Your source for the most important headlines across the outdoor community.
The EPA just proposed a new “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule that significantly reduces which wetlands are covered by the Clean Water Act, following the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision. Only wetlands with direct surface connections to relatively permanent waters (rivers, lakes, seas) would get federal protection; many isolated or intermittently connected wetlands would fall out.
The BLM's 2024 Conservation and Landscape Health Rule (the “Public Lands Rule”) put conservation leases and restoration on more equal footing with grazing, energy, and other uses. In September, the Department of the Interior proposed to rescind it, arguing that treating conservation as a “use” violates the multiple-use mandate.
More than 17,000 acres in California was recently returned to the Tule River Indian Tribe - the largest such transfer in that region. The land reconnects the reservation to U.S. Forest Service lands and the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The tribe is already re-introducing Tule elk (and previously beavers) and planning fire management and watershed protection on the land.
The Trump administration released newly proposed changes to how the Endangered Species Act is applied. The proposal brings back Trump first-term standards for listing species and designating critical habitat, including giving more weight to considerations of economic and national security concerns. Supporters frame this as restoring legal clarity and reducing regulatory burden, while conservation groups argue it will delay protections, shrink critical habitat, and increase extinction risk, especially where habitat loss is the main threat.