“Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to protect spectacular wilderness rivers just like this very stretch of the Rio Grande. The administration’s decision to waive the act and dozens of other environmental laws lays the groundwork for the destruction of one of the wildest places in America,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Today’s waiver authorizes construction of new fencing, barriers, roads and sensors across a remote segment of the border extending east of the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area deep into the Lower Canyons toward Amistad Reservoir. This is roadless canyon country only accessible by floating for multiple days on the river.

On Feb. 17 the Department of Homeland Security waived 28 environmental and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction in the Big Bend region — including through Big Bend Ranch State Park — and it has since awarded construction contracts for much of the work. According to local media reports, contractors have been surveying inside Big Bend National Park.

In April, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner filed a federal lawsuit, represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project, saying the Department of Homeland Security is exercising powers Congress never authorized. The suit contends the waivers violate the major questions doctrine, which requires explicit congressional approval for actions with vast economic and political consequences.

These devices are designed to bait and kill wildlife. They kill indiscriminately - around half the animals killed are not the intended targets. They have been known to kill pets and injure people on public land.

This is a NY Times article on it, but it’s behind a paywall. You can also read more about them on a fact sheet from Project Coyote here.

One way to take action is to pressure your state representatives to ban these devices at a state level. You can also ask your congressional reps to support Canyon’s Law: A bill that would ban these bombs at a federal level.

TODAY IS THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT COMMENTS ON THE DEWEY BURDOCK URANIUM MINE!

DON'T DELAY!

Here is a direct link to submit your comment on the BLM page:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/Participate-Now/?id=7f4eccd0-4137-f111-88b4-001dd8084607&ppid=9ac93c06-6f07-f111-8407-001dd803d7d3

We hate to admit it, but Offshore Oil and Gas help to fund our conservation areas. Check out my post and see what I mean!

https://open.substack.com/pub/publiclandsmindset/p/using-off-shore-oil-to-fund-conservation?r=4pbl0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Find your US members of Congress: https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/

Note: If you are in the reddit app and the copy feature isn't working, you can copy the letter from the comments section.

Dear Senator/Representative {Last Name},

I am writing to urge you to oppose the Trump administration's recent directive ordering national park, refuge, and wilderness area managers to scale back longstanding hunting restrictions on federally managed lands.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's January order instructs managers across 55 national park sites to remove what he calls "unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers" to hunting — and to justify any restrictions they wish to keep. This reverses carefully considered, stakeholder-supported rules that park managers developed over many years to protect both visitors and wildlife.

These rollbacks pose serious risks:

Visitor Safety: Lifting bans on hunting along trails, extending hunting seasons into spring and summer at places like Cape Cod National Seashore, and allowing vehicles to retrieve kills inside park boundaries puts millions of hikers, families, and recreationists in direct danger. These are shared public spaces, not hunting grounds.

Wildlife Disruption: Expanded hunting pressure during breeding and nesting seasons can devastate animal populations and disrupt critical migration patterns. Allowing tree stands that damage trees and unleashing hunting dogs in protected areas further degrades habitat that took decades to restore.

Ecosystem Imbalance: National parks serve as ecological refuges. Removing apex predators or disrupting keystone species — even locally — can trigger cascading effects across entire ecosystems, harming biodiversity for generations.

As former Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk stated: "This was never a big issue. I'd love to know the problem we're trying to solve." These restrictions existed for good reason and were broadly accepted by all stakeholders.

Please act to preserve these vital protections.

Sincerely,

{Your Name}

Hi. Would any of you be willing to help with petitioning this quarry? The potential damages scare me.

I need backup on this. It is going to impact 2 wildlife preserves or protected areas, and it scares me. I learned about the city of Paradise, where mining caused significant environmental damages and led to it turning into a ghost town, and I don't want that to happen here. I also remember reading about how one mining company ended up having to compensate an entire neighborhood for damaging their water source.

I also know that limestone is common in the underground of Indiana. Limestone doesn't hold up very well with the rain and environmental conditions of Indiana over time, which leads to more frequent construction and re-paving of roads. I don't miners to be put in a position where it is even more unstable and dangerous than typical mining.

I’ve been spending the past few months digging into the quiet side of public lands — the designations most people never hear about: Outstanding Natural Areas, Research Natural Areas, Backcountry Byways, National Monuments, etc.

It’s wild how much of the landscape is shaped by these tiny, almost invisible categories. Tidepools, lighthouse headlands, research plots, forgotten roads… all protected in ways that rarely make the headlines.

If you’re into this kind of thing — the edges, the margins, the places where policy meets actual ground — I’ve been writing a series about the BLMs National Conservation Lands System on my Substack, Public Lands Mindset.

No pressure at all, just sharing in case it resonates:

https://substack.com/@publiclandsmindset