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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.
Welcome to the Wild Line, where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for April seventeenth, twenty twenty-six.
Yesterday, by a vote of fifty to forty-nine, the US Senate passed a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to pave the way for mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. As Bill and I have emphasized before, this vote not only risks befouling the Boundary Waters, America's most visited wilderness area, but sets a troubling precedent by using the CRA in a way it was never really intended to be used. Congress and this administration have overturned a carefully made, long-standing public lands decision that was built with local community input, and that almost certainly would never have been considered eligible for CRA review until now. This is a terrible outcome, but I can't let the moment pass without mentioning how hard and how smart Ingrid Lyons and our friends at Save the Boundary Waters fought this outcome, ultimately convincing every Democratic senator and two Republicans, Tom Tillis and Susan Collins, to vote against this disaster of a bill.
Over on the House side, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz appeared before the Interior Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in order to defend the president's budget, released just last week. He faced bipartisan questioning concerning the administration's plan to consolidate inter-agency wildfire offices, and of course, about the recent announcement that the Forest Service would be reorganizing and moving its headquarters to Salt Lake City while shuttering dozens of regional offices and research centers. There was a particular emphasis from Democrats on the potential loss of personnel and expertise following the reorganization and forced migration.
In the coming weeks, the House will hold floor votes on the farm bill and the ESA Amendments Act. Stay tuned to the Wild Line for more details.
Today, April seventeenth, is the last day to submit an offer through USDA's Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP. CRP offers are submitted via a competitive bid process, and this year only one point nine million acres are available for CRP enrollments. Approved CRP participants receive annual rental payments in exchange for converting environmentally sensitive cropland into conserved habitat. Those are areas like native grasses, trees, and wetlands. That action enhances wildlife habitat, protects soil, and improves water quality through ten to fifteen year contracts, benefiting species like bees, birds, and deer.
I imagine anyone in the position to submit an offer has already done so, but just in case, you'll find a link to CRP's web portal in our show notes.
A new report by Public Domain's Chris D'Angelo has uncovered evidence that Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee's committee consulted with the Trump administration the day before Lee introduced his wildly unpopular bill to force a sell-off of up to three point two million acres of federal public lands across the West last year. According to D'Angelo's reporting, and I'm quoting liberally here, "Internal emails show that President Donald Trump's Interior Department shared research with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Lee chairs, and helped craft talking points that Lee used to pitch his controversial proposal."
Continuing with the quote, "Lee introduced his measure in June as an amendment to Trump's so-called big, beautiful budget bill and pitched it as a common sense solution to America's housing crunch. Many treated Lee as a lone actor pushing an extremist public lands privatization agenda, though the Trump administration launched a task force months earlier to study selling off as much as four hundred thousand acres of federal land for housing development. As public backlash to Lee's proposal reached a boiling point, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum attempted to distance the Trump administration from Lee's efforts," end quote. Michael Carroll, campaign director for the Wilderness Society, responded to the news covered by D'Angelo's reporting by saying that, quote, "Rather than engaging the public or pursuing real housing solutions, the administration appears to have spent that time coordinating messaging with the same member of Congress who pushed a large scale public land sell-off last summer." He continued, "That's not problem solving. It's laying the political groundwork to sell off America's public lands." End quote. There's more to come. We'll be right back. Back to our public land news.
This week, a new report by the Confluence of States, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. states committed to growing the outdoor recreation industry, advancing conservation, and boosting rural economic development, released their twenty twenty-five outdoor report. The report shows that the economic output of outdoor recreation to be one point three trillion dollars, surpassing industries such as mining, utilities, farming, ranching, and chemical products manufacturing. Additionally, their report shows that outdoor recreation generates five point two million quality jobs and careers in the United States across a wide variety of industries, and that one hundred and eighty-one million Americans participated in at least one outdoor activity over the past year.
The report also demonstrates that, quote, "States are increasingly recognizing the connection between time outside and individual community and economic well-being, and this recognition is shaping policy partnerships and long-term planning in meaningful ways." End quote. Twenty-one states are signed on to the Confluence Accords and are generally represented by the director of that respective state's Office of Outdoor Recreation. The current chair is, no surprise to me, an Arkansan, Catherine Andrews. It's a fascinating report the Confluence has put together, and you can find a link to it in our show notes.
In a Gallup public opinion survey conducted last month, over sixty percent of respondents said the government is not doing enough to protect the environment. Following a year in which the Trump administration has torpedoed clean energy projects, propped up the fossil fuel sector, and removed environmental protections in a number of areas.Just a month before the survey, which interviewed a thousand Americans and had as a margin of error of four percent, Trump's EPA overturned the endangerment finding, a two thousand and nine determination that gave the agency the ability to regulate emissions from new motor vehicles under the pretense that greenhouse gases threatened human health. Here's a nugget in the data. Half of the respondents said they were concerned a great deal about pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. An interesting note on a day in which the GOP-led Senate voted to open the door to mining on the doorsteps of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Finally, Bill, this week the Southern Environmental Law Center, acting on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, the Texas Conservation Association, and the National Parks Conservation Association, filed suit against the Trump administration over their egregious use of the so-called God Squad to grant the broadest exemptions possible from the Endangered Species Act for all leasing, drilling, and production in the Gulf. That means all oil and gas activities in this region can move forward without any regulation or mitigation measures that have for decades protected wildlife while allowing energy development. The move means that sea turtles, whales, and other marine life already on the brink in this global diversity hotspot could be pushed closer to extinction or even lost forever. It also sets a dangerous precedent in allowing the Trump administration to unilaterally sidestep various safeguards through vague claims of national security without evidence, without proper findings, and without following the law.
We spoke with Catherine Wanamaker, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, first about what was behind the convening of the panel.
I mean, I would just say, you know, like historically the oil industry and these animals and the Endangered Species Act have coexisted. I mean, this is a, it's a false dilemma that they're in conflict for decades. Um, we've had oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and it has worked to, um, enact mitigation measures that were very important for, you know, protecting all these highly endangered animals. And so the system has been working. The idea that it isn't working just came out of nowhere. Um, and yeah, like it will take some time to get this through the court system. Um, I guess in the meantime, you know, we would hope that
mitigation measures that have historically been in play will continue to be complied with, but going forward they don't have to be. I mean, the, the determination
became effective on the day that it was granted.
Catherine also addressed why so many organizations are behind this suit to undo the action from the God Squad.
You know, the issue with this exemption is that if they can do this this way for all of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, what stops them from using this kind of exemption process for any other industry, pipelines, mining, timber, you name it. I mean, this was designed to be a rarely invoked provision of the ESA, and we have concerns that, you know, this sets a dangerous kind of precedent for a path forward in lots of other contexts.
We'll keep you updated on this lawsuit in future episodes of The Wild Line.
That is our report for April seventeenth. If you are listening to this episode on April seventeenth and you live in the Seattle area, know that there is a chance to attend a special event around the proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule hosted by Wild Olympics and the Mountaineers and many other organizations. You can find information about that gathering in our show notes. We'll be back next week with another edition of The Wild Line, and next Tuesday on the Wild Idea Podcast, we visit with Wild Cumberland about the iconic Cumberland Island National Seashore. Until then, act up and run wild.
The Wild Line is a production of Wild Idea Media. Production and editing by Bryn Russell at Podlad. Digital support by Holly Wilkoszewski at Dipak 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. [outro music]