Our Public Lands in 2026

It's been a while since my last check-in, so to kick of 2026 here's some recent news about American public lands. Last year was a tough one for public lands, with attempted sell-offs, massive staffing cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and misappropriated funding. If you saw impacts at some of your favorite national parks or public lands last year, expect to see even more this year.

Some decent positive news to start 2026: the Fiscal Year 2026 minibus package passed the House and moved to the Senate intends to fund the National Park Service at 2025 levels. This package also places limits on the executive from making staff reductions that impacts any branch of more than five percent—any intention to do so requires notifying Congress. It also withdraws any future sale of land or property managed by the National Park Service. Will any of that matter? Hard to say—this adminsitration is not particularly interested in following the rules, and may simply expect NPS to rollover if more reductions in staff or budgets are put forward.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the week before Christmas, announced it was conducting a review to “look for refuges or hatcheries established for a purpose that no longer aligns with the mission.” If this sounds familiar, a similar review under Trump's first administration is what led to one of the largest reductions of public land under his tenure. While the review is apparently completed, the results are not publicly available yet. It's worth keeping an eye on this.

Spend any time around public lands, hunting, or angling communities online right now and you'll see the rightful uproar brewing over Rep. Pete Stauber's (R-MN) Congressional Review Act motion to look into a Biden-era block of construction of a mine in Minnesota's Boundary Waters wilderness. Rescinding the rule would allow Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of a Chilean mining conglomerate, to develop a sulfide-ore copper mine. If you're looking for a way to help, check out the Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters.

Finally, in a move that sure seems designed to head off any future criticism of moves against the public lands: Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order mandating all lands managed by the Department of the Interior be open to hunting and fishing unless managers close it. It's a strange order, since much of the public lands are already open to hunting and fishing. My sense is, given the anger from backcountry hunters and anglers last year over the public lands, this is an attempt to get into their good graces before more moves are made to undermine public lands.

On the Range

• The New York Times reports that Yosemite National Park is operating with skeleton crews following a huge reduction in permanent National Park Service staff under Trump, leading to widespread visitor violations, a lack of rangers to run education programming or enforce rules, and endangering long-term preservation work on endangered species, wildfire mitigation, and infrastructure planning.
• At WyoFile, Katie Killingsporn writes on an internal Forest Service report that reveals trail maintenance has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years following DOGE-related cuts that eliminated critical seasonal positions, with some districts losing up to 100% of their trail staff and only 19% of trails now meeting standards. Depleted crews struggle to maintain not just recreation infrastructure but also grazing management, watershed protection, and post-fire recovery work across millions of acres of public lands.
• If you're looking for a light read, I finished Douglas Brinkley's biography of Theodore Roosevelt over the holidays. TR is, of course, a complicated historical figure who has some pretty unsavory views from our vantage point today. But, as a conservationist, there's also a whole lot to admire. I'm going to jump into his biography of Franklin Roosevelt next.