Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Burgum directs staff to shred documents, installs Project 2025 author as Interior watchdog
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Monday, August 10, 2026
Doug Burgum, Kathryn Burgum, and Donald Trump at the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, X.com ([link removed])
Three Interior department staffers told POLITICO ([link removed]) they watched officials routinely shred official documents and use disappearing Signal messages, even for routine scheduling, to keep communications from being preserved as the Federal Records Act requires. “They’re terrified of written records,” one former official said ([link removed]) . Two other former officials said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum used a private email account for department business. Interior staff described a “culture of secrecy” ([link removed]) under Burgum, who wanted to add a secure conference room, or SCIF, near his 6th floor office even though Interior already has a SCIF three floors below.
The secrecy concerns extend to Interior's own watchdog office. The department has allegedly installed Dennis Kirk ([link removed]) , a co-author of Project 2025's federal workforce chapter, inside its Office of Inspector General, but declined to confirm ([link removed]) the hire. Kirk arrives at an office that has had no Senate-confirmed inspector general since January 2025, when President Trump fired 17 inspectors general ([link removed]) across the government without giving Congress the 30 days’ notice federal law requires.
“Interior’s watchdog was fired, left vacant for eighteen months, and is now hosting one of the architects of Project 2025. At least five investigation requests from members of Congress are sitting in that office right now, and its integrity has been compromised,” said ([link removed]) Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss. “Congress cannot outsource its constitutional oversight duty to an inspector general's office taken over by the White House.”
Border wall crews move into Big Bend and onto Tohono O'odham land
Federal contractors began border wall construction ([link removed]) work inside Big Bend National Park on August 4, prompting Texas lawmakers to call for a pause. Days later, the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona posted no-trespassing notices against border wall contractors on Tribal land and said it may pursue arrests ([link removed]) , escalating a long-running fight over construction on Tribal territory.
** Quick hits
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Lake Mead hits lowest water level on record as Colorado River crisis deepens
CNN ([link removed])
Opinion: My hometown went up in flames. It won’t be the last
New York Times ([link removed])
Meet the army of amateur archivists racing to save US history in national parks
The Guardian ([link removed])
Trump says there was ‘some contractor error’ during Reflecting Pool renovation
The Hill ([link removed])
'No Trespassing': Tohono O'odham Nation warns border wall contractors
Arizona Republic ([link removed]) | 12 News ([link removed])
Opinion: The assault on public land is accelerating. Idaho’s votes can stop it
Idaho Statesman ([link removed])
Photos: This is what the new rush to mine America looks like
TIME ([link removed])
Haaland: I helped restore protections for Bears Ears. Now it’s at risk again
Outside ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” Washington is looking at the Imperial Valley and saying that’s just a desert, that’s just wasteland... It has been mandated by the United States government and the state of California to annihilate the California Indians since the Gold Rush, and I’m still watching it today.”
—Carmen Lucas, a 90-year-old from the Kwaaymii Tribe in California who has been fighting mining developments for over two decades, TIME ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@factpostnews ([link removed])
Bulldozers sent by Trump have begun tearing up Big Bend National Park to build a border wall through the protected public land.
The Trump administration waived dozens of environmental laws to permit the construction.
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