The RE:PUBLIC Year Ahead

For our first annual RE:PUBLIC Predictions* series, we invited a select group of policymakers, conservation advocates, elected officials, researchers, and journalists to give us their predictions on what we’ll see in the public lands arena during the coming year. Here's what they told us (click on the headlines below to read each essay) about shifting visions, increased accountability, the importance of the midterm elections, the dangers of outrage fatigue, and more.

*All credit to Nieman Lab’s annual “Predictions” for the inspiration.

1. Americans Finally Demand a New Vision for Their Common Trust

"We are living through a kind of megafire—fast-moving, destabilizing and capable of reshaping the entire public lands landscape."

Tracy Stone-Manning
President of the Wilderness Society

2. Public Lands Become Synonymous with Public Health

"Conversations about public lands will more regularly include health outcomes alongside economic and environmental benefits."

Karina Armijo
Director of the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division and Co-Chair of Confluence of States

3. A New Era of Public Lands Management Begins to Take Hold

"The widely reported negatives have served to blind many Americans to the glories and wonders and real values of the lands themselves."

Hal Herring
Writer and Podcast Host

4. Public Lands Policy Will Become Climate Policy—and the Midterms Will Decide Both

"In the year ahead, the public-lands community will shift from defending individual landscapes to confronting the larger forces reshaping them."

Erin Sprague
CEO of Protect Our Winters

5. Expect Fewer New Oil Projects, Refocused Tribal Co-Stewardship, and a Backlash to the Idea that "Nature is Nonpartisan"

"The most meaningful partnerships will be the ones that measurably reduce risk to people, watersheds, and cultural sites."

Len Necefer
Founder, NativeOutdoors

6. Public Lands Become a Legitimate Wedge Issue in the Republican Party

"More moderate members [of Congress] are increasingly coming to understand the depth of bipartisan affection for public lands among their constituents."

Louis Geltman
Vice President for Policy & Government Relations, Outdoor Alliance

7. Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Will Once Again Rule the Day.

"Restoring multiple use across the 245 million acres of federal lands managed by the BLM in the West and Alaska will brighten the New Year for westerners."

William Perry Pendley
Former Acting Director, Bureau of Land Management

8. Outrage Fatigue Is the Year's Biggest Threat to Public Lands

"The danger isn’t that Americans have stopped caring about public lands. The danger is that they’re being asked to care about everything at once."

Rachelle Schrute
Hunt and Fish Editor, Gear Junkie

9. The Era of More Durable Coalitions Begins

"How can we responsibly share governance of these special places in the long run when short-term division threatens to fundamentally shift the way we interact with America’s public lands?"

Ingrid Lyons
Executive Director, Save the Boundary Waters

10. Community-Based Advocacy Becomes the Linchpin for Fending Off Attacks Against Nature

"We’ve seen that when local community members step into advocacy leadership roles it inspires others to speak up and take action to protect the landscapes they love and need."

Chris Hill
CEO, Conservation Lands Foundation

11. The Midterm Elections Show Whether the Trump Plan for Public Lands Is Succeeding

"Defenders of public lands will likely try to make protecting them an issue in many races in this election cycle. If their efforts fail to gain much political traction, it is likely a signal that the Trump assault is succeeding."

John Leshy
Professor Emeritus, University of California Law San Francisco

12. The Rush for Energy Development Near National Parks Catalyzes Public Outcry

"In 2025, nearly half a million NPCA supporters took action to protect national parks, and that groundswell of engagement is growing."

Priya Nanjappa
Vice-President of Conservation Programs, National Park Conservation Association

13. Cuts at the U.S. Forest Service Put Communities’ Health and Safety on the Line

"Reduced fuels treatment and understaffed fire crews increase the likelihood of larger, more destructive fires that endanger lives, degrade air quality, strain local economies, and drive up costs for homeowners, insurers, and taxpayers alike."

Martin Heinrich
United States Senator (D-NM)

14. Outdoor Access on Public Lands Begins to Be Treated as Essential Public Health Infrastructure

"We’ll see more partnerships between health agencies and land managers; more employers encouraging time outside as part of workforce wellness; and more state and federal leaders embracing outdoor investments as a bipartisan solution with immediate benefits."

Jessica Wahl Turner
President, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable

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

"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."

Jacob Malcom
Executive Director, Next Interior

16. Public Lands Are Finally Valued as Places of Connection, Community, and Shared Responsibility Infrastructure

"This moment can bring increased focus on transparency, representation, and honoring the leadership and knowledge of Indigenous peoples who have cared for these lands since time immemorial."

Jazzari Taylor
Policy Advocate, Latino Outdoors

17. Bipartisan Backlash Forces Trump Administration to Abandon Offshore Drilling Plan

"In California alone, ocean-based tourism and recreation generate over $18 billion annually, part of the state's blue-ocean economy that contributes more than $40 billion annually—consistently outperforming the state's oil and gas sector by orders of magnitude."

Chad Nelsen
CEO, Surfrider Foundation

18. America Grows Its Nation of Stewards

"As we enter the second half of the 2020s, more Americans will recognize that caring for public lands doesn’t begin and end with federal agencies. We all have a role to play in stewarding America’s public lands."

I Ling Thompson
CEO, Foundation for America’s Public Lands

19 Concern for Public Lands No Longer Stops at the Shoreline

"Our lands and waters sit at the heart of our public-trust responsibility, and both are tied together in ways that matter for the communities and businesses that depend on them."

Jeff Barger
Associate Director of Constituent Outreach, Ocean Conservancy