Thanks for sharing this, Jan. The Grand Teton layoffs are another clear example of how these cuts aren’t just about short-term savings—they’re about weakening the entire system. Cutting supervisors while reinstating seasonal workers without the people who train them is setting them up to fail.
And you’re absolutely right—calls and direct action matter. The more noise we make, the harder it is for them to push these moves through quietly. Appreciate you spreading the word and for your support in this fight!
I've been very worried that under the new administration the NPS and BLM were going to be changed into auctioneers for the western public lands to be sold to the public. If they have their way, the freebooters will sell the west off to the highest bidders and what is now Yellowstone might wind up a Russian crony of Trump's private resort and Yosemite the property of some off-shore oligarch.
I hear you, Michael. We’ve seen this playbook before—starve a public institution, let it fall apart, and then claim the only solution is privatization. They’ve done it with the Postal Service, they’ve done it with public education, and now they’re doing it with our public lands. The goal isn’t to fix anything—it’s to shift control (and profit) into private hands. The scary part now is that they’ve got congress and the courts and a penchant for ignoring any established norms/laws. Appreciate you reading and keeping this conversation going!
Land Desk and now you are my go to sources for developments in the American west..privatization, extraction, gentrification, the industrialization of the landscape. All very undesirable developments for an old man who has been out here a long time.
Means a lot to hear that. We’re hell bent on doing our part to stem the tide here. I think about that often how depending on your generation you’d imagine that some of these battles would be won by the time you reach elder statesman status and the disappointment that must accompany the feeling to the contrary.
Thank you for this excellent article. You put the big corporation scheme (literal land grab) in plain language that makes a compelling argument. There is a lot going on in our country today so I appreciate you keeping the focus on the importance of OUR outdoor spaces. They belong to the American people - not corporations!
Really appreciate this, Connie! The more people see what’s happening, the harder it becomes for them to keep selling the ‘public lands are a burden’ narrative. These spaces belong to all of us—not corporations, not extractive industries, and definitely not private gatekeepers. Thanks for reading and for standing up for our lands!
Excellent article and no question about it the current administration is trying to privatize every public service. And the Billionaires can rake in more billions.
Outside Magazine has a recent article stating that 16 of 17 supervisor positions in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming were terminated. Supposedly, there are @5,000 seasonal workers jobs that were re-instated, but it is the supervisors that train these workers.
Please support the National Parks Conservation Association with a membership donation as this organization fights in Congress for our parks. Plus contact your representative in Congress to protest this scheme to privatize our parks and sell off lands. Download the app 5 Calls to get the phone numbers of your Congressmen and scripts to many current topics. Of course you can create your personalized message. The important thing is to keep making these calls!
John, I don’t blame your son one bit for thinking twice. Trust is hard to rebuild once it’s broken, and given how these cuts were handled, it’s clear that long-term stability for rangers isn’t a priority. One of the biggest pros of federal jobs is supposed to be stability and that has been robbed from all of them. The uncertainty that might be an effective motivator in Silicon Valley is very detrimental at scale to our government and I fear we’ve only begun to see the destabilizing effects.
And you’re right—this isn’t just about one job. When people like your son, who’ve dedicated years to these parks, walk away, we don’t just lose staff—we lose experience, knowledge, and passion that can’t be replaced. That’s the real cost of these cuts, and it’s exactly what those in charge are banking on people not noticing.
Appreciate you sharing all this, and I’d love to read that LA Times piece when you post it. The more people connect the dots, the harder it becomes to ignore what’s happening.
🙂 Will, Anything I can do to help! I’ve been drawing and posting a few crude political cartoons for this platform in recent weeks. I’ll have to give some thought on just how to create a bitting single pane cartoon on this particular subject. Have a great weekend!
Nah! You’re the expert. I am just a lover of the parks.
I have family skin in this game. My son has been a park ranger in Denali NP for seven years, and still does not know if he will have a job. The park’s education department was totally disbanded. Why? Because much of Denali’s is wrapped up in Native American history. Can’t have that! So no, it’s not just DEI being targeted, it’s history itself.
His dog sledding community (Healy), just 1/2 hour north of the park, is highly dependent on the park for supplemental income. If the park closes off access to sections of it, causing fewer tourists to come, it has a huge economic impact on the surrounding communities.
Cause and effect. A concept foreign to this administration.
John, this is exactly the kind of thing that gets lost in the broader conversation. It’s not just jobs getting cut—it’s history, education, and entire communities taking the hit. The fact that Denali’s education department was completely disbanded, especially given its deep Native American history, says a lot about what’s really driving these decisions.
And you nailed it on the ripple effect. When access is cut, places like Healy feel it first. Fewer visitors, fewer jobs, and a direct economic hit that nobody in power seems to care about. This isn’t just mismanagement—it’s a choice.
Really appreciate you sharing this, and I’m hoping your son and his colleagues get the clarity they deserve. They shouldn’t have to live in limbo because of these shortsighted and disconnected whims. The knowledge that is being lost, the brain drain that is happening will have incalculable long term consequences. Even if future administrations are more friendly toward public servants I think it will take a generation to repair the trust. Who would go into public service or go back into it now knowing the risks and volatility? It’s a true shame. Let’s hope we can stem the tide long enough for the pendulum to swing back the other way.
My son is seriously considering saying no, even if he is offered his job back. Because trust has been lost. He’s one of those guys and his wife too, who after moving to AK, have become integral parts of their dog sledding community. With his knowledge of the parks history, its environment and geology, visitors will lose that knowledge base. I call it a passion.
I am going to post another article from the LA times talking about how Trump and Musk may ruin their summer vacation plans.
It’s my hope that in getting more information out there to the public, that when this occurs, that they will connect the dots.
I just have this feeling that this topic, if experienced by enough of the public will make republican politicians cower.
Very well stated! It's the Defund, Dismantle, and Divest playbook and it seems to already be working. The economic output alone is reason enough to fight for our public lands.
If we need another reason...Steven Davis, in his book, In Defense of Public Lands, makes a compelling case that public lands provide critical "ecological services" beyond their economic value. He highlights how forests, wetlands, and grasslands act as carbon sinks, helping to mitigate climate change, while public watersheds filter pollutants and supply clean drinking water to millions. These lands sustain biodiversity, climate stability, and long-term environmental health—benefits that private ownership often fails to prioritize.
Exactly. Defund, Dismantle, Divest. The playbook is the same across agencies—starve them of resources, break their ability to function, then claim privatization is the only solution. It’s happening in real-time, and once these lands are in private hands, they’re gone for good.
Steven Davis makes a great point, and it’s something that gets lost in these debates when everything is framed around “economic productivity.” Public lands are doing far more than just driving tourism dollars—they’re literally keeping ecosystems and communities alive. Carbon sequestration, clean water, biodiversity, climate resilience—these are things private industry has no incentive to protect. Once a public watershed is polluted, once an intact ecosystem is fragmented, there’s no market mechanism that will magically restore it.
That’s the fight: keeping these lands in public hands, not just for their monetary value, but because they provide something irreplaceable. And the more we let the opposition frame it as a “use it or lose it” economic discussion, the more ground we lose.
We have to make it clear—these landscapes aren’t “underutilized” because they’re not industrialized. They’re already working 24/7, just not in a way that shows up on a quarterly earnings report.
Appreciate this conversation—these are exactly the points we need to be hammering.
Yes to all of this. Thanks for highlighting all of this. "We have to make it clear—these landscapes aren’t “underutilized” because they’re not industrialized. They’re already working 24/7, just not in a way that shows up on a quarterly earnings report."
Thanks so much Kristen! There’s just so many out there that prove this point. I tried to keep it to the most compelling without overwhelming but there are many, many more.
Thank you for this great article and framing! It makes the case sound so obvious. One layer of complexity that I’m curious to get your thoughts on is the quality of the jobs. I feel like a common story around the west is that there were generations of good jobs where you could make a solid middle class life at the mill, in the mine, etc. Then that way of life dried up because of (choose environmental regulations, resource scarcity, conservation, globalization, depending on what side you are on). While the outdoors economy is an economic powerhouse, how many of those jobs can you raise a family on vs seasonal work at the brewery or bike shop? And to be clear I am totally for public lands even if they don’t make economic sense. I just would like to have a stronger case in my head in case of debate or people who are not so sure.
The basic point is that habitat destruction is habitat destruction, whether it's for oil and gas or for solar and wind. Whether it's for mining coal or copper or lithium. My time with these issues has been west of the Rockies, mostly in the Great Basin and the Mojave. My substack has a section on these topics here: https://kollibri.substack.com/t/green-energy-ed9
But the best starting point for learning about these issues is Basin & Range Watch. They're headquartered in Beatty NV:
They are a watchdog organization, keeping track of power development projects in the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin. They go to public meetings, submit comments, etc., and advocate for the environment. Great folks. Very dedicated.
They are also here on Substack. This is their latest post, which is about the wiping out of habitat in the Amargosa Valley for the Greenlink Transmission line project, intended to connect various solar and wind projects:
Perhaps you've heard of the Protect Thacker Pass campaign? This is the attempt to stop a lithium mine on sacred land on the Oregon/Nevada border. I visited when they had an active occupation camp going on, but that camp was broken up and the mining has started there. They're still trying to stop it though:
There are many other lithium mines planned for that area.
Here's a BLM map showing their plans for where to develop solar. Some of this will be up in the air now with the new administration, but not all, and some is already underway. Nonetheless, it gives you an idea of the scale of things:
Really appreciate you laying this out. You’re absolutely right—habitat destruction is habitat destruction, whether it’s coming from oil, gas, lithium mining, or massive solar and wind farms. It’s frustrating how little attention this side of the ‘green’ energy push gets, especially since so much of it is happening in places like the Great Basin and Mojave, where fragile ecosystems are already under pressure.
Basin & Range Watch looks like a great resource—didn’t know about them, so I’ll definitely be checking that out. And yeah, I’ve followed the Protect Thacker Pass fight—it’s a great example of how ‘clean energy’ doesn’t automatically mean responsible land use. The scale of planned development, especially with the BLM’s solar expansion map, is staggering.
This is a huge conversation, and I really appreciate you bringing it here. Definitely something that needs more attention.
You're welcome! I'm glad you appreciate these issues. It's a bit of a challenge to present these things because some people think that if you critique "green" energy that you're pro-fossil fuel, which in my case could not be farther from the truth.
Here's a recent interview I did with Basin & Range Watch's Kevin Emmerich on these subjects. There's audio, video and a transcript here:
This is so important to understand. I went to the Grand Canyon the first weekend it reopened in 2020… *Everyone* that worked there was soooooo excited to be working again: Restaurants, hotels, park rangers, food trucks, gift shops, everyone.
National Parks are a whole mini economic ecosystem, where tourists spend a *ton* of money
Thanks for sharing this, Jan. The Grand Teton layoffs are another clear example of how these cuts aren’t just about short-term savings—they’re about weakening the entire system. Cutting supervisors while reinstating seasonal workers without the people who train them is setting them up to fail.
And you’re absolutely right—calls and direct action matter. The more noise we make, the harder it is for them to push these moves through quietly. Appreciate you spreading the word and for your support in this fight!
What an incredible article! You are to be commended for fighting fire (excuse the metaphor) with cold, hard facts.
Thank you! And metaphors are welcome here :)
I've been very worried that under the new administration the NPS and BLM were going to be changed into auctioneers for the western public lands to be sold to the public. If they have their way, the freebooters will sell the west off to the highest bidders and what is now Yellowstone might wind up a Russian crony of Trump's private resort and Yosemite the property of some off-shore oligarch.
I hear you, Michael. We’ve seen this playbook before—starve a public institution, let it fall apart, and then claim the only solution is privatization. They’ve done it with the Postal Service, they’ve done it with public education, and now they’re doing it with our public lands. The goal isn’t to fix anything—it’s to shift control (and profit) into private hands. The scary part now is that they’ve got congress and the courts and a penchant for ignoring any established norms/laws. Appreciate you reading and keeping this conversation going!
Land Desk and now you are my go to sources for developments in the American west..privatization, extraction, gentrification, the industrialization of the landscape. All very undesirable developments for an old man who has been out here a long time.
Means a lot to hear that. We’re hell bent on doing our part to stem the tide here. I think about that often how depending on your generation you’d imagine that some of these battles would be won by the time you reach elder statesman status and the disappointment that must accompany the feeling to the contrary.
Thank you for this excellent article. You put the big corporation scheme (literal land grab) in plain language that makes a compelling argument. There is a lot going on in our country today so I appreciate you keeping the focus on the importance of OUR outdoor spaces. They belong to the American people - not corporations!
Really appreciate this, Connie! The more people see what’s happening, the harder it becomes for them to keep selling the ‘public lands are a burden’ narrative. These spaces belong to all of us—not corporations, not extractive industries, and definitely not private gatekeepers. Thanks for reading and for standing up for our lands!
Excellent article and no question about it the current administration is trying to privatize every public service. And the Billionaires can rake in more billions.
Thanks Dick. Totally agree. That's the gameplan.
Outside Magazine has a recent article stating that 16 of 17 supervisor positions in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming were terminated. Supposedly, there are @5,000 seasonal workers jobs that were re-instated, but it is the supervisors that train these workers.
Please support the National Parks Conservation Association with a membership donation as this organization fights in Congress for our parks. Plus contact your representative in Congress to protest this scheme to privatize our parks and sell off lands. Download the app 5 Calls to get the phone numbers of your Congressmen and scripts to many current topics. Of course you can create your personalized message. The important thing is to keep making these calls!
You nailed it Will!
John, I don’t blame your son one bit for thinking twice. Trust is hard to rebuild once it’s broken, and given how these cuts were handled, it’s clear that long-term stability for rangers isn’t a priority. One of the biggest pros of federal jobs is supposed to be stability and that has been robbed from all of them. The uncertainty that might be an effective motivator in Silicon Valley is very detrimental at scale to our government and I fear we’ve only begun to see the destabilizing effects.
And you’re right—this isn’t just about one job. When people like your son, who’ve dedicated years to these parks, walk away, we don’t just lose staff—we lose experience, knowledge, and passion that can’t be replaced. That’s the real cost of these cuts, and it’s exactly what those in charge are banking on people not noticing.
Appreciate you sharing all this, and I’d love to read that LA Times piece when you post it. The more people connect the dots, the harder it becomes to ignore what’s happening.
🙂 Will, Anything I can do to help! I’ve been drawing and posting a few crude political cartoons for this platform in recent weeks. I’ll have to give some thought on just how to create a bitting single pane cartoon on this particular subject. Have a great weekend!
Thanks John! I was partially inspired by our previous exchange to expand on this here.
Nah! You’re the expert. I am just a lover of the parks.
I have family skin in this game. My son has been a park ranger in Denali NP for seven years, and still does not know if he will have a job. The park’s education department was totally disbanded. Why? Because much of Denali’s is wrapped up in Native American history. Can’t have that! So no, it’s not just DEI being targeted, it’s history itself.
His dog sledding community (Healy), just 1/2 hour north of the park, is highly dependent on the park for supplemental income. If the park closes off access to sections of it, causing fewer tourists to come, it has a huge economic impact on the surrounding communities.
Cause and effect. A concept foreign to this administration.
John, this is exactly the kind of thing that gets lost in the broader conversation. It’s not just jobs getting cut—it’s history, education, and entire communities taking the hit. The fact that Denali’s education department was completely disbanded, especially given its deep Native American history, says a lot about what’s really driving these decisions.
And you nailed it on the ripple effect. When access is cut, places like Healy feel it first. Fewer visitors, fewer jobs, and a direct economic hit that nobody in power seems to care about. This isn’t just mismanagement—it’s a choice.
Really appreciate you sharing this, and I’m hoping your son and his colleagues get the clarity they deserve. They shouldn’t have to live in limbo because of these shortsighted and disconnected whims. The knowledge that is being lost, the brain drain that is happening will have incalculable long term consequences. Even if future administrations are more friendly toward public servants I think it will take a generation to repair the trust. Who would go into public service or go back into it now knowing the risks and volatility? It’s a true shame. Let’s hope we can stem the tide long enough for the pendulum to swing back the other way.
Thanks Will!
My son is seriously considering saying no, even if he is offered his job back. Because trust has been lost. He’s one of those guys and his wife too, who after moving to AK, have become integral parts of their dog sledding community. With his knowledge of the parks history, its environment and geology, visitors will lose that knowledge base. I call it a passion.
I am going to post another article from the LA times talking about how Trump and Musk may ruin their summer vacation plans.
It’s my hope that in getting more information out there to the public, that when this occurs, that they will connect the dots.
I just have this feeling that this topic, if experienced by enough of the public will make republican politicians cower.
Do u have a source for that 1.1 trillion dollar figure?
Hey Jaron,
Here's a good one: https://outdoorindustry.org/press-release/u-s-outdoor-recreation-industry-soars-to-1-1-trillion/
Best,
Will
Thank you!
Very well stated! It's the Defund, Dismantle, and Divest playbook and it seems to already be working. The economic output alone is reason enough to fight for our public lands.
If we need another reason...Steven Davis, in his book, In Defense of Public Lands, makes a compelling case that public lands provide critical "ecological services" beyond their economic value. He highlights how forests, wetlands, and grasslands act as carbon sinks, helping to mitigate climate change, while public watersheds filter pollutants and supply clean drinking water to millions. These lands sustain biodiversity, climate stability, and long-term environmental health—benefits that private ownership often fails to prioritize.
Josh,
Exactly. Defund, Dismantle, Divest. The playbook is the same across agencies—starve them of resources, break their ability to function, then claim privatization is the only solution. It’s happening in real-time, and once these lands are in private hands, they’re gone for good.
Steven Davis makes a great point, and it’s something that gets lost in these debates when everything is framed around “economic productivity.” Public lands are doing far more than just driving tourism dollars—they’re literally keeping ecosystems and communities alive. Carbon sequestration, clean water, biodiversity, climate resilience—these are things private industry has no incentive to protect. Once a public watershed is polluted, once an intact ecosystem is fragmented, there’s no market mechanism that will magically restore it.
That’s the fight: keeping these lands in public hands, not just for their monetary value, but because they provide something irreplaceable. And the more we let the opposition frame it as a “use it or lose it” economic discussion, the more ground we lose.
We have to make it clear—these landscapes aren’t “underutilized” because they’re not industrialized. They’re already working 24/7, just not in a way that shows up on a quarterly earnings report.
Appreciate this conversation—these are exactly the points we need to be hammering.
Yes to all of this. Thanks for highlighting all of this. "We have to make it clear—these landscapes aren’t “underutilized” because they’re not industrialized. They’re already working 24/7, just not in a way that shows up on a quarterly earnings report."
In a few weeks all this damage.
Thanks for putting so many facts in one article. Appreciate it and will share it!
Thanks so much Kristen! There’s just so many out there that prove this point. I tried to keep it to the most compelling without overwhelming but there are many, many more.
Thank you for this great article and framing! It makes the case sound so obvious. One layer of complexity that I’m curious to get your thoughts on is the quality of the jobs. I feel like a common story around the west is that there were generations of good jobs where you could make a solid middle class life at the mill, in the mine, etc. Then that way of life dried up because of (choose environmental regulations, resource scarcity, conservation, globalization, depending on what side you are on). While the outdoors economy is an economic powerhouse, how many of those jobs can you raise a family on vs seasonal work at the brewery or bike shop? And to be clear I am totally for public lands even if they don’t make economic sense. I just would like to have a stronger case in my head in case of debate or people who are not so sure.
The latest threat to our public lands is the "green" power industry: solar and wind farms, lithium mines, transmission lines.
Do go on…
The basic point is that habitat destruction is habitat destruction, whether it's for oil and gas or for solar and wind. Whether it's for mining coal or copper or lithium. My time with these issues has been west of the Rockies, mostly in the Great Basin and the Mojave. My substack has a section on these topics here: https://kollibri.substack.com/t/green-energy-ed9
But the best starting point for learning about these issues is Basin & Range Watch. They're headquartered in Beatty NV:
https://www.basinandrangewatch2.org/
They are a watchdog organization, keeping track of power development projects in the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin. They go to public meetings, submit comments, etc., and advocate for the environment. Great folks. Very dedicated.
They are also here on Substack. This is their latest post, which is about the wiping out of habitat in the Amargosa Valley for the Greenlink Transmission line project, intended to connect various solar and wind projects:
https://basinandrangewatch.substack.com/p/the-art-of-not-looking-away
Perhaps you've heard of the Protect Thacker Pass campaign? This is the attempt to stop a lithium mine on sacred land on the Oregon/Nevada border. I visited when they had an active occupation camp going on, but that camp was broken up and the mining has started there. They're still trying to stop it though:
https://www.protectthackerpass.org/whats-at-stake/
There are many other lithium mines planned for that area.
Here's a BLM map showing their plans for where to develop solar. Some of this will be up in the air now with the new administration, but not all, and some is already underway. Nonetheless, it gives you an idea of the scale of things:
https://blmsolar.anl.gov/index.cfm
This is a much bigger topic than can fit in a comment, so I hope this helps.
Really appreciate you laying this out. You’re absolutely right—habitat destruction is habitat destruction, whether it’s coming from oil, gas, lithium mining, or massive solar and wind farms. It’s frustrating how little attention this side of the ‘green’ energy push gets, especially since so much of it is happening in places like the Great Basin and Mojave, where fragile ecosystems are already under pressure.
Basin & Range Watch looks like a great resource—didn’t know about them, so I’ll definitely be checking that out. And yeah, I’ve followed the Protect Thacker Pass fight—it’s a great example of how ‘clean energy’ doesn’t automatically mean responsible land use. The scale of planned development, especially with the BLM’s solar expansion map, is staggering.
This is a huge conversation, and I really appreciate you bringing it here. Definitely something that needs more attention.
You're welcome! I'm glad you appreciate these issues. It's a bit of a challenge to present these things because some people think that if you critique "green" energy that you're pro-fossil fuel, which in my case could not be farther from the truth.
Here's a recent interview I did with Basin & Range Watch's Kevin Emmerich on these subjects. There's audio, video and a transcript here:
https://kollibri.substack.com/p/green-energy-vs-the-mojave-desert
This is so important to understand. I went to the Grand Canyon the first weekend it reopened in 2020… *Everyone* that worked there was soooooo excited to be working again: Restaurants, hotels, park rangers, food trucks, gift shops, everyone.
National Parks are a whole mini economic ecosystem, where tourists spend a *ton* of money
This is what happens when you try to run a huge government like a business but you’re a terrible businessman.
Good insight 😌 Can i translate this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?