A Sept. 14 memo from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik tells agency staff that loggers, developers and anyone else can kill endangered animals without breaking the law, as long as killing them wasn't the point.
The Bureau of Land Management asked its state directors to identify public land 'ripe for data center development' and gave them three days. It has shed nearly half its workforce under Trump, one state reported 50% vacancies in the offices that would do the reviews, and the administration is proposing further cuts while telling the bureau to refocus on AI.
Trump ordered Interior to start stripping gray wolves of Endangered Species Act protection. Tiffany, who has spent five years trying to legislate the same thing, cheered. Wisconsin's own 2021 hunt blew past its quota by 99 wolves and the state couldn't stop it.
The Bureau of Land Management wants to erase the 10-mile no-drilling buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park — 336,400 acres opened to oil, gas and uranium. UNESCO says extraction is incompatible with World Heritage status and is waiting on an answer from Washington.
Walz signed an order blocking the Twin Metals copper-nickel mine upstream from the Boundary Waters. It dies 90 days into the next governor's term. Demuth is 'pro-mining, all mining, including Twin Metals' — and says it can be done 'safer than any other place in the country if not the world.'
The Forest Service asked the public what it thought about ending roadless protections on 58.8 million acres. More than 99% of the comments said no. Hageman's H.R. 7695 would write the repeal into law and bar any future administration from restoring it — including on 3.3 million acres of Wyoming.
Simpson's FY27 Interior spending bill strips federal protection from gray wolves and from grizzlies in two ecosystems, blocks grizzly recovery in two more, blocks wolverine protections, and cuts Endangered Species Act listing money by nearly half — with judicial review barred on the delistings so nobody can challenge them in court.
Maloy's bill moves lawsuits over Shivwits tribal land into Utah state court and allows 99-year leases — exactly what a developer needs to build a 1,250-acre golf resort on the reservation. That developer's managing partner gave Maloy's campaign and a joint fundraising committee tied to her $30,500.
A 30-foot wall is going up through a wildlife refuge in her own district. The law protecting it lives in the annual spending bills, and the budget bill she voted for moved the money outside them. Constituents rallied and asked her to restore the language. Her office did not respond.