America’s Public Lands Need a Newsroom

The fate of America’s public lands is being decided—right now. And many Americans have no idea it’s happening.

Millions of acres once held in trust for the American people are being reclassified, stripped of protections, or quietly transferred to private hands. The agencies tasked with protecting them have seen their abilities to do so enormously reduced. The regulations that once safeguarded these lands—our rivers, forests, deserts, and mountains—are being rewritten or ignored.

This is happening in hearings that few, if any, media outlets cover. In memos few reporters have time to read. In bureaucratic language designed to conceal more than it reveals.

We created RE:PUBLIC to change that.

Our Mission

RE:PUBLIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom devoted entirely to covering America’s 660 million acres of public lands and waters. Through investigative reporting, narrative journalism, and hard-won facts, we tell the stories that matter—stories about who controls the land, how policies are changing, and what’s at stake for generations to come.

We stand for accountability, transparency, and truth.

We believe the public has a right to know what’s happening to public land.

Why Now

We’re living in a moment of unprecedented change. In just the past year:

• The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed funding for Interior agencies.
• Congress floated plans to sell off public lands to address the housing crisis.
• Critical environmental regulations were rolled back to speed up oil, gas, and mineral extraction.
• Vital staffing positions in the National Park Service and Forest Service went unfilled.

Meanwhile, the commercial media landscape continues to shrink. Investigative journalism is costly. Most national outlets only cover public lands through the lens of climate—an approach that we endorse, but that also limits the scope of important coverage. And local outlets simply don’t have the resources to follow every legislative twist, backroom deal, or leasing auction.

RE:PUBLIC fills that vacuum. We cover public lands full-time. It’s all we do.

What We Cover

We report on everything from national parks to grazing policy, tribal comanagement to mining leases, wildfires to recreation access. And we do it with a deep bench of veteran journalists, photographers, and editors who’ve covered these issues for decades.

We publish:

• Longform investigations
• Photo-rich special reports
• Weekly newsletters and podcasts
• Interactive data projects
• And the voices of people who live on and depend on public land

We also copublish stories with media partners to make sure our biggest news reaches the widest possible audience.

We Are Not AI. We Are People.

RE:PUBLIC is not anti-AI. In fact, we see great promise in the way AI can revolutionize journalism, today and in the future.

But RE:PUBLIC relies on human journalists. On fieldwork. On facts. On lived experience.

We don’t rewrite press releases. We report, verify, challenge, and reveal.

We believe there is no substitute for a journalist standing on the land with a notebook in their hand and dirt under their boots.

Join Us

This is only the beginning. We’re building something lasting. But we can’t do it alone.

• Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.
• Donate to support our reporters in the field.
• Spread the word. Share our stories.
• Pitch us tips. Help us hold powerful people accountable.

You don’t have to be an angler, or a hiker, or a rancher, or a biologist to care about public land. You just have to believe in the idea that some places should stay free and accessible for the long run. We do. And we’re just getting started.