Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** How four hunters unlocked the ‘checkerboard’
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Wednesday, December 10, 2025
The Western 'checkerboard' along the Priest River in Idaho as seen from the International Space Station. The dark parcels are intact older forests, while the white parcels are harvested for timber. NASA Earth Observatory/Wikimedia Commons ([link removed](land)#/media/File:Checkerboard_forest_in_Idaho.jpg) .
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging the right of the public to "corner cross" between parcels of public land—a feature common across the West. By not taking up the case, justices let stand an appeals court ruling that made it clear corner crossing is legal ([link removed]) —at least in the six states covered by the 10th Circuit.
The latest episode of the ([link removed]) 99% Invisible ([link removed]) podcast ([link removed]) tells the story of the hunters who got arrested by a Wyoming sheriff, then sued by a pharmaceutical executive who claimed that allowing the public to access public lands adjacent to his ranch would cause him millions of dollars in damages.
In the wake of the 10th Circuit decision, the mapping company OnX laid out the implications ([link removed]) for hunters, anglers and other users of public lands.
With no one in charge, BLM shuffles the deck chairs
Even though the Bureau of Land Management has been operating without a Senate-confirmed director for nearly a year, the Interior department reassigned senior staff across the agency this week. E&E News's Scott Streater obtained a recording of the call ([link removed]) announcing the changes, which include relocating the assistant director who oversees the management of national conservation lands and national monuments. As part of the reshuffling ([link removed]) , BLM will temporarily install new state directors in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and the Oregon-Washington office.
** Quick hits
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Vistas painted by Georgia O'Keefe to be protected with new conservation plan
New York Times ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed])
Key Senate dems oppose permitting bill to shorten NEPA deadlines
Heatmap ([link removed])
White House adviser Stephen Miller sold stock in Nevada mining company after Trump aministration deal
New York Times ([link removed])
Editorial: Higher national park fees for international visitors risks Utah's recreation economy
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
Have Colorado's moose restoration efforts been too successful?
CPR News ([link removed])
Texas oil company broke federal rules cleaning up Colorado gasoline spill near Animas river
Colorado Sun ([link removed])
Will wolves and ranchers ever be able to coexist?
5280 Magazine ([link removed])
Grand Canyon hotels remain in limbo due to broken water line
SFGate ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” It's just the worst-case scenario. People appreciate the animals, but the bigger story of the ecosystem decline and what’s gone along with it needs to be told more clearly.”
—David Cooper, Colorado State University senior researcher emeritus, on the effects of moose re-population in Rocky Mountain National Park, CPR News ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@nationalparkservice ([link removed])
Why don’t mountains get cold in the winter?
They wear snow caps.
You’ll get that one on the hike down. Please don’t leave. Come back! Come back! Phew. We knew better with that one, but mountains sure can be hill-areas. We can’t stop. Peak humor for sure! Help us. TGIF.
But seriously, snow caps? Snow on mountain peaks isn’t just for aesthetics. It’s pretty though! As moist air is forced upward along a mountain’s slope, a process called orographic lift, it cools rapidly. At higher elevations, temperatures drop low enough for water vapor to condense and fall as snow. Mountains therefore receive more precipitation and experience colder conditions than surrounding lowlands. Peaks that rise above the permanent snow line, typically around 4,500–6,000 meters, or 14,760–19,685 feet (we don’t know how many bananas that is), retain snow and ice year-round, forming the “snow caps.”
Image: @rockynps ([link removed])
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