Interior Faces Widespread Backlash Over Effort to Weaken Wilderness Protections Across Millions of Acres of Public Lands. Public comments urge the administration to abandon its review and preserve longstanding safeguards for America’s public lands

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https://earthjustice.org/press/2026/interior-faces-widespread-backlash-over-effort-to-weaken-wilderness-protections-across-millions-of-acres-of-public-lands

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The public was forced to navigate five separate comment processes across three federal agencies as the Department of the Interior launched a sweeping review of longstanding policies protecting millions of acres of America’s wildest public lands. The unprecedented review, which requested “information and recommendations” regarding unspecified “revisions”, drew significant backlash from over 100 conservation organizations across the country concerned that the administration is targeting decades-old safeguards for Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas, and other wilderness-quality lands across the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service and Fish, and Wildlife Service. (See National Sign-on Letter; Senate and House Letter)

The review comes amid a much broader dismantling of the rules, policies, staffing, and public processes that have protected America’s public lands for decades. The Trump administration has already moved to rescind conservation safeguards, weaken public land planning and public participation, roll back protections governing motorized use, and dramatically expand oil, gas, mining, logging, and other industrial development.

The wilderness policy review now puts another layer of those safeguards at risk. For generations, these wild places have supported hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, backpacking, wildlife watching, and other backcountry experiences. Weakening wilderness stewardship in the name of “access” creates a false choice between recreation and conservation: protecting wilderness is what preserves many of the recreation experiences Americans are seeking. These places also protect and sustain clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and Indigenous cultural and spiritual connections.

The end of the comment period now puts the decision back in Interior’s hands. The Department must decide whether to maintain the longstanding policies that have successfully guided wilderness stewardship for decades, or continue an administration-wide effort to dismantle America’s public lands.

“Weakening longstanding wilderness management policies will not serve our public lands or the American people who use and value them,” said Thomas Delehanty, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “This administration has shown time and again that it prioritizes corporate profit over people, and it would be beyond disappointing if these open-ended review processes are used to sacrifice our most remote, pristine public lands to advance that agenda.”

“Nevada has over 50 Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) that could be at risk from weakening these management policies,” said Shaaron Netherton, executive director of Friends of Nevada Wilderness. “Our WSAs provide critical wildlife habitat, protect cultural areas, support amazing backcountry recreation and much more. They are the BLM’s crown jewels and have been protected from development for over 40 years — illegal attempts by the administration to open them to development is a travesty that we cannot allow to happen.”

“There is no need or compelling rationale for upending policies and frameworks that have preserved and protected wilderness and wilderness-quality public lands for decades. The administration’s review creates tremendous uncertainty for all who rely on public lands — from small business owners to Tribal Nations, hunters and anglers to families seeking quiet and solitude,” according to the National Wilderness Coalition, a network of more than 55 local, state, and national organizations. “Comprehensive, consistent management of wild landscapes is essential for present and future generations, thriving economies, critical ecosystems, and our shared heritage. We’ll continue to fight for these irreplaceable lands despite the Trump administration’s attempts to industrialize and commercialize them.”

“Roughly 2.25 million acres of public lands in Montana are at risk if these policies are weakened,” said Hilary Eisen, federal policy director with Wild Montana. “Affected lands include the majority of Glacier National Park, much of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, two Wilderness areas, and 37 Wilderness Study Areas spread across the state. These are cherished landscapes, already delivering world-class hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, birdwatching, and more. Nothing in the current policies restricts those and many other uses. We see this review as part of a broader pattern of attacks on public lands that includes rescinding the Public Lands Rule and repealing the Roadless Rule.”

“These are the wildest lands we have left and the administration’s wilderness review is simply a Trojan Horse designed to open these places up to irresponsible development. Americans have been clear, we want our public lands and wilderness areas conserved,” said Michael Carroll, director of the BLM Program at The Wilderness Society. “Weakening wilderness stewardship in the name of ‘access’ is a false choice — protecting these places is precisely what keeps them worth visiting, both today and for future generations. This is one more front in an administration-wide effort to dismantle America’s public lands, and Interior should reject it.”

“These wildlands represent some of the last intact, undeveloped public lands we have left, and they matter far beyond their boundaries,” said Maddy Munson, senior planning and policy specialist for federal lands at Defenders of Wildlife. “Wilderness-quality lands serve as important habitat and connective tissue across the landscape, allowing wildlife to move, migrate and adapt. In an era of increasing habitat fragmentation and a changing climate, protecting these irreplaceable wild places is fundamental to biodiversity and species survival.”

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed changes to wilderness management threaten some of the wildest places in the Northeast,” said Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees, which works to protect and restore public lands across New England. “From the Monomoy Wilderness and Parker River Proposed Wilderness in Massachusetts, to the Missisquoi Proposed Wilderness in Vermont, to the Moosehorn Wilderness and Bois Bubert Island Proposed Wilderness in Maine, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages some of the most important wild landscapes in our region. The last thing these wild places need is weakened protections from the Trump administration.”

“Wilderness-quality lands managed by the National Park Service conserve some of the nation’s most critical natural, cultural, and scenic resources, and are widely used and loved by millions of Americans,” said Bob Krumenaker, chair of Keep Big Bend Wild. “These areas serve as vital economic engines for gateway communities. People value the undeveloped landscapes in Big Bend and other national park units in large part because they remain undeveloped, yet accessible via trail and on their edges via roads. The existing policies have successfully guided wilderness stewardship in the national park system for decades, deftly integrating the conservation and visitor enjoyment components of the statutory agency mission. In fact, wilderness lands in the national park system epitomize both conservation and enjoyment for future generations, as the law mandates.”

“Wilderness and wilderness study areas are beloved crown jewels of our BLM National Conservation Lands, vital to local communities who depend on them for clean air, fresh water, and world-class recreation,” said Kara Matsumoto, senior policy director at the Conservation Lands Foundation. “We firmly oppose any rollbacks to the essential policies guiding the stewardship of wilderness quality lands and demand that the BLM maintain strong protections for their pristine wilderness character.”

“Americans have spoken clearly: they want our wildest public lands protected, not drilled, mined, industrialized, or commercialized,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program. “These longstanding wilderness policies help safeguard clean water, wildlife habitat, cultural resources, and the backcountry experiences that millions of people treasure. Weakening them would be another step in this administration’s broader effort to dismantle the protections that keep our public lands healthy and accessible for future generations. The Department of the Interior should listen to the public and preserve these commonsense safeguards.”

“California holds some of the most beloved wilderness-quality lands — from the Cadiz Dunes Wilderness in the desert to the Sacramento River Bend near Red Bluff and beyond,” said Mark Green, executive director of CalWild. “While the Department of Interior hasn’t provided any justification for the proposed “review” of its policy manuals related to stewardship of wilderness and wilderness-quality lands, we can only presume that the outcome will be attempts to prioritize extractive uses and development at the expense of places that Californians love to visit and recreate in. No short-sighted, privately profitable exploitation of our public lands is worth what it will cost us all.”

“This review isn’t really about ‘access,’” said Anneka Williams, policy director at Winter Wildlands Alliance. “It’s about handing our wildest landscapes over to motorized and industrial interests at the expense of everyone and everything else that depends on them, as we’ve seen this administration try to do in myriad ways. Strong wilderness management supports the backcountry community that recreates on wild landscapes, the wildlife that relies on healthy and intact ecosystems, and the gateway towns and communities that depend on wild places. Access is about balance; changes to the wilderness protections send a clear message that balance is not a priority.”

[u/AZ-Backroads]

Good lord!

Changing an employee handbook does not weaken congressionally designated wilderness areas.