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The Wild Line: A Genomics Pact for Endangered Species, an Oregon Timber Lawsuit, and a Farewell to National Parks Traveler · The Wild Idea

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Wild Line, where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for July 3rd, 2026. Before we begin, one quick note on where you can find the Wild Line in the future. This is the last month that the Wild Line will appear in the Wild Idea podcast feed as we are moving it to its own feed. You can subscribe to the Wild Line now on your podcast player of choice to continue to stay on top of all the land stories. Through July, we will publish to both feeds as we make this transition.
• 0:30
  Bill, the Department of Interior this week announced a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Colossal Biosciences to advance biobanking and genomic science for threatened and endangered species, including cryopreserving tissues and cell lines, integrating genomic data into conservation planning, and identifying priority species where the approach could aid recovery. The MOU doesn't obligate any federal funds and said any funded projects would require separate agreements. But something that's worth noting for listeners, Colossal is the de-extinction company responsible for genetically engineering the first, quote, unquote, "dire wolf" to exist in over 10,000 years, an accomplishment featured on the cover of Time magazine. So pairing it with the agency that administrates the ESA raises real questions about whether genomic tools complement habitat-based recovery or run the risk of becoming a substitute for it.
• 1:25
  We have been covering the use of the Congressional Review Act quite a bit on the Wild Line. The law, passed in 1996, states that agency rulemaking is subject to a 60-day veto window by Congress, and that in that prescribed window, Congress can basically nullify said rule. This Congress has been, shall we say, testing what is a defined rule, using the CRA to undo science-driven and collaboratively built land management plans across multiple states. This Congress also used the CRA to undo the Boundary Waters mineral withdrawal, which opened critical headwaters next door to America's most visited wilderness area to open pit copper mining. Well, now there has been a lawsuit introduced that could reveal the dangerous precedent the actions regarding the CRA use could be demonstrating to all parties, no matter where they fall on the natural resource spectrum. A one-time guest on the Wild Idea podcast, Susan Jane Brown of Silviks Resources, filed the suit on behalf of Cascadia Wildlands, challenging the Bureau of Land Management's approval of a timber sale in Oregon's Coast Range. Her filings takes out the argument that if a management plan is a rule, and that rule was never reviewed by Congress, then that rule is not valid and cannot guide land management decisions. So we asked SJ if land management plans are a rule, how do we tackle all of those management plans that exist across the country?
• 2:50
  I don't know how we resolve that issue, and it gets very, very messy really quickly. Um, and you have to look at each individual resource management plan to try to figure out what happens next. So for example, in the RMPs that Congress disapproved of earlier this year, it disapproved of the Biden administration's plan. And so what then, if that plan is no longer valid, what comes back to life is the plan that preceded it. So then the question is, was that plan submitted to Congress? How old is that plan? If that plan is older than 1996, then that is the plan that is valid. If it's younger than 1996, was that plan submitted to Congress? I think the answer is no. So then you kind of unwind the clock, and you go back in time until you find a plan that was either submitted to Congress or predates the CRA in 1996.
• 3:56
  So in my situation, I have a 2016 RMP. It was not submitted to Congress. So then you go back in time until you find a plan that was either submitted to Congress or predates the CRA. In my situation, I go all the way back to 1994 and the Northwest Forest Plan, which guided management of not only Forest Service land, but also BLM lands within the range of the northern spotted owl. And the conservation community really likes the Northwest Forest Plan, frankly. Uh, we are not big fans of the 2016 RMP, and I think this just goes to show that the CRA is a blunt instrument that cuts both ways. Whether you're a conservationist or someone that wants to extract uses off of our public lands, you need to know what your resource management plan is. You need to know what it says you can and cannot do out on those lands. And the CRA and the use of it, the way that Congress has used it, has created a whole bunch of chaos for everyone because it's not really clear what plan is valid, uh, what uses are acceptable or not. Um, and, and I think that that creates, uh, a lack of consistency, a, a lot of chaos, and a lot of unpredictability that, again, doesn't work really for any stakeholder group. And there are some fixes there. Um, and I think the big fix, and the easy one, is Congress needs to step in and amend the CRA, and to exclude land management plans and decisions from the reach of the CRA and, and categorize them as not rules for the purposes of that law.
• 5:40
  Is the solution that straightforward?
• 5:43
  Well, maybe. I mean, I'm a little bit more optimistic about the chaos we're causing here, um, because, you know, the fix would literally be a sentence. Maybe not even a sentence. Maybe just a couple of words. [laughs] And so we don't need to, you know- Pass a whole new statute. We can make changes, tweaks, uh, to existing statutes in all kinds of legislative vehicles, whether that's an omnibus appropriations act, an emergency supplemental for wartime spending, or, uh, post-fire recovery after this summer's wildfires. We have a whole slate of must-pass pieces of legislation reconciliation, um, that Congress still needs to get across the finish line in this term before the midterms or even after the midterms. And so could a CRA fix ride along with one of those must-pass pieces of legislation? Absolutely, and I think it should. Um, but the question is, how much pain is everyone going to have to experience between now and that time? Um, and that's still very much TBD.
• 6:53
  So what does SJ think the outcome for land use planning will be?
• 6:58
  I am a big planning nerd. I love forest planning, um, even though it is clunky and slow and painful, and nobody gets anything that they really want out of it, but it is quintessentially democratic. Uh, public lands are democratic. Everybody's got a dog in the fight, and forest planning is that place where everyone gets to take their dog for a walk. [laughs] And so I think we need to honor that process, and even though people, some stakeholders at the end of the day, and probably every stakeholder, is not completely happy at the end of the day when that final plan comes out, um, you can still challenge it in federal court, and we should do that too if that's where people wanna take that fight. Those are all democratic processes, and they're transparent, and they allow everybody to see what's going on and to ha- allows everyone to have a voice. The CRA is antithetical to all of that. It lets Congress, members of Congress who don't know what they are really doing 'cause they are not experts, they let them override those local voices to score political points, and I think that's wrong. Um, and so I think that we need to really redouble our efforts around local land management planning and to provide the agencies and stakeholders with the capacity they need to robustly engage in that process. Should it take five, 10 years? No, it should not. It should be a much quicker process. Um, and I think we can do that if we work together, but it's gonna be messy, and that's okay, but it sure as heck is better than what Congress is doing with the CRA.
• 8:45
  There's more to come. We'll be right back, and back to the wild line.
• 8:49
  Last week, former NOAA employees laid off by this administration's DOGE cutbacks launched Climate.us, a recreation of the government's Climate.gov, which was shut down by the Trump administration. Led by former program director Rebecca Lindsey, the team crowdsourced almost $280,000, recruited roughly 80 volunteer scientists for fact-checking, and secured an anonymous grant carrying the project through at least February 2027. The site restores the climate dashboard, 15 years of climate journalism, and classroom resources, keeping the original just the facts editorial approach. And Lindsey argues its easy erasure is reason enough to keep it out of government hands going forward.
• 9:28
  Groundshift, a new and nonpartisan nonprofit ideas hub launched this year that aims to rethink the stewardship of America's public lands, waters, and oceans, launched the forum this week, an open space for people to share ideas, perspectives, and creative work to help guide the future of America's public lands and waters. Groundshift, covered here before, is a public lands and waters think tank that is using this moment in time to gather voices, ideas, and concepts for the future of our shared commons. In announcing this new portal, they shared that the goal is to move the conversation beyond Washington and elevate the voices of leaders and communities who are already shaping the future of our public lands and waters. We have a conversation on the Wild Idea podcast coming up later this month with Matt Lee-Ashley and Lynn Scarlett from Groundshift. You can find the link to the new forum in our show notes.
• 10:21
  Many across the US will be celebrating the Fourth of July this weekend, but in Medora, North Dakota, there will be something extra to celebrate, the grand opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library earlier this week. The library commemorates our 26th president, a chief executive who, unlike the current occupant of the White House, recognized the value in conserving our nation's public lands rather than exploiting them. During his presidency, Roosevelt took many decisive steps to create and protect our public lands, including signing the Antiquities Act, which since then has preserved over 130 national parks for current and future generations to enjoy. President Roosevelt understood and advocated for the freedom that public lands provide for our citizens. So while celebrating America's freedom this Fourth of July, we wanted to share this thought from Ted Roosevelt IV, Wild Idea guest and great-grandson of our greatest conservation president.
• 11:12
  We have, in the United States, uh, a bequest that was given to us by forebears, and therefore, we are the stewards of this, uh, bequest. We have a fiduciary obligation to ensure that this vast gift of public lands, whether it be wilderness areas, whether it be, uh, national forests, national parks, Bureau of Land Management, is passed on to our children's children unharmed. No other country has such a legacy. We were the first country to have, this is called the American model, to come up with the idea that a country so richly endowed with wildlife should be preserved for all future generations. So now we are seeing a strong challenge to this concept.
• 12:01
  coming from obvious places. And it is our duty, a moral obligation, to resist this as strongly as we can and ensure that we act as good stewards of that bequest.
• 12:15
  If you'd like to hear more from Ted, check out episode 24 of the Wild Idea podcast.
• 12:19
  Every week it seems we bring you what sounds like a word salad of bureaucratic actions. It often may sound like boring gobbledygook, but often has hugely consequential impacts. And this is one of those moments. This week, the Forest Service issued a proposed rule that in summary is, quote, "Proposing to amend regulations governing the directive system for the United States Forest Service, focused on the scope of notice and comment requirements for the formulation of standards, criteria, and guidelines applicable to Forest Service programs and associated agency procedures. These amendments enhance agency employees' discretion to allow innovation and program implementation to account for the unique ecological conditions of affected landscapes and changing social and economic needs." End quote. See, I told you, gobbledygook. But here's the real consequence. This isn't just a technical revision to an agency filing system. It is part of a broad effort to carve out public participation on how your public lands are managed. The idea of enhancing employee discretion on the surface sounds like a great idea if the employee or administration has an obligation to stewarding the lands responsibly for all Americans. But saying that agency employees can decide with no public input to delete or revise the documents that guide their work is ludicrous. The comment period on the substantial rollback on the public input for public land management actions is open now and closes on July 31st. We will have a link to where you can comment in our show notes.
• 13:51
  In Atlanta, Sierra Club Georgia, More Than Just Parks, and the Southern Environmental Law Center are hosting a Roadless Rule and Brews event on July 12th at Sweetwater Brewery. We'll link to the event in our show notes where you can join like-minded folks to write postcards to the USDA and Georgia elected officials about protecting the Roadless Rule. Grab a beer or a soda and enjoy some community.
• 14:13
  Anders, some somber notes before we close. First, the Sand County Foundation announced the death of Dr. Brent Haglund, its longtime president and CEO, who led the organization for more than 30 years before retiring in 2021 and remaining on its board. Shaped by Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, Haglund is remembered as a teacher at heart, a mentor, and the leader who built the foundation into a national conservation organization. Memorial gifts, which you can make at a link in our show notes, will be directed to the foundation's Haglund Ecology Fund. And in Colorado, federal officials identified the three firefighters who died Saturday during the initial attack on the Knowles Fire in western Colorado. Emily Barker, 38, of Michigan, Nick Hutcherson, 27, of Arizona, and Sydney Watson of Alabama. Two more firefighters were injured. The crew deployed emergency fire shelters after fast-moving flames cut off their escape routes. And the deaths are the first for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, a new federal agency launched in January. The merged blaze, now managed as the Snyder Fire, has burned more than 28,000 acres along the Colorado-Utah border. Finally, after more than two decades covering national parks and protected areas, National Parks Traveler is suspending operations. The nonprofit, the nation's only 501(c)(3) news organization devoted solely to national parks and protected spaces, reached over 4 million readers and listeners in 2025, but has struggled lately to bring in the funds it needs annually to properly staff coverage of the park system's 433 units. Founder and editor-in-chief Kurt Repenschek says the outlet isn't shutting down permanently and will spend the summer searching for a sustainable funding solution. But the timing stinks. A watchdog going dark at precisely the moment the park system faces its most consequential management upheaval in memory and a case study in the same brain drain meets shoestring dynamic behind the climate.us story we mentioned earlier in the show. NPT's contributions to the stewardship of our public lands and agency transparency have been undervalued. Those who attempt to steward NPS management lands will face new challenges without National Park Travelers reporting.
• 16:29
  That is our report for July 3rd, 2026. We hope you celebrate our nation's 250th responsibly. With extreme heat forecasted in the east and high fire danger in so many places in the west, please be careful out there. We will be back next week with another edition of the Wild Line. And next Tuesday on the Wild Idea, we bring you our conversation from Switchback in New Orleans about the risk-reward proposition of outdoor brands speaking up for public lands. Until then, act up and run wild.
• 17:01
  The Wild Line is a production of Wild Idea Media. Production and editing by Bryn Russell at PodLab. Digital support by Holly Wilkoszewski at Daypack Digital. Our theme music, Spring Hill Jack, is from Railroad Earth and was composed by John Skehan. The executive producer is Lara Hodge. Learn more about us at thewildidea.com.