The Wild Line

The public comment period on the first mine proposed in Alaska's Ambler Mining District closes Monday, and we walk through what's at stake along the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road, plus a new film that follows its route on foot. We also cover reporting on Russian financing behind an Alaska LNG startup, a second Cook Inlet lease sale, data center power lines headed through West Virginia, proposed methane rollbacks, USDA letters asking states to reconsider wolf protections, and the Forest Service early exit deadline.

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Find the full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

Chiricahua National Monument is now Chiricahua National Park, and the Bureau of Land Management wants to open roughly 5,200 acres of minerals beneath Utah's Ouray National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. This week we also cover Blackstone-controlled Tallgrass Energy's $105 million gift to Yellowstone Forever, a Montana "super range" announced without a location, a proposed Forest Service travel management change, a Senate permitting deal Defenders of Wildlife says would cripple the Endangered Species Act, and the Justice Department's Supreme Court push to resume border construction in Big Bend.

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Congress is moving a bipartisan permitting reform package that conservation groups say would approve virtually all destructive public lands projects without meaningful environmental review. A federal court halted the United States Forest Service reorganization, and Judge Ana Reyes ordered a stop to tree removal at East Potomac Public Golf Course after hundreds of trees came down despite her notice requirement. Also this week: Judge Tanya Chutkan reopened litigation over the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monument reductions, and NOAA Fisheries funded six habitat restoration projects through the National Fish Habitat Partnership.

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More than a million public comments are in against the Roadless Rule rescission, according to the coalition leading the opposition, and a separate analysis found 99 percent of comments oppose Forest Service travel management changes. This week we also cover the federal injunction halting heavy border construction in Big Bend National Park, a second Montana House sponsor for A River Runs Through It Act, and a new lawsuit over an oil-hauling road through Utah's Gate Canyon. We close by remembering river guide Ken Sleight, the inspiration for Seldom Seen Smith, and longtime National Wildlife Federation leader Jim Lyon.

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Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

The EPA finalized the repeal of most 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for power plants, eliminating key climate regulations and saving an estimated $310 billion while potentially causing up to $476 billion in health damages. The Department of Homeland Security also ended its pause on border barrier construction within Big Bend National Park, and a lawsuit was filed by landowners and conservation groups challenging the government's border wall plans. Reports indicate the Trump administration was approached about hosting a baseball game at Grand Teton National Park, though officials called the scouting claims incorrect and noted no permits were granted. The Forest Service is closing the final comment window for the proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule, with The Wilderness Society urging public participation.

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This week, a new executive order opens national monuments like Castle Mountains and Craters of the Moon to hunting and sets a 60-day clock on river permit lotteries, while Interior blocks more than $25 million in National Park Service partner funding. We also cover former wildlife agency heads warning that Interior's proposed Endangered Species Act rule ignores basic science, a coalition of 21 state attorneys general suing over new ESA rules, and a lawsuit over a missed deadline for two West Coast pond turtles.

Anders reports from Wilderness Week in Washington, DC, and Bill closes with a Public Lands Day message for the rangers who steward our public lands.

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Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week, the House Natural Resources Committee advances a bill that would gut environmental review for forest management projects, and the Senate Agriculture Committee finally passes a Farm Bill carrying both new wilderness and weakened conservation funding. We also cover a leaked Fish and Wildlife Service memo narrowing the Endangered Species Act's definition of "take," new mining claims filed inside a shrunken Bears Ears National Monument, an extended comment period on the Roadless Rule rescission, a euthanized Grand Teton bear, and the passing of writer Annie Dillard.

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This week, Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke introduces a 430,000-acre wilderness and recreation bill named for A River Runs Through It, and the House Natural Resources Committee opens an investigation into the influence of eighteen environmental nonprofits. We also cover the Forest Service's closure of 23 research stations, a contested Cumberland Island visitor plan and land exchange now open for public comment, a House vote delaying North Atlantic right whale protections, new rollbacks targeting wolves and wetlands, and a court win keeping bison on Montana public lands.

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Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week, Chinook salmon return to the Mount St. Helens watershed for the first time since the 1980 eruption, while the Trump administration weighs handing a piece of Yosemite National Park to a private developer and conservation groups head back to court over the reduced Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. We also cover a deadly flash flood that shut down the bottom of the Grand Canyon, a halted data center on Nevada public land, a rollback of national park crowd control, and a Climate Week panel on Southern Appalachian wildlife.

Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

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This week, the Forest Service proposes to flip its travel management rule, opening national forests to motorized vehicles everywhere except specifically closed areas. Nevada sues the federal government over Colorado River cuts that could slash its water allocation by up to 71 percent annually, and Gulf Coast advocates rally this weekend to defend endangered species from an oil-and-gas exemption to the Endangered Species Act. We also cover record glyphosate use on California's national forests, a reshuffling of dozens of senior career staff at the Interior Department, a Texas music compilation raising money for the Big Bend Conservation Alliance, and the close of National Park Week.

Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

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This week, USDA opens a public comment period on its plan to rescind the Roadless Rule, which protects close to 45 million acres of National Forest. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issues new state-level protections for the Boundary Waters watershed, and mining claims surface inside Utah's downsized Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments as Senator Mike Lee moves to challenge Bears Ears' management plan.

We also cover a federal court blocking a road through Alaska's Izembek refuge, a paused CBP border project in Big Bend, scrutiny of a Forest Service official's firefighting request near his own ranch, proposed winter access changes at Glacier National Park, and a plug for the new podcast On Common Ground: An American Inheritance.

Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week, USDA nears a draft decision on rescinding the Roadless Rule, which protects 48 million acres of National Forest land, and today is the final day to comment on a related Interior Department review of wilderness management policy. President Trump has nominated Project 2025 co-author Dennis Kirk as Interior's inspector general, and new reporting reveals the National Park Service is weighing a land swap that would clear the way for data center development inside Virginia's Prince William Forest Park. We also cover a muted offshore oil lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico, continued construction on the Big Bend National Park border road, and honor the wildland firefighters killed in this summer's intense fire season.

Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

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This week, the Bureau of Reclamation releases a new 10-year Colorado River management plan mandating major water cuts across Arizona, California, and Nevada, while the Bureau of Land Management approves the first data center on BLM-managed public land without a new environmental review. The Forest Service opens a 30-day comment period on a proposed rare earth mine near Devils Tower, and new reporting reveals Forest Service Law Enforcement participated in an ICE raid along North Carolina's Wilson Creek. We also cover escalating fallout over the shrunken Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments, NOAA's denial of Endangered Species Act protection for smalltail sharks, Texas lawmakers pushing back on border construction through Big Bend National Park, and new polling on public attitudes toward wildlife policy.

Find the full show notes and links at thewildidea.com.

This week, a Senate committee drops most of its wilderness, national park, and wild and scenic river bills in favor of energy permitting measures, a federal judge in Anchorage clears the way for transferring more than 2 million acres along the Dalton Highway corridor to the State of Alaska, while the Interior Department cancels the Endangered Species Act's blanket 4(d) rule and NOAA rejects a bid to expand North Atlantic right whale critical habitat. We also cover new reporting linking paused DOGE wildfire-prevention funding to the fires burning across northern Minnesota, the removal of tribal signage at the newly shrunken Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Monuments, and the closing comment period on proposed changes to the Forest Service Directives System. Plus: peak viewing at Katmai's Brooks Falls bear cam and a relaunched wilderness management certificate program at the University of Montana.

Full show notes and links at our website, https://thewildidea.com/.

This week, proposed federal rules would gut tribal consultation and historic-preservation protections under the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Trump Administration opens a comment period on drilling near Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We also cover a nearly one-third cut to Canada lynx critical habitat, a Montana Land Board grazing policy widely read as targeting American Prairie's bison herd, and a busy week for the House Natural Resources Committee.

Plus: two Forest Service employees kidnapped at gunpoint in Northern California, a flash flood that killed five members of one family in Utah, a Mother Jones investigation into wildfire betting markets, criticism of a Blue Ridge Parkway logging plan, wildfires closing the entire Boundary Waters, and Okefenokee's bid for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Full show notes and links at our website, https://thewildidea.com.

This week, President Trump signs executive orders cutting Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments by nearly 3 million acres combined, over tribal leaders' objections that they were never consulted. Federal agencies rescind the Endangered Species Act's core habitat protection, and Interior proposes returning grizzly bear management to Western states. We also cover a court ruling on grizzly and bull trout habitat in Montana, a House committee vote on whale protections, new funding for endangered species recovery, and rare good news: four litters of wild red wolf pups born in North Carolina. Plus, Ferncliff begins removing a dam to restore an Arkansas stream, and we mark a fourth death tied to Colorado's Gold Mountain Fire.

Full show notes and links at our website, https://thewildidea.com.

This week, the Bureau of Land Management proposes its first grazing rule overhaul since 1995, covering 155 million acres of Western public land and sharply limiting public participation in permit decisions. A coalition sues to block the Forest Service's largest restructuring in a century, and we track new wildlife crossing funding in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, a wildfire burning into a 50-year-untouched Colorado wilderness, and a new free tool for tracking public lands comment periods. We also remember David Page of the Winter Wildlands Alliance.

Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week, the Forest Service opens a comment period on a proposed rule that would narrow public input into how national forests are managed, and the window closes July 31. The Interior Department signs a partnership with "de-extinction" company Colossal Biosciences on species genomics, raising the question of whether the tools complement or replace habitat-based recovery. A new lawsuit tests how far Congress can stretch the Congressional Review Act against land management plans. We also cover a volunteer-built replacement for the shuttered Climate.gov, the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, and hard news from the fire line in Colorado alongside the closing of National Parks Traveler.

Find the full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

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.

Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.

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.

Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.