Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Interior drops public land sales from draft strategic plan
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Tuesday, June 10, 2025
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Photo by Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons ([link removed])
The Interior department released ([link removed]) a draft strategic plan that does not include controversial public lands sell-off language that was found in a leaked internal version ([link removed]) in April. However, it still envisions ([link removed]) opening up national public lands to housing development, grazing, logging, and mining.
The leaked draft strategic plan included a bulleted outline of provisions that caused widespread backlash ([link removed]) among the public, including transferring heritage lands and sites to states, re-examining national monument boundaries, and selling off national public lands to build housing. It also proposed tracking the removal of species from Endangered Species Act protections as a key metric of success.
The public draft strategic plan ([link removed]) , which was recently distributed to Tribal nations ahead of virtual consultations later this month, no longer contains this language. Still, the draft plan references the department's interest in using national public lands for housing, and while it no longer describes delistings as a potential metric of success, it notes that Interior will work to “delist endangered species once recovered.”
It also refers to ([link removed]) national public lands as "assets" on America's "balance sheet," which is something Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has repeatedly said ([link removed]) .
** Quick hits
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Trump cuts would scrap USGS biological research arm
E&E News ([link removed])
Yosemite bans flags at El Capitan with threat of 6-month jail sentence
SFGate ([link removed])
Trump’s cuts to National Park Service rankle lawmakers
The Hill ([link removed])
New Interior draft strategic plan drops mention of federal land reductions
Public Domain ([link removed])
Opinion: Public lands sell-off is back. Idaho’s delegation must fight it
Idaho Statesman ([link removed])
The California river that came back to life: a journey down the reborn Klamath
The Guardian ([link removed])
Here’s what Colorado lawmakers did—and didn’t—do on climate and environmental issues this year
Denver Post ([link removed])
Can fracking wastewater be reused?
High Country News ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” As a father, I want to be able to tell my kids that we fought for the common lands and waters that make our home—and our country—the place that it is. Selling these lands may narrow the budget deficit today, but what will we lose in the process? Will our kids and grandkids have the same opportunities as us?”
—Mark Deming, chief marketing officer at Northwest River Supplies, Idaho Statesman ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@grandcanyonnps ([link removed])
What's that sensational smell?
Cliffrose (Cowania mexicana) is filling the air with fragrance right now along Desert View drive. An evergreen, this plant is browsed by deer even though it has a very bitter taste.
Ancestral peoples had many uses for Cliffrose, such as using its wood for arrows.
NPS photo/M. MacPherson
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