This summer, millions of Americans are hiking, camping, fishing, and making lifelong memories in our national parks, forests and other public lands. But something troubling is taking place behind the beautiful views: The federal agencies that safeguard these places for us are being hollowed out.<\/p>\n
Staffing and budget cuts at the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service aren\u2019t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are empty ranger stations during peak season, trail crews that never arrive, and wildfire teams stretched so thin they can\u2019t keep up.<\/p>\n
During the four years when I led the BLM, from 2021 to 2025, I saw what it takes to care for hundreds of millions of acres of public lands. It takes committed, dedicated people — wildfire crews, wildlife biologists, planners, law enforcement rangers — and it takes funding. Today, both are being stripped away at historic rates.<\/p>\n
We can already see the consequences. As I write, flames tear through the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, burning down the historic lodge and scarring over 100,000 acres. The fire has raged for weeks<\/a> since a lightning strike started it on July 4, and it may continue for weeks more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fire is part of the West\u2019s natural cycle, but climate change and decades of suppression have made today\u2019s fires hotter and more destructive. It just doesn\u2019t make sense that the Trump administration is gutting the agencies responsible for managing fire risk when we need these experienced and dedicated people most.<\/p>\n More than 1,600 wildfire-qualified staff have been driven out of the Forest Service in recent months, and as many as one in four firefighting jobs remain vacant. To make it worse, firefighters are being pulled from the fire lines to tend to logistics for some forests, even in one of the most dangerous wildfire seasons in memory.<\/p>\n The administration has even proposed removing firefighting from the Forest Service entirely, a dangerous move that separates the rangers who know the land best from those dousing the flames.<\/p>\n People of all backgrounds celebrated when we collectively stopped Congress from selling off our public lands earlier this summer. But now, a clear and dangerous pattern is emerging: Shrink these agencies until they break, then claim that selling off or industrializing our public lands is the only fix.<\/p>\n This should alarm anyone who values the freedom these lands provide. Public lands are a great equalizer–places where all Americans have the same right to hike, hunt, fish or camp. And to unplug and touch nature. If we lose the people who manage these lands, our access will shrink under wildfire closures, roads will be gated and campgrounds will close. We\u2019ll lose our freedom to wander.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a direct threat to conservation. Our public lands deliver clean water, clean air and wildlife habitat. Cutting conservation programs and abandoning fire-smart management will leave forests overgrown and ready to burn — with wildfires too big and too hot.<\/p>\n