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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.
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Wild Line, where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for May 29th, 2026.
Bill, Congress isn't in session this week, but we should highlight a couple of developments we failed to mention last week. First, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced its Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill with overwhelming bipartisan support for a few conservation priorities, none of which were included in last year's original text, but each of which have been added thanks to the hard work of diligent advocates.
Last week's approved final text included the permanent codification of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, increasing the program's funding from $70 million to $80 million per year for five years, and eliminating the cost share match for tribes.
Additionally, the bill maintained the Culvert Removal and Restoration Program, continuing funding at 200 million per year for five years. Finally, it also maintained the Department of Transportation's first and only program devoted to pre-disaster mitigation, increasing discretionary funding from 300 million to 500 million per year for five years.
In other Hill news, Democratic Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia last week introduced the Protect Gulf Life Act to nullify the March 31st decision by the Endangered Species Committee, also known colloquially as the God Squad or the Extinction Committee, to broadly exempt all oil and gas operations across the Gulf from complying with the Endangered Species Act protections.
The Endangered Species Committee was created by Congress to address extraordinarily rare situations in which a proposed federal project conflicts with endangered species protections and no reasonable alternatives exist.
The recent meeting was only the fourth time the Endangered Species Committee met since its creation in 1978, and the first time it has been convened on national security issues rather than economic grounds. Unlike prior Endangered Species Committee decisions, which focused on narrowly defined projects affecting a specific threatened or endangered species, the March 31st exemption applies broadly to all oil and gas operations across more than 600,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and affects 20 threatened and endangered species. The Endangered Species Committee also failed to comply with multiple procedural requirements established under the Endangered Species Act, including public notice and transparency requirements.
Beyer's bill has a number of co-sponsors, and it is also supported by organizations including the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earth Justice Action, the Endangered Species Coalition, Oceana, Save the Manatee Club, Sea Turtle Conservancy, Sierra Club, and the Turtle Island Restoration Network.
Down Pennsylvania Avenue, the Trump administration is eyeballing changes to Park Service spending and federal employee compliance.
The New York Times is reporting that at least 67 million in national park entrance fees have or will be redirected to fund Trump's Washington, D.C. beatification projects ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary. Nearly 60 million is going toward repairs to nine ornamental fountains and another seven million toward the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation. More than 90% of the Park Service's recreation fee spending on recent contracts has gone to D.C.-based projects, a dramatic shift from prior administrations where that figure was 5% or less.
Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management has proposed a standardized non-disclosure agreement for all federal employees aimed at preventing government documents from being leaked to the press. Agencies would decide whether to make signing mandatory, and violations could result in termination or civil and criminal penalties. Critics, including the American Federation of Government Employees, called it an attempt to silence civil servants, while OPM says it merely documents existing legal obligations and does not override whistleblower protections.
Speaking of the Park Service, we have some news from two of the nation's busiest national parks. In Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park launched its 2026 timed entry reservation system on May 22nd, offering two permit types, one for the Bear Lake Road Corridor from 5:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and one for the rest of the park from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, both running through mid-October. Unlike many other busy parks like Yosemite, Glacier, Arches, which dropped their time entry systems in 2026, Rocky Mountain's reservation system is permanent, having been finalized in a day use visitor access plan in 2024. The only cost is a $2 processing fee on recreation.gov.
And in Tennessee, the Foothills Land Conservancy purchased a 638-acre property in Blount County, Tennessee, on the western edge of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's known as the Oliver Tract. The Conservancy is set to close on the property on June 8th and then transfer it to the National Park Service, making it the largest single park expansion there since 2009. The land once belonged to John Oliver, one of Cade Cove's earliest settlers, whose cabin remains a landmark on the park's popular driving loop.
There's more to come. We'll be right back. Public land stories continue right now. Here's an update on a story we've been covering here on the Wild Line. As our listeners may recall, the Salmon Challis National Forest authorized the use of chainsaws at their portion of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho through what is called a minimum requirements analysis. The forest, in essence, declared that the use of chainsaws was the minimum tool to maintain certain trails in the Frank following years of pressure from the outfitting community and months of pressure from the administration. By definition, chainsaws are not allowed for convenience doing trail work, but this minimum requirements analysis process is an accepted way in which to circumvent the motorized exclusion during extraordinary events.This week, the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation took the step to clarify that they would continue their volunteer-driven work in the Frank using crosscut saws, a nod to the roots of the Wilderness Act itself. Here's Ryan Ghelfi, executive director, on how they reached their decision to continue the use of traditional tools.
Now we work very closely with the Forest Service, always have, and I'm sure we always will. And, you know, we are staunchly non-advocacy in our mission. It's just part, it's part of our DNA. And so, you know, we don't get into the politics of it or make a statement on like, is this thing good or bad, or is this, um, [lip smacks] Forest Service decision good or bad? Whatever it might be. You know, we work as, as close, as closely as we can, and we work quite closely with our, you know, on the ground wilderness and trails partners, uh, on, at a bunch of different forests. And, you know, but within our mission is
the word wilderness, and wilderness stewardship is central to what we do. And a lot of that is trail work, right? Like that's mo- Especially in this large landscape wilderness place like the Frank Church, like the Selway-Bitterroot, like this four million acre chunk of ground, it's been a really hard place to keep trails,
I'll use the word open, but I think maintained is better 'cause open and maintained are not necessarily the same things. The wilderness piece of our, of our mission is key.
And so for us,
opening pathways for people to discover and steward wilderness, that's the mission statement today. And doing that means doing it with traditional tools for us. Like it's not an exception that we need to make to do the work we're doing. Um, you know, 'cause like the, the, the minimum requirements analysis that has been put out, you know, it's an emergency exception. And, you know, so for us, I think it's really important that we continue to do the work in this way and to teach the work in this way because
time is long. You know, the wilderness and these public lands are gonna be ... I try to think 10, 20, 50 years out, like what,
what is our North Star? Where are we headed? And like it's really important that we bring more people into this world, you know, teach these skills, you know, create this passion in as many young and old people as we can because like the work is massive.
Now that the unofficial start of summer has passed, there's a clear and growing concern that we could have a dramatic and devastating wildfire season after record low snowpack numbers over the winter, although that's just a part of the concern.
Bill and I tip our hats to our friends over at the Center for Western Priorities for their report on wildfire mitigation work that dropped dramatically last year. Their analysis shows that the Forest Service Fuels Reduction program had a 35% drop in acres treated from 2024 to 2025, a significant drop from an agency that is claiming that wildfire mitigation is its top priority. In Montana alone, the agency treated 151,000 fewer acres last year than the year before. But this is not just a problem in the West. In the Southeast, fuel reduction efforts have dropped by 68%. It's hard to imagine that this drop isn't a direct result of the 25% reduction in Forest Service workforce, thanks to the efforts of DOGE and other deferred resignation offers. You can find a link to that report in our show notes.
Finally, we want to encourage everyone listening to join the chorus for Wild Places through a project called Voices for Wilderness, being organized by the National Wilderness Coalition. These stories have an important purpose, to help show lawmakers in Washington that a diverse group of people across the country care about wilderness. Whether you hike, fish, or hunt and want to talk about the wilderness from that perspective, or you want to talk about the clean air and water it provides for all of us, the wildlife it protects, or the way it supports local economies, traditions, and livelihoods, every voice and perspective is important. Here is story keeper Ashley Arnold on just how important and how easy adding your voice can be.
So submitting your story is really simple. You're gonna go to voicesforwilderness.com. There's a button you can click. It's at the very top of the website. There's buttons throughout. When you click that button, it's gonna take you to a form. And you have an option. You can share a video, you can share a voice memo, or you can write out your responses about why wilderness matters to you. Whichever way you wanna wa- you wanna do it is great. Um, videos are really awesome. They don't have to be polished. I mean, you can just be on your iPhone talking to your phone with a selfie video telling us why you love wilderness. Um, and if you don't wanna be writing something out, you can also just record something with a voice memo. Um, this is also the kind of thing that's really easy to put off. Um, but the more voices we collect early, the stronger this becomes, um, the more powerful it can be as a tool to really help inform policy. So get your voice in early, and you'll see it reflected on the Voices for Wilderness site. And then also share it with people. Share it with your friends, your family. Again, can't emphasize this enough. The more voices we have, the more powerful this platform becomes.
Our hats off to Amanda Newman and everyone at the National Wilderness Coalition for spearheading this effort. I know, Anders, you have a quote up there already. Nice job. Also, we'll have that link in our show notes.
Time to add your own very loud voice, Bill. Your very, very, very, very, very, very, very loud voice.
[laughs] That is our report for May 29th, 2026. We will be back next Friday for another edition of the Wild Line. And next Tuesday on the Wild Idea, we kick off Stewardship Month with a conversation with Jaime Laucke of the Washington Trails Association, where we talk to him about 60 years of stewarding public lands in the Evergreen State. Until then, act up and run wild.
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 Skahan. The executive producer is Lara Hodge. Learn more about us at thewildidea.com.
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