Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Wild Idea is an exploration of the intersection of wild nature and our own human nature. The hosts, Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds, through conversations with experts and thought leaders will dive into the ways that humans have both embraced and impact the function and vitality of our remaining wild places.
Welcome to the Wild Line, where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for May 1st, 2026.
Bill, on Monday, the Trump administration announced that it was withdrawing its nominee to lead the National Park Service, hospitality executive Scott Socha. Socha's company, Delaware North, enjoyed NPS contracts to provide concessionaire services like lodging, dining, and retail at major national parks like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. Delaware North previously sued the Park Service back in 2015 after it lost its contract in Yosemite National Park, attempting to trademark the names of certain historic park lodges. There's no word on why Socha withdrew his name, though he told E&E News it was due to, quote, "personal reasons." There's also no word on whether or not this administration has another name in mind after Socha. The National Park Service went leaderless during the first Trump administration.
Last week, the University of Montana's Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative issued their 2026 statewide survey results on attitudes towards public lands. And not surprising, Montanans overwhelmingly love and support their public lands. This in a state where two-thirds of the population actively engages in hunting and fishing. Being a Montanan is about being outside in wild and open spaces. The survey also revealed that those respondents claim that they look for candidates that support those same conservation values. But, and it is a very big but, that has not been proven true at the ballot box. My hat's off to Rob Cheney, long-term Montana journalist, for his coverage in the Montana Free Press on this very issue. Montanans for years across multiple polls state a love for and voting preference for good conservation, and yet they have sent senators and representatives to D.C. that do the opposite with little to no blowback at the ballot box. Yes, the Montana delegation did help push back on Mike Lee's public land sell-off, but every action since has run counter to public opinion. From the Boundary Waters CRA, where all four members of the delegation voted with a Chilean mining conglomerate over protecting the wilderness, to Senator Daines' nonstop legislation to release protections from public lands, including his recent wilderness study area release bill. We will link to Rob's important writing on the subject in our show notes.
This week, Mother Jones released a stunner of an investigative piece in which they revealed that the Forest Service, beginning this spring, has plans to spray glyphosate on some 10,000 acres of public land, beginning in California, in order to, quote, "wipe out leafy plants and shrubs that might compete with replanted conifers, whose needles allow them to tolerate the chemical." End quote. Mother Jones continued, and I'll quote at length here, "Introduced in 1974 by agri-giant Monsanto, glyphosate is among the world's most controversial herbicides, one the World Health Organization's cancer agency calls a problem carcinogen. In the late 1990s, widespread spraying on U.S. crops genetically engineered to withstand it helped propel the organics movement and led scientists and activists to decry the chemical's potential to wreak environmental havoc, from decimating monarch butterfly populations to killing wild frogs. Bayer, the multinational conglomerate that acquired Monsanto in 2018, has agreed to pay more than $12 billion in legal settlements to thousands of people who say that Roundup, the trademark name, gave them cancer or other ailments. But the company, which has hired lobbyists with deep ties to the Trump administration, may have notched a win in February when President Donald Trump issued an executive order deeming glyphosate critical to national security. He even invoked the Defense Production Act to bolster domestic production of the herbicide and extend some immunity from lawsuits to its manufacturers. The Forest Service and private loggers say that they use glyphosate because it helps commercially attractive conifers like pine and Douglas fir rebound faster after fires and timber harvests. It does so by killing deciduous trees, native shrubs, flowering plants, and anything else that might compete for water, nutrients, and sunlight. In short, a key rationale for spraying a disputed chemical in natural settings boils down to executives and regulators treating forests, including our national forests, as tree farms." Ending the quote.
I urge you to check out this story, a link to which you can find in our show notes. Our public lands and our own bodies deserve better than being poisoned for profit.
On Wednesday, elected officials from Clark County, Nevada, joined community partners like Save the Red Rock to mark the opening of phase one of the Red Rock Legacy Trail, which, when finished, will run 19 miles from the edge of Summerlin, a Las Vegas neighborhood, to Blue Diamond Road, south of the Red Rock National Conservation Area. The project involves the construction of a paved multi-use path to improve safety and recreational opportunities for non-motorized users in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and surrounding areas. Visitation to Red Rock Canyon has increased greatly in recent years, and there is a need for safer, shared access for pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. More of the week's headlines following this short break, and back to the Wild Line.
Bill, the San Joaquin River, the primary water source for over 30 million Californians and nearly half of California's $61 billion agriculture economy, is currently threatened by a proposed blast mine dangerously near local communities. Cemex, a gravel mining and cement producing company, is pursuing a 100-year permit for the creation of a 600-foot deep blast mine along the San Joaquin River, just outside the city of Fresno, adjacent to the Lost Lake County Park and the San Joaquin River Parkway. This project would threaten drinking water quality for the surrounding region, ecosystems in the immediate vicinity of the mine and far downstream, and several nearby endangered species. If approved, this project would stall completion of the restored San Joaquin River Parkway by 100 years. If you live in California and you'd like to tell the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to reject Cemex's proposal to expand their operating permit, you can find in our show notes a web form by American Rivers that will allow you to do exactly that.
This week, leaders from the Affordable Housing and Public Lands communities unveiled a joint principles framework, rejecting the fallacy that selling off America's public lands is a solution to the housing affordability crisis, while highlighting the need for real, equitable housing solutions.Shared Ground: Aligning Affordable Housing and Public Lands Priorities is a policy framework endorsed by a broad coalition of national, regional, and local organizations. The effort underscores that protecting public lands and expanding access to affordable housing are complementary, not competing priorities. Shared Ground brings together leaders from both communities to advance real solutions, reject false trade-offs, and promote policies that engage local communities and support strong, livable communities nationwide. This partnership comes amid escalating pressures on both issues, including continued underinvestment in federal housing programs, increasing proposals to sell or transfer public lands without public benefit, and growing bipartisan frustration with ineffective, politically driven solutions. You can read the framework and learn more in our show notes.
Citizen groups in Virginia and West Virginia filed suit in federal court this week to stop construction of a seven-mile section of Corridor H Highway from Wardensville in Hardy County, West Virginia, to the Virginia state line. The groups, Stewards of the Potomac Highlands and the Virginia Wilderness Committee, say the four-lane highway would deflate the local rural economy and threaten drinking water supplies, wildlife habitat, and other natural resources in both states. West Virginia Division of Highways had announced plans earlier this year to let out construction contracts by this month. But the suit could throw up another roadblock to the controversial project. The suit argues that the highway agencies failed to consider less expensive and less environmentally damaging alternatives. Now estimated to cost over 542 million, this Wardensville to Virginia line section of Corridor H would, quote, "Cross through the iconic George Washington National Forest and bypass and severely impair the economy of Wardensville's historic Main Street district," end quote. It would also, quote, "Impact the lives of farm and homeowners in its path," end quote. It continues, "The far-reaching consequences of this project will have economic, environmental, and other ripple effects decades into the future," end quote.
In the 1960s, the Appalachian Regional Commission planned the four-lane highway, which was slated to reach 15 miles into Virginia to connect with I-81 and I-66 in Strasburg. Since 1995, however, the Commonwealth of Virginia has said that it has no plans to build this Virginia section. Further, the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors and the town of Strasburg declared their opposition to Corridor H in 2022. If built, the Wardensville to Virginia line section of Corridor H would end abruptly at the state line, funneling traffic onto the two-lane Route 55/48, a designated Virginia scenic byway also known as the John Marshall Highway. The citizens groups warn that this would add more peril to hikers on the popular Tuscarora Trail as they cross Route 55/48 on the crest of the Great North Mountain.
Here is staff attorney for the Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance, Andrew Young.
The Virginia Wilderness Committee is focused on this for the long haul. It's, it would bisect a really important future proposal that we're working on f- uh, for generations that come after us. It's a complete boo- boondoggle of a proposal where West Virginia, so many people on the ground have pivoted, uh, and see a better world on the horizon that doesn't res- that doesn't involve valley fills and four-lane highways through 100-year-old forests, which is pretty old for the East. There's a better way. This is a road to nowhere for nobody. We have the solutions in front of us. We know what it takes,
and we're working with partners on both sides of that state line to m- to make our federal and our state officials rethink this and reprioritize what actually matters.
It's too bad that so many people have been fighting this pro- this, this project for so long. Um, and like what you mentioned, that it just seems like there's this weird inertia being pushed from people in Charleston and people in DC that they're just passing through, right? They're not actually on the grounds there. They're not building a life there. It's not their family's farms that are being passed down for generations. Um, they v- they view it as sort of the, the Passover parts of the state, I think. Um, and that's really too bad because Big Slosh is an amazing natural resource. Some of the most rugged mountains left in, in the East. Um,
it's, it's a tremendous place, and I'm just, I'm proud that the Wilderness Committee is stepping up to protect these lands. And, uh, again, it's too bad that we have to go to federal court, but we'll do it if we have to.
The groups also launched a website to raise awareness about the proposed highway, which you can find in our show notes.
That is our report for May 1st. We will be back next week with another edition of The Wild Line, and next Tuesday on the Wild Idea podcast, we visit with Steve Block from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Autumn Gillard, coordinator for the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, about the long history of the stunning national monument in the Beehive State. Until then, act up and run wild, especially you, Poppy Jean Brennan. Welcome to the world, and thanks for reminding me and Anders why we fight for wild spaces.
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. [upbeat music]