August, in brief

Key news from August:

• The Center for Western Priorities' Keep Parks Public tour made stops in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah to highlight ongoing threats to public lands. The tour featured live podcast recordings and press events that brought hundreds of conservation leaders and community members together in support of staffing, funding, and protections for public lands. Follow Keep Parks Public on Instagram to stay up-to-date on public lands news, highlights from the tour, and upcoming events.
   
• Members of Congress introduced legislation to block mass firings at the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Department of Energy. In response to proposed "reductions in force" (RIFs) across the Interior and Energy departments, as well as at the Forest Service within the Agriculture department, lawmakers in both the House and the Senate introduced bills that would require an immediate moratorium on what sponsors described as "abuse" of the RIF process.
   
• A coalition of several Tribes and the Native American Rights Fund filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden's use of the Antiquities Act to designate Chuckwalla National Monument. The lawsuit was filed in May by Blue Ribbon Coalition, a pro-motorized recreation group. The coalition of Tribes and organizations filed the motion "to protect and defend their interests in the monument," and pointed to their years-long efforts to identify and document the resources in need of protection.
   
• Employees at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon national parks have voted to unionize. Over 97 percent of ballots cast in the elections, which ran from July 22 to August 19, were in favor of unionizing with the National Federation of Federal Employees. The move will help employees at both parks negotiate with the federal government on workplace conditions. The elections come largely as a response to President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash the ranks of federal workers. Yosemite is operating with approximately 40 fewer permanent staffers than it did last summer, while seasonal hiring has also lagged behind expectations. As a result, current employees are stretched thin—grappling with a 40 percent spike in search and rescue operations between January and July, and facing a 48 percent drop in park law enforcement staffing since 2010.
   
• The Trump administration announced that it is taking the next step in rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule by opening a public comment period. The Roadless Rule currently protects nearly 60 million acres of national forest land. The U.S. Forest Service will publish a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on its intention to develop an environmental impact statement for the proposed rescission of the rule. The notice will detail the reasons for rescinding the rule, the potential effects on people and resources, and how national forests and grasslands are managed.
   

What to watch for in September:

• National Public Lands Day is September 27th!
• The 21-day public comment period on the proposed recision of the Roadless Rule will open soon
• The Keep Parks Public crew will be in Jackson, Wyoming, on Thursday, September 4th, ahead of a congressional field hearing

Kate hosts a live episode in Grand Junction on CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour! Guests discuss the importance of keeping our parks and monuments staffed and funded.

Guests: Ken Mabery, former superintendent of Colorado National Monument, Cole Hanson, Grand Valley Outdoor Recreation Coalition board member and Gear Junction co-owner, Jessy Nuckolls, public lands advocate and Western Colorado Alliance member, and Tracy Coppola, with the National Parks Conservation Association.

Kate hosts a live episode in Salt Lake City on CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour!

Guests: Erika Pollard, National Parks Conservation Association; Davina Smith, Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Grand Staircase Escalante Partners; Scott Braden, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance; Doug Tolman, Save Our Canyons.

Aaron hosts a live episode in Denver, kicking off CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour. Scott Fitzwilliams, former supervisor of the White River National Forest in Colorado, Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado, and Kara Matsumoto, public lands director at the Conservation Lands Foundation, join us to discuss threats to Colorado’s public lands posed by the Trump administration and Congress—as well as what YOU can do to fight back.

What the heck is Utah up to now that its land grab lawsuit has been snubbed by the Supreme Court and Senator Mike Lee has made public land sell-off untouchable in Congress? Kate and Aaron put that question to John Ruple, a Professor of Law and Stegner Center Fellow at the University of Utah, and Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

What was learned from the latest fight over public lands?

Outside
 

The Roadless Rule explained

More Than Just Parks
 

After defeating a senator’s plan to sell public land, a unified coalition of Colorado advocates keeps up the fight

Colorado Sun
 

Where national parks and public lands stand as Trump administration prepares to privatize

Wes Siler's Newsletter
 

Former supervisor of most-visited national forest shares concerns about ‘deliberate dismantling’ of public lands

Vail Daily
 

Heat, rather than a lack of rain, is driving drought in Utah and the West

KUER
 

'Help is not on the way': As fire season ramps up, thousands of Forest Service firefighting positions are vacant

High Country News
 

How a ‘good fire’ in the Grand Canyon exploded into a raging inferno

Los Angeles Times
 

U.S. national parks staff in ‘survival mode’ to keep parks open amid Trump cuts

The Guardian
 

Trump wants to cut down untouched forests. It won’t be easy

Bloomberg

“Our parks are being dismantled piece by piece through devastating staff cuts and rollbacks. If we want to protect every park, we need all members of Congress to stand up and defend them.”

—Tracy Coppola, National Parks Conservation Association’s Colorado Senior Program Manager, The Landscape podcast