum requirements analysis framework. There is no standard legal definition establishing that fixed anchors are prohibited installations under the Wilderness Act; agencies have long debated the question, and individual units have handled it differently. The 60-day public comment period on draft guidance from both the Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service is open now. For a full history, tune into our Fault Lines bonus episode with Erik Murdock of the Access Fund.

Next Week

That’s our report for June 26, 2026.

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

Until then — Act Up and Run Wild.

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Farm Bill Text Features Wilderness Designations, Interior Rolls Back Drilling Safeguards, and NPS Restricts Reporting on Fatalities