DOGE chaos ripples across public lands

Staffing and funding chaos caused by Elon Musk's DOGE office is taking a toll on America's parks and public lands. Arches National Park is so understaffed that the park stopped issuing hiking permits for the Fiery Furnace area, Axios Salt Lake City reports.

Arches normally issues around 100 permits a day for the area, but the DOGE hiring freeze and firing of around 1,000 National Park Service workers has left Arches without the seasonal workers needed to run the park. Because visitors to Fiery Furnace get lost or disoriented so frequently, they're required to go on a ranger-led tour or attend a video and briefing with a ranger before going on a self-guided hike.

"That's not something we're able to do right at the moment, given the uptick in seasonal visitation already and just how busy that front desk is, until we get some more hands," park spokesperson Karen Henker told Axios.

After public outcry, the Trump administration backpedaled and announced it would hire up to 7,700 seasonal employees at the Park Service, and is restoring terminated employees due to a court order. But that re-hiring process is taking time, leaving parks understaffed as tourism season begins.

Elon Musk's chaos stretches across the West as well:

• DOGE announced it would vacate the headquarters and maintenance facility for Arizona's Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments;
• At a Bureau of Land Management office in the Mountain West, employees returning to the office were told to not use video conferencing to support field activities;
• A different BLM site had to ask the agency head to buy toilet paper because government credit cards were capped at $1.

Quick hits

Resolution backing Utah's land grab gets no support in Montana legislature

Missoula Current

Idaho House calls for takeover of national wildlife refuge; introduces redundant wildfire bill

Idaho Capital Sun | KTVB

Colorado study suggests proximity to oil and gas wells increases childhood leukemia risk

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Treating oilfield wastewater requires so much energy the industry wants to boil it on nuclear reactors

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BLM claims Trump solar permitting pause is over, but developers haven't seen it

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Opinion: Nevada's public lands must not be a casualty of housing crunch

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Oregon timber sale pushed to Earth Day, protests and lawsuits follow

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New thermal vent grabs attention in Yellowstone

Associated Press | Sacramento Bee | Popular Science | SFGate

Quote of the day

Children all the way out to 13 kilometers [8.1 miles] – if they have a lot of oil and gas development around them, are at an increased risk for childhood leukemia, with children within 5 kilometers [3.1 miles] bearing the greatest risk.”

—Lisa McKenzie, associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, CPR News

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