Announcer 0:00
The following is a production of wild idea media.
Bill 0:05
Welcome to the wildlife where land stories are the lead stories. This is our Report for January 23 2026 live from the union in Helena, Montana.
Anders Reynolds 0:17
Bill on Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved representative Pete staubers Bill to undo a 20 year mineral withdrawal that would have protected the critical headwaters of America's most visited wilderness, the Boundary Waters, Canoe Area, wilderness, not a single Republican member of the public lands caucus voted against the measure, a shameful outcome, as we noted on last week's wildline The Congressional Review Act rules that expedited this vote have never been used in this manner before, and in this case, were made possible by the Trump administration using a dubious reissuing of a previous decision in order to reset the clock that allows for this kind of action. Now the bill moves to the Senate, where the parliamentarian has yet to rule if the bill needs a simple majority to pass, or if it will require 60 votes. This will be a big test of where Republicans want to go with future CRA votes, because it will be the first to be considered where both Senators representing the state impacted oppose the measure. If you'd like to contact your senators and tell them to protect the Boundary Waters bill. And I hope you'll visit save the boundary waters.org and use their online messaging tool. Or if you'd like to call your Senator, the number for the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-1321, that's 202-224-1321 2241321, call that number and ask to speak to a senator from your state. Tell them you oppose this measure bill, and I will leave a simple script in our show notes, if that's helpful.
Bill 1:54
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, the House Committee on natural resources held a hearing on Wednesday, celebrating one year of the expanding public lands outdoor recreation experiences Act, otherwise known as the Explore act, and right out of the gate, Chairman Bruce Westerman touted one of the most contentious components of the act, and seemed to try and direct specific actions not laid out in the legislation around fixed anchors and designated Wilderness, As some of our audience already know, at the heart of the matter is a simple definition our fixed anchors permanently place points to fix climbing ropes on climbing walls and installation. To many in the climbing community, defining anchors as an installation is a problem because that definition kicks in a specific process defined by agency policy, to actually do an analysis of the efficacy and the impact of placing those anchors, what is known as the minimum requirements analysis framework. This framework is an interpretation straight from the Wilderness Act itself. The process does not exclude placing anchors. It merely takes time to complete the analysis for the audience. By definition, a trail is an installation, and we have trails in almost every designated Wilderness. Bridges are an installation, and we have a number of those in wilderness as well, and those all went through the analysis process. So that's the crux of the matter. Should fixed anchors on a proposed climbing route in wilderness be subject to the same analysis as trails or other related infrastructure, regardless of where you may come down, the chairman seems to love highlighting wedge issues like this, issues meant to divide the Recreation and Conservation communities. It appears the agencies under their department leadership seem to be stepping back and not wanting to address the issue, which, like all things left untreated tend to fester. The Department of Interior added a memo to the record for this hearing that implies they no longer consider fixed anchors as an installation, even though it was their policy review that started this whole thing rolling
Anders Reynolds 4:00
on the December 19 edition of The Wild line, Bill and I reported on the Department of Interior's effort to take quote jurisdiction over the federal grazing leases owned by American prairie, a landscape scale conservation effort that, among other things, has been reintroducing bison as a functional part of the Great Northern grasslands ecosystem of north Central Montana. The Bureau of Land Management had awarded those grazing leases to American prairie through the usual processes, but in December, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that he would decide the fate of those leases. This on the heels of a letter from the governor and congressional delegation from the state claiming that the leases negatively impact the agriculture economy in Montana. Well, now, Secretary Burgum has taken action, announcing on January 16, the department was pulling the grazing permits on 63,000 acres, appearing to claim that the Taylor Grazing Act, the legal basis for issuing federal grazing permits only applies to quote domestic. Stick livestock. It's important to note here that under state law in Montana, the American prairie herd is defined as exactly that livestock. Here is American prairie CEO Allison Fox on what this action means for their work on the landscape and what the possible next steps might be for the organization.
Speaker 1 5:18
We will defend our grazing privileges, and we will challenge the decision. We are also seeking a definition of production. So, you know, it's early days. We're working with our legal team and getting a lot of input and insight on on the path forward. But that's, that's the immediate response. And you know, we, we have a lot of deeded lands, and we could we those are available to our bison, so we have contingency plans for the bison that ensure both the safety of the animals and the safety of our team.
Anders Reynolds 5:58
And here is Allison on how this decision reaches beyond the impact to American prairie. Yeah.
Speaker 1 6:02
So the way that the proposed decision reads, they are proposing pulling our permits that are for bison or cattle grazing and reissuing them as cattle permits. I think what a lot of landowners are paying attention to, and we've heard from many of them, is that the this is the first time to our knowledge that the Department of material, BLM, has put in place any sort of production standard. And so, just to be clear, American Prairie has been grazing land on these lands for for decades, we started our bison program in 2005 we got permission to to graze bison on those public or at least one allotment in 2005 the BLM has made that decision again and again, that our bison as livestock could be on those allotments. As most recently as their 2022 decision that they were they were, that they were defending. So we followed all the rules and regulations. We've built our program. We've built our this part of our business, relying on, on, on these, these rules and regulations and and this is a departure from that
Bill 7:20
speaking of the Bureau of Land Management this week, that agency approved the Northern Corridor highway, reversing a 2024 decision that rejected a proposal made by Utah's Department of Transportation and Washington County government to build a four lane highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St George Utah, public safety, community opposition, legal compliance and threats to wildlife were enough to stop this project the first seven times it was considered for construction, but appears our current political environment was just the thing this project needed to succeed on its eighth attempt,
Anders Reynolds 7:57
leaving the Interior Department this week was Michael Boran, the Idaho multi millionaire who had been serving as acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Management and Budget at DOI until he was sworn in on Tuesday as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment, overseeing the Forest Service. Boran waited 10 months to be confirmed to this post by the Senate, and then faced other delays while he was temporarily assigned to interior. That sort of cross contamination is in line with the Trump administration's desire to merge much of the forest policy and wildfire work that is currently split between the Departments of Agriculture and interior into one agency.
Bill 8:34
That is our Report for January 23 2026 we'll be back next Friday with another wild line. In the meantime, next week, Anders and I wrap our month long exploration of the roadless rule in the Tongass National Forest with a conversation with Andrew tomes of the Sitka Conservation Society, until then, act up and run wild.
Announcer 8:54
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