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Transcript

The Wild Line: Proposed NHPA Changes Undermine Tribes, Administration Targets Chaco Canyon, Okefenokee Makes Bid for UNESCO Designation · The Wild Idea

• 0:00
  [upbeat music] Welcome to the Wildline, where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for July twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six. Another reminder about where you can find the Wildline in the future. We are in the last couple of weeks where the Wildline will continue to appear in the Wild Idea podcast feed as we are moving it to its own feed. It is time to subscribe now to the Wildline on your podcast player of choice to continue to stay on top of all the land stories. Through July thirty-first, the episodes will continue to be published in both the Wild Idea and Wildline feeds. But starting August first, you will only find new episodes of the Wildline in its own feed.
• 0:37
  Bill, the House Committee on Natural Resources had a busy week, with two subcommittees holding hearings on Tuesday before a full committee markup on Wednesday. While the two committees focused on energy and water, wildlife, and fisheries, respectively, took testimony on bills as wide-ranging as mineral permitting, mapping critical minerals, invasive species control, and a measure amending the Marine Mammal Protection Act to authorize the lethal removal of non-ESA-listed sea lions that prey on ESA-listed Columbia River salmon and steelhead. The full committee on Wednesday approved a slate of bills, uh, that were each narrow in scope and parochial in nature. For a list of those bills, please visit our show notes.
• 1:17
  Last Friday, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation proposed damaging revisions to the regulations for Section one oh six of the National Historic Preservation Act.
• 1:28
  Section one oh six largely deals with consultation and input requirements for proposed federal projects and those projects' potential impacts to historic and cultural sites. Well, it did anyway until these revisions. Federal agencies will no longer be required to try to avoid or minimize damage to America's historic architecture, neighborhoods, and landscapes. Opportunities for state, local, and tribal governments to weigh in on proposed federal actions have largely been wiped away, and significant cultural landscape features could no longer be considered historic properties. So federal agencies could no longer be required to take into account any adverse effects to significant places such as the Grand Canyon. Needless to say, this development is hitting hard in Indian country. We spoke with Ira Matt, Executive Director of Indigenous Diplomacy and Federal Relations with the National Association of Tribal Preservation Officers.
• 2:23
  I think for the impacts, it's al- it's always twofold, and we've been
• 2:30
  really kinda screaming this from the rooftops for the members, for folks out there, because a lot of times I think people are thinking about these, this regulatory review process, uh, the revisions. They think about it off tribal lands. And one thing that's just not getting enough attention is this is going to impact
• 2:49
  how cultural resource management protection happens on tribal lands as well. Because despite the fact that, you know, a tribe assumes historic preservation officer functions, that type of is still implementing that same Section one oh six process on tribal lands. And so for me, that's one of the biggest areas of erosion. I mean, it's happening everywhere, and it's hard to take into account and protect sites off tribal land. But to see that ripped away on tribal lands, where tribal program development, right, tribal budgeting, um, jurisdictional considerations, you know, the tribes have, uh, any ordinances that they've developed around this, those are all gonna get impacted. So this has governance implications, uh, for tribal nations, and it hits right in the heart of where they're at with so many of not only their reservations out there that have federal land on them. Um, let's go to my reservation, Flathead Reservation, Fish and Wildlife Service lands, you know, Bureau of Reclamations with, uh, folks that have irrigation systems. And just the simple fact that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has such wide range and relationship, it calls into question the ability of tribes in a lot of ways, uh, to protect sites on their own lands.
• 4:19
  Here's Ira on gearing up for the fight ahead.
• 4:22
  You know, I'm dry-eyed right now because I've barely got any sleep finding every possible path to collaborate with partners to express concerns. I've got a draft statement ahead of me right now. It's creating awareness. That's not necessarily the awareness
• 4:40
  within just our tribal community. We've been living it. We've been fighting it. We've been yelling it from the mountaintops.
• 4:48
  But it's starting to get brought more and more
• 4:52
  into the purview of the American public because they've seen the battles over the monuments. They're seeing the, the challenges right at the White House and the erosion of process and the current administration's essential unilateral,
• 5:10
  uh, decision-making process, and not everybody appreciates it. So we're finding a way to have a common ground.
• 5:19
  Other highlights of the changes to Section one oh six include the public's opportunity to comment on federal historic preservation policies or actions would now be entirely optional at the discretion of the federal agency. And federal agencies would no longer be required to consider the reasonably foreseeable consequences of their action on historic properties, other than direct actions that physically damage the properties. We will put a number of resources in the links in our show notes.
• 5:46
  Bill, we have some bad news for the Canada lynx, but good news for bison in Montana.
• 5:52
  Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a final rule revising critical habitat for the U.S. population of the Canada lynx, which has been listed as threatened since the year two thousand. The revised designation covers roughly 14,030 square miles across Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Washington. The rule fulfills obligations under a settlement addressing issues the District of Montana raised about the 2014 designation, but the net effect is a reduction of about 7,733 square miles, or roughly 32% of that 2014 designation. The Sierra Club was quick to note that the rule eliminates all Canada lynx critical habitat in, quote, "Unit 5", which encompasses the Greater Yellowstone area, and called the Wyoming elimination a startling departure from what the agency itself proposed in 2024. Litigation over this final rule looks likely, and that's in line with the history of lawsuits and settlements that have accompanied the Canada lynx's fight for habitat.
• 6:51
  Then on Monday, the Montana Land Board, which is comprised of the state's five top elected officials, delayed action on a proposed policy that would favor, quote, "production livestock operations" over, quote, "non-production ones" when leasing state trust lands for grazing. The pause came over concerns that the policy could harm tribal nations, many of which manage bison for cultural or conservation reasons rather than commercial production purposes that could be foreclosed from leases.
• 7:19
  As you may recall from previous episodes of The Wild Line, the Land Board unanimously decided to develop this policy in February 2026. And at that time, and since that time, it was widely read as targeting American Prairie's conservation bison herd. This process is running parallel to a federal effort where BLM terminated American Prairie's bison grazing permits on seven Phillips County allotments under a production-oriented livestock reading of the Taylor Grazing Act, a decision that American Prairie and both conservation and tribal groups are appealing.
• 7:52
  To learn more about American Prairie's bison reintroduction program, visit episodes 36 and 37 of the Wild Idea podcast.
• 8:00
  The past week also brought a lot of disturbing news. Last Thursday morning, two U.S. Forest Service employees were abducted at gunpoint while conducting fieldwork in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in remote Siskiyou County, Northern California. They were zip-tied and led to a remote trailer roughly 2,000 feet up in rough terrain and on a one-lane road. Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah Larue said deputies were alerted to the kidnapping after one of the suspects used a victim's phone to admit to the crime, saying he had live rounds ready for anyone who interfered. He then demanded to speak to the FBI. A large multi-agency response followed. Deputies identified the trailer by aerial drone that afternoon. FBI agents arrived from Redding and negotiations began. The two hostages were released unharmed Friday afternoon after nearly 15 hours in captivity, and the two suspects surrendered early Saturday morning. The accused are Joseph Charles Henrickson, 49, and his son, Phoenix Henrickson, 23. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California is handling the federal charges, and the investigators said they do not yet have a motive. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said he was, quote, "grateful beyond words," end quote, the workers were home safe. Then over the weekend, a flash flood at Sunglow Campground in Fishlake National Forest in Wayne County, Utah, killed five members of one family. Provo Fire Captain Spencer Long, his wife and former Mona City Council member Katrin, and their three sons. Deputies were called to the campground around 5:00 PM after a young male victim was found dead in a wash, and the ensuing search uncovered more victims. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office said flooding from heavy rains was the most likely contributing factor. Residents living near the flooded area are calling for a flash flood warning system for the county, noting that people in Slot Canyons can be caught even when the rain is falling miles away.
• 9:57
  Finally, this month's edition of Mother Jones features an investigation into an alarming new trend where online betting markets like Polymarket have allowed users to wager on wildfire outcomes, including acreage burned, spread, duration, and containment. Ethicists and fire survivors warn that betting on wildfire rewards callous thinking and more seriously, because a fire can be manipulated in minutes by a single person, could create a perverse incentive for bettors to start a fire or help it grow. Arson isn't the only concern, since a firefighter could be incentivized to let a fire burn longer in order to win a bet on, say, acres burned. On the policy side, the U.S. Forest Service says such markets are incompatible with its mission. California Governor Gavin Newsom strengthened a ban on insider trading by state officials on prediction markets back in March, and bipartisan legislation in both Utah and California seeks to prohibit trades on illegal activity. More public land stories right after this, and back to The Wild Line.
• 10:59
  On July 15th, the Trump administration began a 14-day public comment period on the Department of Interior's draft environmental assessment as part of its proposal to open public lands in the Greater Chaco region to oil and gas drilling.
• 11:13
  On October 30th, 2025, the administration began the process by initiating tribal consultation on its proposal to reverse Public Land Order 7923. The public land owner withdrew and put 336,000 acres of federal lands and minerals surrounding Chaco Culture Natural Historical Park off limits to unchecked extractive development for 20 years.
• 11:34
  If the DOI moves forward with its proposal, new oil and gas leasing and development on federal lands will be allowed within 10 miles of the park's boundaries, even on lands directly bordering the park, threatening the irreplaceable cultural resources throughout the landscape.
• 11:49
  Between 850 CE and 1250 CE, ancestral Pueblo people who occupied Chaco Canyon over a span of 400 years produced remarkable archeological structures and developed a complex civilization that included a network of roads, trade routes, and an in-depth knowledge of astronomy. Today, Indigenous nations, including the 20 Pueblo nations in New Mexico and Texas, the Hopi Tribe, and the Navajo Nation hold strong cultural and spiritual ties to the landscape. The Greater Chaco region is internationally recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More about that later. It also recently made America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
• 12:32
  Beyond the significant threat to Chaco Canyon, there is no legitimate need that justifies opening these lands to drilling. In fact, last July, the Bureau of Land Management scaled back its forward-looking development projections for northwestern New Mexico and reaffirmed that the withdrawal area is, quote, "not a favorable target for future development," end quote.
• 12:53
  Moreover, the BLM has already leased over 90% of federal land surrounding Chaco Cultural NHB for drilling. Oil and gas companies have drilled more than 37,000 wells on these and nearby lands and built a sprawling network of roads, 15,000 miles worth of roads. That's five times greater than the distance from Los Angeles to New York.
• 13:15
  But you can make your voice heard. In our show notes, you'll find a link to a petition opposing this misguided idea. DOI is accepting comments on their proposal through July 29th.
• 13:25
  The National Park Service announced in April a plan to remove storm-generated tree debris from 3,000 acres of six elevated wildfire risk areas along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia. Work is slated to begin in late summer of this year and will require heavy equipment to reduce fuels and remove debris, followed by targeted revegetation with intermittent one-lane closures.
• 13:50
  Critics, including the regional group Mountain True, say the execution is the problem. Heavy equipment will pull downed trees up from 58 areas identified through remote sensing and ground reports with logging roads and log landings of over 5,000 square feet graded into hillsides. And while NPS intends to return the land to its contour afterward, that level of disturbance is hard to reverse. Large wood would be removed and sold if possible or piled and burned if not. Methods critics called effectively indistinguishable from salvage logging. And at least one mapped area near Boone appears to have no downed trees at all, suggesting not every site was ever ground truth. The Park Service noticed the project, if you call it that, through three open house-style informational meetings in Galax, Asheville, and Boone in early May rather than initiating a formal public comment or NEPA review. So neighbors learned of the plan as a fait accompli rather than an invite to shape or contest it. Concerns voiced at those meetings include flagging that the project lands on a recognized ecological hotspot. The Craven Gap Elk Mountain Corridor is a longstanding natural area that is home to rare plants and one of the region's most significant songbird populations.
• 15:07
  The Superior National Forest, home to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is currently experiencing the largest fire event the landscape has seen in decades.
• 15:17
  The fires can be traced to a July 6th lightning event when over 1,000 strikes landed across the forest, landing on dry fuels, after which hot, dry, windy weather drove exponential growth.
• 15:30
  By July 15th, officials counted 17 active fires across 55,000 acres. Over 500 firefighters are currently engaged on the fires, and the Superior National Forest has closed the entire Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness through today, with Supervisor Tom Hall saying this week that officials are assessing whether it might safely be lifted. Because of the fires, outfitters are facing mounting cancellations during a peak season. And Democratic Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Republican Representative Pete Stauber appeared jointly in Ely to press for economic assistance.
• 16:06
  The Forest Service has been candid that this problem may not be solved anytime soon. Fire Management Officer Nick Petrek called it the largest July fire he's seen in 25 years and said he expects the more remote fires to burn well into September. While Deputy Supervisor Drew Stroberg said snow is likely the only thing that will extinguish the fires once and for all.
• 16:28
  And finally this week, I reached out to Kim Bednarek, Executive Director of the Okefenokee Swamp Park and Okefenokee Adventures, who this week is in Busan, South Korea, attending the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. After decades of work, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is nearing the finish line for an incredibly important international designation as a World Heritage Site. And boy, did Kim's response get me stoked to get up early on a Saturday morning.
• 16:56
  Hello, Bill, and all the fans of the Wild Idea Podcast. This is Kim Bednarek coming to you from the Republic of South Korea. I'm here with an incredible team of scientists and observers for the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee. Uh, we're here to see if the Okefenokee will be inscribed as the United States of America's 27th World Heritage Site. It's been an incredible time. People are here from all over the world. Our observer team has toured South Korea, visited World Heritage Sites throughout this country, and we're learning so much about what it will mean for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to be a world-class heritage site. We're so grateful for the hospitality of the Koreans that shared their unique history and their knowledge. It's really a beautiful country. And, um, we're just so excited. Uh, there's just so much enthusiasm building for what it will mean when the Okefenokee is hopefully inscribed this week. Uh, lots of friends around the world have been reaching out to us and letting us know, you know, how much they are behind this bid for inscription. How thrilled they are to see this opportunity for the Okefenokee potentially coming to fruition this week. You know, many of you who've been following this journey are aware that the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge was first placed on the United States tentative list in 1982. So it's been forty-four years, and now we're just really, we're days away from just see- seeing if the World Heritage Committee, you know, will vote to inscribe the Okefenokee. If that happens, it will be the first new U.S. Natural World Heritage Site in more than thirty years. So, so many things to be excited about. As all of you know, the Okefenokee is unlike anywhere else in the world. It's over four hundred thousand acres. The largest blackwater wetland on our continent. Contains the largest intact subtropical peatland in the Northern Hemisphere. Serves as the headwaters of both the St. Mary's and Suwannee Rivers. Such, such a special place. So, um, I'm just so happy to, to talk to everyone. Uh, I'm delighted that the Wild Idea fans are following us. Please be on the lookout when you wake up in America on Saturday morning. Uh, hopefully we'll have a decision by then, and then I look forward to celebrating with everyone when we come back. Thanks so much, Bill.
• 19:37
  That is our report for July twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six. We will be back next week with another edition of the Wild Line. And next Tuesday on the Wild Idea, we bring you a deep dive on the initiative called Ground Shift. Until then, act up and run wild.
• 19:52
  The Wild Line is a production of Wild Idea Media. Production and editing by Bryn Russell at PodLad. 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.
• 20:15
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