The Wild Line

This week’s Wild Line highlights the impacts of the ongoing shutdown on public lands and civil servants. We share the latest on uncertainty over backpay and high-profile firings and hirings in the conservation world, federal progress on wetlands protection, and concerning efforts to roll back protections in Chaco Canyon and allow chainsaws in wilderness areas. We look at the latest nomination to run the Bureau of Land Management, and close with a win for climbing access in North Carolina.

This week’s Wild Line opens with a federal court order that halts layoffs at the Department of the Interior during the shutdown. In Washington, Senators launched a new bipartisan Senate Stewardship Caucus. House Democrats challenged Interior and USDA over shutdown decisions that favor extractive industries even as critical safety work is left to skeleton crews. Federal agencies announced new funding for Western migration corridors, and legal and political pressure reignited the debate over cattle grazing at Point Reyes.

This week’s Wild Line opens with new details on the ongoing federal shutdown, including Interior’s plan to cut more than 2,000 jobs across its agencies and furloughs at the Environmental Protection Agency. We look at a busy week on Capitol Hill, where the Senate advanced a package of wilderness bills and a controversial forest management proposal, while the House pressed for restoration of Stonewall National Monument’s LGBTQ+ history. We also cover deregulatory moves inside the White House, a major land acquisition in North Carolina, leadership news from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the Supreme Court’s decision on corner-crossing. From Alaska, we report on new resolutions from the Alaska Federation of Natives and breaking developments on the Izembek road and Arctic Refuge drilling. Plus, the Outdoor Alliance takes its work to Capitol Hill.

This week’s Wild Line opens with a look at the 17-day-old federal shutdown and its ripple effects across the public lands workforce, from widespread layoffs to the potential loss of recreation-driven economies. We share highlights from the Rocky Mountain Wilderness...

This week’s Wild Line explores the President’s decision to greenlight construction of the Ambler Road through the heart of northwestern Alaska, new developments in Congress affecting millions of acres of BLM lands in Montana and North Dakota, and legislation that would allow border patrol operations inside wilderness areas. Plus: setbacks in federal wildfire mitigation, the creation of a new Wildland Fire Service, changes to NEPA guidance, major EPA funding cuts, and state and local conservation news across the country.

This week’s Wild Line opens with the October 1 government shutdown, which left thousands of federal workers in limbo and forced Interior to furlough half its staff, straining National Parks, gateway communities, and local economies. We cover Interior’s cancellation of...

This week’s Wild Line covers a wave of federal personnel shifts, cultural censorship inside the National Park Service, and the reopening of storm-damaged sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We look at new wildfire resilience programs in California, Climate Week in New York, and the upcoming Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on more than 25 public lands bills. We also cover White House intimidation of civil servants and the record-breaking response to the Forest Service’s proposed rollback of the Roadless Rule.

Wilderness advocates from across the country gathered in Washington, DC, this week for the National Wilderness Coalition’s annual advocacy week, as lawmakers pushed a trio of mining bills and a new permitting framework with major implications for public lands. In Colorado, the BLM held a record-breaking oil and gas lease sale, with even larger auctions on the horizon, while the administration proposed creating a U.S. Wildland Fire Service that critics warn could drain resources from already strained agencies. Elsewhere, Interior backed reauthorizing the Great American Outdoors Act, the EPA moved to end greenhouse gas reporting, and Canada unveiled a suite of new energy projects drawing fire from First Nations and environmental groups.

With the comment deadline on the Forest Service’s Roadless Rule rescission approaching, we cover the Department of the Interior’s announcement of plans to roll back the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, lawmakers debated wildfire risk, energy permitting, the Endangered Species Act, and forest funding, while the House passed this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

Congress returned from recess this week and wasted no time taking aim at public lands, passing a slate of resolutions that roll back years of planning in Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota. We spoke with Alaskans on the ground about what these changes mean for their communities. Meanwhile, lawmakers advanced the Ambler Road project and a series of controversial mining and wildlife bills, even as a hearing opened on reauthorizing the Great American Outdoors Act. Outside of Congress, the EPA moved to fire dozens of employees, wildfire crews raised alarms after arrests on the fireline, and new disputes over sage grouse, water rights, and climate science shaped the week. Plus, the USDA is expanding an unusual tool in the wolf conflict toolbox: drones playing human voices and rock music.

This week on The Wild Line, we dig into big developments across America’s public lands. USDA has quietly extended the comment period on its controversial Forest Service reorganization plan, while also moving to roll back the Roadless Rule, threatening protections for 45 million acres. We look at the first-ever retreat from a wildlife refuge expansion in Texas and a court ruling that weakens protections for the lesser prairie chicken, plus a Montana summit where Ryan Zinke and conservative groups pressed for more state control of federal lands. We also bring you updates from Alaska’s oil and gas meeting, new research on wildfire severity in California, and Yosemite rangers’ vote to unionize after steep workforce cuts. And we’ll tell you what’s ahead as The Wild Idea podcast returns next week with a Labor Day bonus episode and a conversation with Chris Hill of the Conservation Lands Foundation.

This week on The Wild Line, we’re celebrating some rare and welcome good news for the red wolf, with pups on the ground in North Carolina and a population that’s finally on the rise. We also have updates on a court order halting construction in the Everglades, a legal win for one of the Pacific’s most important marine monuments, and a new tool that lets you see which public lands the BLM has marked for possible sale. Plus, we check in on efforts to defend California’s Chuckwalla National Monument and hear Anders’ take on a troubling federal move in DC. We’re taking a short summer recess next week, but not before teeing up Tuesday’s Wild Idea Podcast conversation about a big win for the Okefenokee Swamp.