Public Lands in Peril: The Horror Behind New Rules

The assault on our public lands is unprecedented and unlike ever seen before, threatening to unravel decades of conservation progress. From forests and grasslands to deserts and rivers, policies are being rewritten to favor industrial interests over ecological health, wildlife, and the public’s voice. The consequences are more than theoretical—they are a looming shadow over the lands we rely on for clean air, water, and the survival of countless species.

Changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) bring a bone-chilling threat to our forests. The rules make it easier for agencies and corporations to push through logging and development with little to no environmental review or public input. Once a cornerstone of environmental protection, NEPA now risks becoming a hollow safeguard, leaving forests vulnerable to chainsaw massacres, habitat loss, and wildfire.

Veiled by rhetoric of protection, over 112 million acres—nearly 60% of the National Forest System—have been marked for rapid logging under so-called “emergency” orders. In just a few short months, we have seen multiple timber sales silently slip through with no public notice or consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Nearly all logging in our forests is now presented as an emergency with little recourse to challenge decisions, halt destructive projects, or ensure protections for wildlife and critical habitats.

The “Fix Our Forests” Act, disguised as wildfire protection, dramatically expands logging while gutting environmental safeguards like NEPA and the Endangered Species Act. It silences public input, weakens judicial oversight, and offers no protection for old-growth forests or endangered species—a trick, not a treat, that could leave our forests as ghostly shadows of what they once were.

The administration’s efforts to rescind the Roadless Rule and demand hundreds of millions more board feet of timber each year through 2034 cast a long, eerie shadow over the nation’s wild places. Even the Northwest Forest Plan, once a stronghold for conservation, now faces a grim fate as weakened safeguards threaten ancient trees and the creatures that inhabit them.

In another alarming move, the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule is being revoked, unraveling protections designed to restore balance across 245 million acres of public lands. The door is opening to unchecked drilling, mining, and logging—ghosts of past exploitation haunting fragile ecosystems once more. 

A monstrous nightmare has been unleashed on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, opening its pristine 1.56 million acres to oil and gas drilling. This sacred land, vital to the Gwich’in Nation and teeming with wildlife, is now threatened by industrialization. Meanwhile, the ghost of past policies haunts the region, with the approval of the Ambler Road Project—an ominous step toward exploiting the fragile ecosystem for mining and resource extraction.

The new “Grazing Action Plan” expands cattle grazing on public lands, prioritizing industrial livestock over ecosystem health. Millions of acres could face intensified grazing at a time when many landscapes are already stressed by drought and overuse. The real fright isn’t in ghost stories—it’s in policies that sacrifice the balance of our lands for short-term profit, threatening wildlife, ecosystems, and future generations.

If these policies continue, the damage could be permanent, leaving forests and habitats as hollow reminders of what was lost. This Halloween season, the scariest menace is not a creature in the dark—it is the very real threat to the lands that sustain us all.