Weekly Watch: Burgum’s Public Lands Sell Off Christmas Gift To Trump
Burgum’s Public Lands Sell Off Christmas Gift To Trump and Montanans’ Revolt Against DOGE Cuts Undercutting America’s Public Lands
HELENA, MT – Save Our Parks is tracking the massive assault against America’s national parks and public lands system by Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their cronies, documenting the ongoing consequences of Trump’s unprecedented attack on our nation’s natural heritage.
This holiday season, Doug Burgum’s Christmas present to the American people is worse than coal in your stocking. Every American is getting national parks and public lands that are falling apart at the seams. Once confirmed by the Senate, Burgum wasted no time in implementing his fail-by-design scheme, making America’s land ripe for selling off to Big Oil, extractive special interests, and land barons. He cheered and gleefully helped as the Trump administration DOGE’d nearly 25% of the National Park Service workforce, and purged almost 10,000 Interior Department employees overall. Burgum then slashed $276 million from the NPS budget, resulting in infrastructure failures across our park systems: overflowing toilets, brown water flowing from taps, unmaintained trails, and understaffed emergency services. During Trump’s historically long government shutdown, Burgum kept parks open without adequate staff, causing millions in lost revenue with no plan to make parks whole again, deliberately repeating the same mistakes from Trump’s first term.
In contrast to the crappy Christmas gift he got the American people, Burgum got Trump exactly what he wanted: the MAGAfication of our parks and public lands. He replaced MLK Day and Juneteenth fee-free days with Trump’s birthday. He launched a sweeping censorship campaign, removing signs and exhibits about climate change, slavery, Black history, and Indigenous history from parks nationwide. Instead of outdoor classrooms, America’s public lands are now Trump’s personal propaganda tools, all thanks to Burgum. How’s that for a Merry Christmas?
This week, new reporting revealed that even in ruby-red Montana, Trump and Burgum’s DOGE cuts are taking a toll with voters whose way of life and livelihood depend on public lands. “You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,” said Terry Zink, a third-generation houndsman in Marion, Montana. Public land cuts are a nonstarter for folks like Zink, and support for protecting those lands cuts across the ideological spectrum: more than eight in ten Montanans say public lands in the state benefit their economy. If “Selloff Steve” Pearce gets confirmed to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Montanans and all Americans can kiss their public lands good-bye. We haven’t heard a peep out of the Republican members of the Senate “Stewardship” Caucus, or from the state’s congressional members, on anti-public lands Pearce since Montana’s Senator Tim Sheehy launched the group nearly two months ago.
Meanwhile, forceful opposition to Pearce’s nomination from other public land states continues to grow. We need public land advocates now more than ever, and as members of Congress go home for the holidays, it’s crucial that they consider the consequences of confirming anti-public land zealots like Pearce, who are deadset on selling out and selling off our public lands, to lead the country’s largest land managing bureau.
As we approach the new year, we can only expect more corruption from Burgum and this administration. We know they’re engaging in unethical and potentially illegal insider trading, profiting at taxpayers’ expense. We just don’t know whether Burgum, who has close connections to major oil and gas executives, is profiting from private investments while in office, like he did as governor of North Dakota.
At Save Our Parks, our New Year’s resolution will be the same as it’s been all year: we’re here to save, protect, and preserve America’s parks and public lands. At every step of the way, we will fight to thwart Trump and Burgum’s unprecedented assault and systematic dismantling of America’s shared natural heritage.
Parks and Public Lands in the News:
Safety and Preparedness
Washington Post: Park Service orders changes to staff ratings, a move experts call illegal
“A top National Park Service official has instructed park superintendents to limit the number of staff who get top marks in performance reviews, according to three people familiar with the matter, a move that experts say violates federal code and could make it easier to lay off staff.”
Privatization and Sell-Offs
RE:PUBLIC: A Tiny Land Deal with Giant Implications
“But while the amount of land in question may be small, the implications of this bill reach well beyond the boundaries of a small Utah town. Most notably, the bill directs the U.S. Forest Service to convey the land to Brian Head at no cost. That represents a radical departure from typical federal land transfers, which normally require payment, a land exchange of equal value, or, at the very least, an administrative processes that includes environmental review and public input.”
Grist: How the Trump administration is fast-tracking logging in Illinois’ only national forest
“‘Even if they were getting a premium price for this wood, which I know they’re not, those trees would be much more valuable standing, contributing to the health of an ecosystem, than they’ll ever be cut like that,’ he said. ”
The Daily Sentinel: Bennet joins Hickenlooper in opposing BLM director nominee
“Bennet said in a news release that the nomination of Steve Pearce to lead the agency ‘is an insult to Colorado and anyone who cares about the lands that sustain our economy and Western way of life.’”
Helena Independent Record: Daines revives effort to roll back Wilderness Study Areas in Montana
“‘We’ve been down this road before — top-down, unilateral approaches to managing wilderness study areas are wrong for Montana. Montanans and the Montana State Legislature have made this clear,’ Wild Montana Policy Director Zach Angstead said in a statement.”
Community Impacts
Politico: ‘I Didn’t Vote for This’: A Revolt Against DOGE Cuts, Deep in Trump Country
“But here, support for public lands is not a partisan issue. A 2024 poll of Montanans showed 95 percent of respondents had visited public lands in the last year, nearly half of them at least 10 times. The same poll showed 98 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of independents and 71 percent of Republicans said conservation issues are important to their voting decisions.”
Outside: Meet the ‘Resistance Rangers’ Fighting to Protect Your National Parks
“Leading the charge was the Resistance Rangers, an anonymous group of off-duty NPS employees working in almost every sector of the park service system. The rangers told Outside that they ‘get paid in sunsets’ while opposing staffing cuts, budget reductions, and the illegal termination of probationary employees. And since the Valentine’s Day firing, the group has hosted dozens of peaceful protests supporting the park system, from teach-ins and rallies to bake sales and community gatherings.”
Outside: This National Park Just Got Bigger—and Conservationists Are Calling It a Win for Wildlife
“In a win for public lands, Arizona’s Saguaro National Park has increased in size by about 20 acres, following the acquisition of private land.”
Stories on the Trail
@resistancerangers: Once again Senator Lee thinks he can sneak in attacks to our public lands and we won’t notice. And once again, he’s wrong. We’re here, we’re watching, and we’re not letting up.
@kyledcheney: The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the Trump administration to have Trump's face removed from national parks passes.
@protectwildutah: Take 1 minute to reach out to your Senators and urge them to speak out against Pearce’s nomination to be BLM Director!
@National_Parks_Traveler: The past year has indeed been an incredible one for the National Park Service. You might say an “ass-kicking year,” if you relish the loss of roughly a quarter of the agency’s workforce, the growing unaffordability of being a ranger, and the watering down of your mission and environmental laws that protect the parks.
@NPCA: Reports revealed that National Park Service superintendents are being pressured to grade their staff lower during performance reviews. This policy could make staff layoffs easier after NPS has already been decimated by mass firings & pressured buyouts.
@protectNPS: “NPS employees — from superintendents down — have done incredible work in a difficult year and deserve better.” New reporting reveals pressure to cap employee performance ratings across the NPS, raising serious morale and legal concerns.
The Crisis Continues:
The crisis continues to escalate across America’s 640-million-acre public lands system and is poised to get worse after Trump’s spending package, passed by Congressional Republicans, slashed some $267 million of previously committed funding for national parks. The National Park Service has lost nearly a quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump took office, with some parks now operating without superintendents and at half-staff during peak visitation. Between Trump, DOGE, and Republicans’ draconian budget cuts, hiring freezes, and workforce reductions, the staffing shortages are forcing scientists, park rangers, and other safety personnel to clean toilets and pick up garbage instead of conducting critical work like ongoing maintenance and supporting visitor safety.
Save Our Parks documents and exposes conditions across America’s federal park and public lands system through monitoring reports, visitor testimonials, and accountability research. The campaign maintains comprehensive documentation through its website at SaveOurParks.us.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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