The Light at the End of the Tunnel Gets Steadily Brighter for Public Lands

That’s not to say that we’re not in a dark tunnel. But in 2026, we’re going to be able to slow and then start the reversal of the current anti-public lands speedrun. The administration believes it’s invincible, and they currently have an obedient Congress and Supreme Court—so why not continue? Because they’re not invincible.

One of the great lessons of 2025 was that people love our public lands and will mobilize across the political spectrum to protect them. That tent is only going to get broader, and the tent supports stronger, in 2026. 

Will the administration and foes in Congress continue to abuse the illegitimate “energy emergency” to run roughshod over public lands and related laws and regulations in 2026? Yep. Specific actions like approving the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule rescission or the Endangered Species Act regulatory revisions? Yeah, they’ll do those, despite overwhelming public opposition. 

Sounds dark, but here’s the light: first, by working together, we’re going to stop a lot of this damage.

Will they open new fronts, like attacking the National Wildlife Refuge System, maybe trashing Tribal co-management and co-stewardship agreements, or chopping away at Department of Defense natural resource capacity? They’ve already started the attacks on refuges. We shouldn’t be surprised to see Tribal agreements ignored or abrogated. And wanton disregard for the Sikes Act and the Sentinel Landscape Programs, which govern conservation on and around military lands, will be the order of the day. 

What of their work to return forest management to the turn of the century—the 20th century, not the 21st century—thinking? Indeed, they live for a purely extractive view of our resources, a suppression-first (at all costs?) view of wildland fire management. They want to take us back not to the 1980s and 1990s, but back to the 1800s and early 1900s.

Sounds dark, but here’s the light: first, by working together, we’re going to stop a lot of this damage. But second, people will ensure that 2026 is a good year for the start of a (very long) accountability project for all these—and many other—violations. Accountability that will make us stronger as a nation. 

This will be a year for political accountability with federal elections: the House, a third of the Senate, and many downballot races. The attacks on public lands are going to shape those outcomes. There will be an ever-growing call for strong accountability. Some will demand legal accountability—which is absolutely needed—but I predict we will think much more broadly about how to hold people accountable. The costs to people’s reputations could be so high that they are not able to show their face in public without being held socially accountable for trying to take our public lands. Did you help corrupt the system for the benefit of the few? We’re going to insist there are financial costs you will pay. 

How do you want to see people held accountable for those violations of public trust, public lands, and our shared natural heritage? Let’s bring those ideas to light in 2026.