WILDLINE_029 Thu, Dec 18, 2025 11:02AM • 16:59 SUMMARY KEYWORDS Speed Act, national environmental policy, wildfire bills, national parks, Mike Lee amendment, Endangered Species Act, habitat protections, species conservation, public comment, roadless rule, Forest Service cuts, water quality standards, bison restoration, public engagement, conservation grazing. SPEAKERS Announcer, Speaker 1, Bill Hodge, Anders Reynolds, Speaker 2 Announcer 00:00 The following is a production of wild idea media. Bill Hodge 00:06 Welcome to the wild line where land stories are the lead stories. This is our report for December 19, 2025 Anders Reynolds 00:16 Yesterday, the House of Representatives approved house Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce westerman's Speed Act, the bill barely made it through a procedural vote earlier in the week, but changes made to the bill by Representative Westerman, in order to appease the Freedom Caucus, took most of the drama out of the final passage. The speed act radically reduces the scope and value of national environmental policy. Act reviews and severely limits the public's ability to hold the federal government accountable when agencies fail to consider the health, environmental or economic impacts of their decisions, it would allow the Trump administration to rush construction of dangerous fossil fuel projects without doing anything to promote clean energy resources at a time when that administration is trying to avoid being accountable to the courts, Congress And the public, it seems to Bill and I that this is not the time to remove guardrails like NEPA that protect the public from rash decisions and bad actors. The speed act faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Bill Hodge 01:12 On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a markup of 15 bills with wildfire or public land management implications. Our show notes will include a full list of those bills. But to highlight just three, the Sarvis Creek wilderness completion Act would expand the sarvice Creek wilderness area in Colorado's route National Forest by 6817 acres, protecting sub Alpine wilderness habitats and wildlife while preserving access to outdoor recreation. The Chugach Alaska National Exchange oil spill Recovery Act would legislate a land exchange between the federal government and the Chugach tribe Corporation in order to address lingering issues stemming from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Remember that one and the Bren head town land conveyance act, introduced by Committee Chair, Mike Lee would offer 24 acres of Utah's Dixie National Forest to the ski resort town of Bren head, which has a shortage of space for public work needs. Those bills are now available to be considered on the Senate floor. Anders Reynolds 02:15 Speaking of Mike Lee, on Tuesday, it was discovered that he planned to offer an amendment to the interior approps Bill scheduled for consideration by the Senate beginning this Thursday, that would strike language intended to maintain the national park system as it is. His amendment was introduced Monday, and it encourages the selling off, transferring and giving away of our national parks and other national park units. It's important to note that Lee is telling Senate leadership that he has 51 votes to pass his amendment. Lee's amendment, amendment number 3972 strikes, section 130 of the Interior Appropriations Bill, which requires the Department of Interior to maintain all federal lands designated as or as a part of a national park unit, a national scenic or National Historic Trail or a wild and scenic river, as of May 2 2025 as federal land and continue to operate such unit, trail or river as an entity of the National Park Service, including for such purposes as federal employee staffing and entry permit and other fee collections. This is a threat to our national parks, which President Trump has tried to defund to the tune of 1.2 billion, and which Secretary Burgum has openly talked about closing and transferring to states. Lee's amendment is just his most recent attempt to establish the framework to sell off public lands, while Senate Republicans are clearly still hoping to show some progress on appropriations this week, we think the most likely outcome is that if any vote happens before recess, it would probably be procedural, and that would set up the parameters for the debate on amendments, including this Lee amendment. However, votes on amendments and the final passage would probably not happen until January. That gives us some time to act if you'd like to help us kill this amendment, call your senator and say one or some of the following things. One, vote no on Lee amendment. 3972 to Interior Appropriations. Two, don't let Congress sell off our national parks. Three parks come in all shapes and sizes from civil rights history in Birmingham and the turning point of the Civil War at Vicksburg to waterfalls and Cuyahoga and the coast of Acadia. Our Communities love our national parks and do not want them sold or transferred away. Four a national park site is our legacy, and it's a promise the American people to preserve nature and history for generations to come, removing these one of a kind, natural and historic places from National Park Service protection and on the eve of America's 250th birthday, would break that promise the American people and threaten the park system we all know and love. Five 332 million people flock to our national parks, monuments, seashores, battlefields and historic sites. To learn our priceless national heritage, from the American Revolution, women's rights movement to the Wright Brothers first flight, they tell stories of American presidents, inventors, civil rights leaders and underground railroad conductors. Six and finally, dismantling our national parks would devastate local economies that rely on these tourist dollars. Bill Hodge 05:20 Also on Wednesday, the House Committee on natural resources advanced to the House floor a bill introduced and championed by committee chair Bruce Westerman, that would weaken the endangered species act in the name of amending it to be more friendly to mining and drilling concerns, as written the ESA Amendments Act Up ends conservation practices that have benefited rare and common species alike, instead of fixing the real problems with species conservation, namely, funding and staffing, this bill would undermine the scientific integrity and efficacy of this bedrock statute by weakening the best available science standard to declare certain categories of information as per se, the best science, regardless of whether it is outdated or has been discredited at the same time, the bill would shirk wildlife stewardship responsibilities to state agencies that do not have the resources staff or legal frameworks to take on this duty. The legislation would drastically curtail protections for lands and habitat by first arbitrarily limiting the definition of habitat and then imposing unnecessary restrictions on what of that narrowed habitat can be designated as critical. The legislation also would make listing a more arduous and burdensome process on the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, thus delaying necessary protections for critically imperiled species. At the same time, the bill would expedite the removal of species protections, Anders Reynolds 06:50 and speaking of the Endangered Species Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fishery services have proposed sweeping changes to how the ESA operates, while technical in nature, these changes would have devastating real world impacts. Those impacts include, firstly, eliminating environmental reviews. Currently, federal projects like highways, pipelines or permits must be reviewed to ensure they won't push endangered species towards extinction. This typically just takes two to four weeks. The new rules would let agencies ignore major impacts by claiming the damage would happen anyway, creating a massive loophole for harmful projects. Secondly, removing protections for at risk species, threatened species, those likely to become endangered, currently receive automatic protections, as if they were listed as endangered, to prevent further decline. The proposal eliminates these safeguards for species like the Florida manatee, the southern sea otter, leaving them unprotected while agencies write species specific rules, a process that could take years for each species. Finally, it blocks new protections. The proposals make it harder to protect species by injecting economic considerations into scientific decisions about extinction risk, which creates barriers to protecting critical habitat species need these rollbacks come as 1 million species face extinction globally, climate change accelerates, and the services have just lost 20% of their staff to budget cuts, with 90% of endangered species threatened by habitat loss, weakening protections now would accelerate extinctions. These aren't minor adjustments. They're the most significant rollback of species protections in decades, and once extinct, these species are gone forever. The deadline for the public to comment on these proposed changes is coming up next week. We spoke with jewel tomasula at the Endangered Species coalition about where and how you can make your voice heard. Speaker 1 08:44 These Trump administration proposals for the Endangered Species Act amount to an extinction plan, and we just have a few days to make our voices heard. Have a strong showing of public comments that express the concerns and express the opposition to these proposed changes to how the Endangered Species Act would be implemented, making it harder for species to get added to the endangered species list, so that they could get protections, delay protections for species that would be listed as threatened, that species, like the monarch butterfly, that's currently up for consideration for the status as a threatened species, the manatee, is also up for consideration as a threatened species, and these rule changes would even delay that process even further, and every species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act would be touched by these rules in some way at some point. And then any species that scientists are showing that they're declining in numbers and the threat. Cats are intensifying against them. They're losing habitat or something, and there's the petitioning process to put them on the list. It's going to make it harder for them to get added. So there's real consequences on the ground for our communities, and we only have until December 22 to make that known in full force and put that forward. And so folks need to go to the Federal Register to submit comments. And there's four different places to submit comments, and the show notes will have that. And if you need talking points or need to learn a bit more about it, you can go to the Endangered Species coalition website, www.endangered.org Anders Reynolds 10:46 if you'd like to hear a thoughtful conversation about species recovery, stewardship and the responsibility that comes with living alongside wildlife, you should check out the episode of the wild idea that came out just this past Tuesday. It features former director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Martha Williams and touches on some of these very topics. Bill Hodge 11:04 Well, if you're going to shamelessly plug past episodes Anders, then so am I. Last month, the wild idea aired a two part conversation with American prairie regarding their work on one of the largest conservation projects in North America. In Episode Two, we touched on a letter from Montana's governor and federal delegation that urged review of American prairie's Bison restoration program by the Department of Interior, claiming the effort was in conflict with the state's agriculture industry, and going so far as to say it would quote, threaten the economic vitality of Montana. End Quote, well, now Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has, quote, assumed jurisdiction of the three American prairie grazing rights cases which were under review at the Bureau of Land Management, a move that was immediately praised by the governor's spokesperson. For its part, American prairie said it welcomes the review as federal law doesn't prohibit conservation grazing, and even if it did, their bison are considered livestock under state law, to quote their press release. Since the beginning, our position has been simple. We're only asking to be treated the same as any other agricultural producer with grazing privileges in Montana. We look forward to the Secretary's decision and remain eager to move this process forward quickly and fairly Anders Reynolds 12:21 elsewhere in Montana, the state is moving to eliminate numeric based water quality standards after a quiet approval from the Environmental Protection Agency that slipped through during the recent government shutdown. This follows the Montana legislature passing a slate of bills to move the state from the numeric standard to a narrative based standard, something the state has tried before, but had been rejected by the EPA. There are concerns that a narrative based standard means a state would only respond to water pollution issues instead of actively preventing the pollution from occurring in the first place. Here's Scott Bossi from American rivers. Speaker 2 12:56 Well, let's just start by saying that clean water is the most valuable natural asset that Montana has, and it's the essential ingredient that fuels our two biggest sectors of the economy, and that's agriculture and outdoor recreation, and that's why we think we should be doing everything we can to protect it, and by eliminating numeric standards for nutrient pollution, we're essentially fouling our own nest. I think the challenge we face here in Montana is that there are a lot of communities, especially rural communities, that can't afford to upgrade their wastewater treatment systems to meet water quality standards for nutrients. But the solution isn't to weaken those standards, it's invest more in our water and sewer infrastructure. Now look, I just really want to emphasize that. I mean abundant fresh water is the most valuable natural asset the state has in anything we do to undermine the quality of our fresh water, it really undermines our economy and our way of life, and it's just a move in the wrong direction. Anders Reynolds 13:57 It is unknown how this narrative standard would hold up in court if it were challenged under the Clean Water Act. Bill Hodge 14:02 Here's one we can file under duh. The Washington Post this week was able to secure a memo written by the Forest Service informing the administration just how significantly the doge cuts and coerced resignations have impacted the agency's ability to main trails across 193 million acres managed for the American public, the agency has lost over 6000 employees since January, and some districts lost 100% of their trail crews staff. This is leading to trails failing, natural resources being impacted, and access being lost, according to the memo. I think it's also worth noting that, because of changes under Doge, whole grant programs set aside for the Forest Service partner community have been cut off by the Forest Service. It is also worth noting that the number of trail miles meeting standard has dropped to 19% the lowest percentage in 15 years. Anders Reynolds 14:56 Wow. Finally, and then into. Anticipation of the big roadless Rules Series Bill and I have planned for the wild idea in the month of January, we wanted to share news that the New Hampshire congressional delegation, which consists of us, senators, Jean Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, alongside US representatives Chris Pappas and Maggie goodlander, wrote to US Secretary of Agriculture, rook Rollins, in order to express their concern about the Forest Service's plan to rescind the roadless rule, which protects opportunities for hiking back country skiing and fishing, among other outdoor activities, and over a quarter million acres within New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest, the delegation asked Secretary Rollins to provide greater opportunity for public engagement regarding their planned rescission, and noted that they were concerned about the short timeline the administration had outlined with just 21 days for the initial public comment period. Bill Hodge 15:51 And that is our report for December 19, 2025 the wild line will be taking some time off over the holidays, but will return in January. In the meantime, next Tuesday's episode of the wild idea features a child's Christmas in the Shenandoah Valley, as we speak with SCLC Virginia State Director Sara Francisco about how growing up on a Christmas tree farm shaped her conservation values. And just before the New Year, Anders and I share some resolutions with Michelle fullner, host of the Golden State naturalist podcast, I know I speak for Anders when I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and until then, act up and run wild. Announcer 16:30 The wild line is a production of wild idea media production and editing by Bren Russell at podlad Digital support by Holly Wilkes ski at day pack digital. Our theme music, Spring Hill Jack is from railroad Earth and was composed by John skihan. The executive producer is Laura Hodge. Learn more about us at the wild idea.com you. Transcribed by https://otter.ai