Latest / The Wild Idea / The Wild Line: Trump Budget Targets Parks, USDA Consolidates NEPA Rules, and Three Key Public Lands Votes Loom in Congress

Transcript

The Wild Line: Trump Budget Targets Parks, USDA Consolidates NEPA Rules, and Three Key Public Lands Votes Loom in Congress · The Wild Idea

• 0:00
  [upbeat music] Welcome to The Wild Line, where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for April 10th, 2026.
• 0:09
  Bill, let's start with some news from the National Park Service. Last week, the Trump administration released its proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, and once again, this administration has demonstrated a desire to gut the National Park Service. But as we saw this past January with the passage of a robust interior appropriations bill, Congress is the branch of government that actually controls the budget, and even this one has shown itself willing to ignore bad budgets from this administration. Here to explain it to us is John Gardner, the National Park Conservation Association's Senior Director of Budget and Appropriations.
• 0:43
  This is a terribly damaging, horrible budget for the National Park Service. Coupled [clears throat] with the administration's last budget proposal, these are the worst budget proposals in history, basically. And it's difficult to overstate the damage that this would cause to the National Park Service and to the management of the national parks that people know and love. It, uh, seeks to cut a third of the Park Service budget. This is something that Congress would not, and we hope will not, go along with. The president proposed some of these same kinds of things in their last budget, and Congress on both sides of the aisle said absolutely not and rejected those proposals. [clears throat] Uh,
• 1:30
  what they are proposing includes a cut of three thousand staff from the Park Service. So this is on top of the incredible damage that we saw this past year, unprecedented damage.
• 1:44
  As background, because appropriations, the annual spending bills, have been insufficient for a long time, there was a gradual loss of two thousand Park Service staff prior to 2025, so that was a gradual erosion of staffing.
• 1:59
  But then last year alone, we saw four thousand Park Service staff that were lost, resigning under pressure, retiring early under pressure for fear that they won't be able to keep their jobs, under, under pressure from the administration. Now on top of this, they wanna get rid of three thousand additional staff.
• 2:19
  The cuts that this would mean, for example, is halving the staff for the protection of cultural and natural resources that the Park Service had just a year ago. It's... You can't, you can't adequately manage national parks or support their supporting offices that have very important staff that provide expertise for the Park Service with this kind of budget.
• 2:43
  Trump's proposed budget came out last Friday, just one day after employees of the National Park Service received another email offering a deferred resignation program, basically an offer to resign with a severance package. Is there a connection between the administration's one day offering to pay staff to resign and the next day rolling out a budget that would slash the agency by a third? Again, here's John Gardner.
• 3:07
  In the last appropriations bill passed this last December, Congress provided essentially flat funding to operate the National Park System. They also provided a clear sense of Congress that they want national parks and support offices to be adequately staffed. So they provided the money, and they provided the direction.
• 3:27
  We are not seeing the administration follow through in any significant way on that direction. There are some, uh, vacant positions that they're loosening up on. But by and large, there are thousands of positions that w-we, we are not seeing them hiring or make any attempt to hire. On top of that, as you point out, there is yet another round, I believe the fourth round, of these deferred resignation and early retirement offers.
• 3:57
  This is just, as we view it, another way to demoralize Park Service staff and to get people to flee the workforce as part of what is clearly a view to, uh, downsize the federal government. And as far as the National Park Service goes, we're seeing the decimation of their ranks and the loss of, of decades, well, collectively hundreds of years of, of experience, of institutional knowledge.
• 4:25
  Importantly, that deferred resignation early retirement offer has a number of exemptions, and that includes the staff who work in National Park Service units. And what that leaves open are the people who work in the many supporting regional offices, the Washington office, and the Denver service center.
• 4:48
  The Interior Secretary's made a number of statements where he clearly disrespects or misunderstands the work that those people do. These are people who directly support the national parks. They provide expertise on resource protection. They provide, uh, IT support. They provide public safety support and a number of, uh, resource protection and other expertise that are important for meeting the laws that Congress has provided. You can't operate national parks without the people in those other offices. Just because they're not actively boots on the ground in the parks does not mean that they're not important. So we are worried that this is part of essentially a backdoor reduction in force effort.
• 5:37
  So what are we to do for our national parks and the staff that care for them? Well, John has that call to action.
• 5:44
  We urge your listeners to reach out to their members of Congress
• 5:49
  to support an adequate budget for the Park Service this year, to support a clear indication from Congress that they want national parks to be adequately funded, that they want the Park Service to have the staff they need to manage these incredible resources.
• 6:08
  To,
• 6:09
  to cut the Park Service budget is just penny-wise and pound-foolish when you consider that you have
• 6:17
  over fifteen dollars in economic activity for every dollar invested in the Park Service, fifty-six billion dollars in economic activity generated by visitor spending. In fact, it's not penny-wise and pound-foolish, it's penny-foolish and pound-foolish.
• 6:33
  Let's turn to the Forest Service and the news we covered a week ago, the announced plan for reorganizing the agency top to bottom. None of the facts have changed. The plan is to move the headquarters to the state most hostile to public lands, Utah, to close down critical research facilities that are studying the wildfire crisis consuming the American West, to shutter regional offices impacting thousands of employees across the country.
• 7:00
  What has evolved since last week is the realization by many just how devastating this move by the Department of Agriculture will be for an agency that manages a hundred and ninety-three million acres on behalf of the American public.
• 7:14
  There have been calls from both sides of the aisle to reconsider this action taken by the administration. Community leaders have addressed the impacts on employment in host cities for these research and regional posts, and to access to public land recreation by community members and visitors alike. The outdoor recreation economy alone is a one point three billion dollar contributor to GDP. So many brands have put the threats to our recreation economy by the Forest Service on the front burner after this announcement. Leading that charge is the gear and apparel brand Patagonia. Here's Keith Schoeningert, Program Officer for Healthy Lands and Waters, on why they jumped in to raise the alarm.
• 7:58
  For decades, we've fought to protect our public lands because they're the foundation of our business and the lifeblood of our communities, and we believe firmly in the value of speaking out and holding decision makers accountable for their actions. Moving the Forest Service away from the seat of federal decision making isn't administrative efficiency. It's a strategic attempt to isolate the agency, cull its staff, and weaken its ability to advocate for the long term health of our ecosystems. So there's no way we weren't going to speak out.
• 8:20
  Also this week at USDA, the department finalized its newly consolidated rule for all its agencies under the department for following the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The department had released an interim rule last June that cuts huge chunks of public involvement out in improving or stopping actions by the Forest Service and other USDA agencies.
• 8:40
  More of the week's headlines following this short break. And back to the Wild Line. Both chambers of Congress have been in recess this week with most members back in their home states, so nothing new on the legislative front. But next week's return to DC by members is a reminder that there are a number of key votes related to public lands still outstanding. A couple to highlight that can serve as a call to action are the Congressional Review Act resolution that would overturn the mining ban in critical headwaters of the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness. This resolution would open the door to open pit copper mining by the Chilean conglomerate and a Fagasto that could have devastating impacts on the unique and fragile ecosystem of the area. The other possible vote is on another CRA resolution. This one would overturn the Community Developed Management Plan for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The resolution, introduced by Senator Lee and Representative Malloy, would not only scrap the current management plan, but would forbid a similar plan being adopted in the future. Both of these uses of the CRA process have never been used like this before. Additionally, it looks like the ESA Amendments Act will be on the House floor next week. As written, the ESA Amendments Act upends conservation practices that have benefited rare and common species alike. Instead of fixing the real problems with species conservation, namely funding and staffing, this bill would undermine the scientific integrity and efficacy of this bedrock statute by weakening the, quote, best available science standard, end quote, to declare certain categories of information as per se the best science, regardless of whether it is outdated or has since been discredited.
• 10:29
  At the same time, the bill would shrink wildlife stewardship responsibilities to state agencies that do not have the resources, staff, or legal frameworks to take on this duty. The legislation would drastically curtail protections for lands and habitat by first arbitrarily limiting the definition of habitat and then imposing unnecessary restrictions on what of that narrowed habitat can be designated as critical. The legislation also would make listing a more arduous and burdensome process on the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, thus delaying necessary protections for critically imperiled species. At the same time, the bill would expedite the removal of species protections. Anders and I urge you to contact your member of Congress and ask them to oppose the ESA Amendments Act.
• 11:23
  Bill, I want to share some exciting news from our friends at the Center for Western Priorities. This week, they announced that Aaron Weiss will be stepping into the role of Executive Director for the organization beginning May 1st. Some of you may know Aaron as one of the hosts of the Center's podcast, The Landscape, but he has also been the organization's Deputy Director and has been with the Center since 2015. We ask Aaron what this opportunity means to him.
• 11:48
  It's exciting. I mean, now is an incredible time in the public lands space. Obviously, there are a lot of really awful things happening because of the Trump administration. And at the same time, there's a lot of great opportunities. You are seeing folks coming together across the political spectrum in a way that we haven't in a very long time because the Trump administration actions are so egregious and so unifying that itis making folks realize how much we all have in common across the West when it comes to public lands.
• 12:25
  We also ask Aaron what gives him hope in this new role.
• 12:28
  It is that unifying action that-- of what public lands does across the West, recognizing that when Congress was on the brink of trying to sell off public lands during the reconciliation fight, it was bipartisan outrage that brought that to an end and made folks realize, both in Congress and the White House, that this is not the way forward, that regardless of political party, we need and love our public lands, and that any attempts to sell them off are a political third rail. Uh, and
• 13:05
  a-as awful as it is that members of Congress need that reminder apparently every couple years, you can see they've learned it. Uh, you see what's happening right now in Wyoming, where the Wyoming state legislature just passed a resolution supporting national public lands, and the governor signed it. I mean, if you'd told me five years ago we'd be looking at pro-public lands, uh, resolutions out of Wyoming, I would've said, "Oh, that, that sounds like a wonderful dream," uh, but here we are, right? That even the Wyoming state legislature recognizes where we are at this moment.
• 13:38
  And finally, what is it that makes this such a big professional milestone for Aaron?
• 13:43
  Before I was in journalism right out of school, I was actually in, in software, and my greatest claim to fame up until this moment is that I was part of the team in nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand that killed Clippy the talking paperclip. So that I can now finally say I have done something more important than killing Clippy is, is really deeply meaningful to me personally.
• 14:05
  We expect great things from Aaron, and Godspeed, Clippy.
• 14:09
  Finally, this week, the world lost a legendary climber, the first full-time employee of the co-op REI, and its eventual CEO, Jim Whittaker. Jim was the first American to summit Mount Everest, and in his later years, used that notoriety to speak for and advocate for public lands and protections for the natural world. Jim Whittaker was ninety-seven. On belay, Jim. That is our report for April 10th. We will be back next week with another edition of the Wild Line, and next Tuesday on the Wild Idea Podcast, we talk with Dr. Erica Smithwick, distinguished professor of geography and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State, about fire, climate, and forest resilience in the East. Until then, act up and run wild.
• 14:59
  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.
• 15:23
  [upbeat music]