** April, in brief
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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in his office at the Interior department. Source: DOI Flickr ([link removed])


** Key news from April:
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* Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a secretarial order ([link removed]) giving up oversight of the Interior department and handing full control of the department’s organization and staffing over to Tyler Hassen, Elon Musk’s DOGE operative ([link removed]) who also serves as Interior’s acting Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget. The order gives DOGE carte blanche ([link removed]) to run “consolidation, unification, and optimization efforts” across the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other Interior bureaus. The secretarial order does not require Hassen to report back to Secretary Burgum regarding the reorganization
([link removed]) , nor does it reserve any authority to Secretary Burgum if Hassen were to fire thousands of public lands managers, park rangers, or wildfire specialists across the country.

* Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is making strange requests of Interior department staff, according to reporting in The Atlantic ([link removed]) . Burgum has requested political appointees in his office learn to regularly bake cookies for him using industrial ovens in the department, and, on at least one occasion, requested staff remake a batch of cookies he deemed “subpar,” according to three people ([link removed]) . He has also made political appointees act as servers for a multi-course meal and used a U.S. Park Police helicopter for personal transportation. One person familiar with the behavior described Burgum as “Doug the diva.”

* The Trump administration removed protections ([link removed]) for over half of the National Forest System via the issuance of an emergency order related to wildfire risk. The order covers more than 110 million acres ([link removed]) of forest land and will fast-track timber production by removing National Environmental Policy Act regulations in the name of wildfire mitigation. The order comes on the heels of an executive order ([link removed]) issued by President Donald Trump to expand timber production in the country by 25 percent—a move that scientists have warned ([link removed]) will increase wildfire
risk.

* A leaked draft strategic plan revealed ([link removed]) the Interior department's plans to open national public lands—including national monuments designated by past presidents—to drilling and other extractive development. The plan also includes selling public lands to housing developers and weakening bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act (ESA), all in the name of an “energy emergency.” According to two people within the Interior department, at least six national monuments ([link removed]) are currently being reviewed to be abolished or greatly reduced as part of the plan.

* President Donald Trump signed four executive orders ([link removed]) aimed at bolstering the mining industry and reviving the nation’s declining coal power industry. One order ([link removed]) , titled “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” requires the Interior secretary to identify coal reserves on national public lands, assess impediments to mining those resources, and propose policies to enable the mining of the coal at those sites. A 2023 study ([link removed]) by Energy Innovation found that it costs more to run 99 percent of existing US coal plants than it would to replace them with local wind, solar, and energy storage resources.

* Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma withdrew ([link removed]) her nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management. The news outlet, Documented, published a memo ([link removed]) Sgamma wrote to members of WEA in 2021 after the January 6 insurrection. In it, she said she was “disgusted by the violence” that day and by “President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it.” In a statement ([link removed]) , Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss said, “The Trump administration should avoid nominating anyone else with massive conflicts of interest to lead the Bureau of Land Management, and instead focus on implementing Congress’s multiple-use mandate for America’s public lands.”



** What to watch for in May:
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* Will Trump nominate a new Bureau of Land Management director?
* Will Trump try to shrink or eliminate national monuments?
* Colorado Rally for Public Lands ([link removed]) is Saturday, May 17
* More layoffs within Interior as "restructuring ([link removed]) " efforts begin
* Funding cuts to land management agencies in the President's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026

From the Center for Western Priorities:
[link removed]


** Doug Burgum says public lands are America’s “balance sheet” — he’s right, but for the wrong reasons ([link removed])
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Trump’s Interior secretary ignores the real value of American lands

[link removed]


** “Doug the Diva” Burgum and the (chocolate) chip on his shoulder ([link removed])
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Trump’s Interior secretary thinks responsibility for America’s parks and public lands is beneath him

[link removed]


** The devil is in the details when it comes to building affordable housing on public lands ([link removed])
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Without proper guardrails to ensure affordability and contain sprawl, turning public land over to developers will do nothing to bring down housing costs

[link removed]

Kate and Aaron nerd out ([link removed]) with John Ruple, public lands professor at the University of Utah and a former member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality about recent changes to how the National Environmental Policy Act is being implemented across federal agencies, like the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
[link removed]

Kate and Aaron talk to ([link removed]) two experts about recent executive orders that negatively affect public lands. Mitch Friedman, founder and executive director of Conservation Northwest, ([link removed]) talks about how Trump’s executive order aimed at increasing logging in national forests ([link removed]) squares with existing law and forest management plans, while Rachael Hamby, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities, covers Trump’s recent order seeking to ramp up mining ([link removed]) on public lands.
Best Reads of the Month


** Wave of Earth Day protests as Americans mobilize against Trump
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The Guardian ([link removed])


** Why the Interior department is a top target for DOGE
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Trump admin fired hundreds of workers who help fight wildfires, despite promises not to
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ProPublica ([link removed])


** The Trump administration’s push to privatize US public lands
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Grist ([link removed])


** Will the U.S. housing crisis be exploited for a massive public lands sell-off?
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Center for American Progress ([link removed])


** Acadia to Zion: A guide for visiting national parks during an uncertain summer
------------------------------------------------------------

New York Times ([link removed])


** Opinion: National Park Service veterans lament state of agency, parks
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National Parks Traveler ([link removed])


** Trump officials say destroying endangered species’ habitats isn’t ‘harm’
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | Common Dreams ([link removed]) | Colorado Sun ([link removed])


** Trump wants to log more forests. Will it really help prevent wildfires?
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Science ([link removed])


** Draft strategic plan for Trump's Interior department would boost extractive industries, cut protections
------------------------------------------------------------

Public Domain ([link removed])


**
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Quote of the month


** “Public lands belong to the American people, not to drilling or mining interests. The BLM Public Lands Rule simply affirmed that conservation is just as valid a use of our public lands as development, and it brought common-sense and overdue reform to how these places are managed.”
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** —Alison Flint, senior legal director at The Wilderness Society, Colorado Sun ([link removed])
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Picture this
[link removed]


** @usinterior ([link removed])
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A bison herd thunders across the prairie in @badlandsnps ([link removed]) , a scene once common across the Great Plains. Today, the park is home to around 1,200 bison, a powerful reminder of what this landscape looked like before their numbers were pushed to the brink in the 19th century.

For your safety and theirs, always stay at least 100 feet away and never approach or provoke bison.

Photo by Jack Denger

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