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DOGE memoir skips the part where children died and taxpayers got ripped off
DOGE’s record is permanently written in scars across American landscapes and etched on the headstones of hundreds of thousands of children.
Read MoreAt least 2,400 oil and gas spills occurred across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025
Oil and gas operators reported more than 2,400 spills across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025, releasing a combined 5.8 million gallons of liquid, according to the annual Western Oil and Gas Spills Report from the Center for Western Priorities. New Mexico operators reported 1,277 liquid spills, up 13 percent from 1,133 the year […]
Read MoreSTATEMENT: New map tracks $25.9 million in NPS projects blocked by Trump administration
DENVER—The Center for Western Priorities today published an interactive map of the 133 National Park Service partner agreements that were disapproved by the Department of the Interior on August 7, blocking $25.9 million in funding. Parks and their partners had already secured the funding for these programs from congressional appropriations, existing federal programs, and internal […]
Read MoreWhy submitting a public comment still matters—and how to write a good one
Kate and Aaron talk to Nick Holshouser, a data analyst with Wandering Nature, LLC, who is analyzing the public comments coming in on the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the 2001 roadless rule in real-time at roadless.org, and Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, about public comment periods under the Trump administration. We […]
Read MoreANALYSIS: Annual report finds at least 2,400 oil and gas spills occurred across Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico in 2025
Legacy spills and leaks analyzed in this year’s report raise new questions about decades of undetected pollution The following release was updated on 9/22/26 to correct these two errors: In the Wyoming section, the release stated that Merit Energy reported seven spills in 2025. Merit Energy actually reported 30 spills and ranked seventh among Wyoming […]
Read MoreForest Service adds comment period for Maroon Bells management decision
The U.S. Forest Service announced on Friday that it will conduct a 15-day comment period before signing off on a special use permit for Pitkin County, Colorado to manage operations at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area. The opportunity for public comment was added following pressure from public lands advocates, including the Center for Western Priorities. […]
Read MoreInterior plans to spend $84k on warning signs outside Smithsonian Museum
The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to install 12 signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to warn visitors about “personal viewpoints.” The project would cost $84,000, as detailed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in a Sept. 3 letter to U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski. In the letter, Burgum wrote that Smithsonian Secretary […]
Read MoreForest Service plan would cut the public out of Maroon Bells management decision
In Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service plans to let Pitkin County take over management of the Maroon Bells Scenic Area because it can no longer cover a $300,000 annual shortfall. It plans to do this using a legal shortcut known as a categorical exclusion, which lets federal agencies skip the environmental review and public comment process required […]
Read MoreForest Service plan would cut the public out of Maroon Bells management decision
A legal shortcut, rewritten last year, is about to decide who runs one of Colorado’s most visited landscapes Update: On Friday, September 18, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it will conduct a 15-day comment period before signing off on a special use permit for Pitkin County to manage operations at the Maroon Bells Scenic […]
Read MoreLatino Conservation Week highlights attacks on public lands
Latino Conservation Week kicked off this week at Ironwood Forest National Monument near Tucson—one of six national monuments the Trump administration has identified as candidates for size reduction to open the way for mining and drilling. Ironwood Forest protects 129,000 acres of Sonoran Desert habitat and has served as a buffer against mining expansion since its 2000 designation. ASARCO’s […]
Read MoreYosemite land swap is part of a bigger pattern of public lands giveaways
According to a new blog post by The Wilderness Society, the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes push to trade away a piece of Yosemite National Park to a private developer isn’t an isolated move—it’s one of at least seven similar efforts to privatize or dispose of public land. Examples include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service handing SpaceX a chunk of the […]
Read MoreTrump admin blocks $25 million in funding for national parks
The Interior department has disapproved $25 million in funding for projects at national parks, according to internal documents reviewed by the Washington Post. The cuts will affect over 130 partnership agreements for projects like Native American burial mound protection, an endangered garter snake project, and sled dog care at Denali. The entire batch of projects had already […]
Read MoreAs mining threat looms, poll confirms Utah voters want monuments protected
A majority of Utahns support restoring protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, according to a new poll commissioned by the Grand Canyon Trust. The poll was conducted by New Bridge Strategy and surveyed 500 registered voters. President Donald Trump slashed the size of both monuments by roughly 90 percent in July and eliminated the Bears Ears Commission, […]
Read MoreIndustry and off-roading groups call for elimination of WSAs and weakened Wilderness protections
Review of public comments finds oil, mining, grazing, and off-roading groups are asking the Trump administration to gut protections for every tier of the Wilderness system DENVER—A review of public comments finds that drilling and mining associations, ranching groups, and off-road vehicle advocates are asking the Trump administration to weaken protections for congressionally-designated Wilderness, eliminate […]
Read More20 states sue over Trump’s cuts to protections for endangered species
Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed two lawsuits in federal court on Wednesday to challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of protections for endangered species and wildlife. The Trump administration has initiated a series of regulatory changes that opened the habitats of imperiled animals to drilling, farming, logging and other commercial activities. Both lawsuits argue that […]
Read MoreOil and gas lease sales run into local opposition in Colorado
Joel Mayne is a motorcycle instructor and Desert Storm veteran who lives near the Wyoming border north of Craig, Colorado. Mayne is organizing fellow Moffat County residents to protest the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) sale of the mineral rights beneath Bakers Peak mountain, taking the fight all the way to the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C. In […]
Read MoreTrump administration strips protections for wetlands
The Trump administration released a rule on Friday to remove protections for millions of acres of wetlands across the country. Wetlands help filter drinking water and provide critical habitat for birds and other wildlife. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed a rule that will significantly narrow the definition of “Waters of the United […]
Read MoreForest Service to close 23 research stations nationwide
The U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday it will close 23 research stations across more than a dozen states, as part of a restructuring that has already cost the agency roughly 6,000 employees. Forty-one other facilities originally slated for closure will stay open after pushback from Congress and local communities, and the agency says 95 employees at the shuttered sites will be relocated rather […]
Read MoreGroups sue Trump administration over monument reductions
Patagonia, Tribally-led groups including Utah Diné Bikéyah and A’Nuche, as well as archaeology, outdoor recreation, and conservation groups filed to reactivate a lawsuit over the shrinking of Bears Ears National Monument on Wednesday. They are asking a federal judge to reopen their dormant 2017 case challenging Trump’s first dismantling of Bears Ears and to fold in new claims against his […]
Read MoreJudge rejects BLM attempt to swap solar farm permit for data center
A federal administrative judge has halted construction of what would have been the first data center ever permitted on Bureau of Land Management land, near Boulder City, Nevada, ruling that the Trump administration’s attempt to swap out an environmental review for a different project doesn’t hold up. The project began in 2023 as a routine solar and battery […]
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