Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Doug Burgum hands reins at Interior over to DOGE
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Monday, April 21, 2025
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in his office at the Interior department. Source: DOI Flickr ([link removed])

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a secretarial order ([link removed]) late last week 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.

“This order shows what it looks like when leaders abdicate their jobs and let unqualified outsiders fire thousands of civil servants who are working on behalf of all Americans and their public lands,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala in a statement ([link removed]) .

This latest secretarial order arrives as Interior employees await expected department-wide layoffs. So far, Interior employees have been offered two rounds of deferred resignation and retirement, though it’s unknown exactly how many took the offers. The next round of firings would kick off a process in which employees have to compete against each other, jockeying for remaining positions using tenure, veterans’ preference, length of service and performance ratings, referred to in an E&E news headline as “Hunger Games for feds ([link removed]) .”

“DOGE’s unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no idea how to staff a park, a wildlife refuge, or a campground. They have no idea how to manage a forest or prepare for fires in the wildland-urban interface. But Doug Burgum just gave DOGE free rein over all of that,” Rokala said ([link removed]) .


** Quick hits
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Trump makes major cuts to Native American boarding school research projects

Associated Press ([link removed])

Doug Burgum hands Interior reins over to DOGE

New York Times ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Bloomberg Law ([link removed])

Report: Wildlife Refuge System 'at risk' amid DOGE uncertainty

WyoFile ([link removed])

'Not going to be great out there'—experts' candid advice for visiting national parks

The Hill ([link removed])

Trump reveals list of top mining projects, including Arizona's controversial Resolution Copper mine

Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])

Wyoming's 'Path of the Pronghorn' could be designated an official wildlife migration corridor

Cowboy State Daily ([link removed]) | WyoFile ([link removed]) [Opinion]

Six ways to support national parks amid staffing shortages and budget cuts

AFAR Magazine ([link removed])

As Trump pursues coal revival, his cuts hobble black lung protections for miners

Reuters ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” Capacity right now is at a tipping point that puts both the economic and the conservation vitality of the National Wildlife Refuge System at risk.”

—National Wildlife Refuge System Chief Cynthia Martinez, WyoFile ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
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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