CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With the elections over and deer hunters returning to West Virginia's woods, conservationists are looking forward to better prospects for public lands, thanks to changes in Congress.

The current U.S. Interior Department has moved to shrink some public lands out West, and Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said that casts a shadow over efforts to expand national parklands here in West Virginia. But, she said, when Democrats take control of vital committees in the U.S. House, she expects they will investigate and slow what she called the department’s attack on the public lands system.

"Selloff or transfers of public lands may not be as strong of a threat anymore,” Rosser said. “Hopefully not, because certainly our federal public lands here in West Virginia are part of our identity, part of why people come to visit the state."

The Rivers Coalition and other groups have pointed to new national parks as a good way to expand and diversify West Virginia's already strong outdoor-recreation economy. But the effort has run into resistance from people who oppose government land ownership on principle.

On the Senate side, Rosser said Joe Manchin's re-election is likely to give a boost to the Land and Water Conservation Fund - sometimes called the nation's most important public-lands program. The LWCF has provided $240 million for conservation of West Virginia's woods and urban parks, but the program could expire unless Congress acts.

Rosser said both Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito have voted for the conservation fund and taken other steps to support public lands.

"Funding and permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund that has benefited West Virginia,” she said; “and, more recently, Sen. Capito has introduced a bill to re-designate the New River Gorge as a national park."

One down side, Rosser said, is that she does not expect to see improvement in policies regulating pollution - especially from the energy industries - coming from the new Congress.


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For decades to come, South Dakotans can make use of an expanded wilderness in the southeastern part of the state, as a new land deal will keep hundreds of acres off limits to developers at a time when resource protections are challenged.

The forest land in question sits next to Newton Hills State Park, south of Sioux Falls. The Conservation Fund helped facilitate a deal involving state and federal agencies, where the organization first purchased and secured more than 200 acres of a former Boy Scout campground site. Through the collaboration, those acres were eventually put under the state's control.

Clint Miller, vice president of the central Midwest region for The Conservation Fund, said it means the section of wilderness is no longer at risk of turning into something which does not align with enjoying nature.

"What this prevented is conversion to some other use," Miller explained. "The most likely use that this property may have been converted to would be rural residential homes, multimillion-dollar rural residential homes."

Instead, Newton Hills will take on another 36 acres for things like hiking, and another 176 is set aside for wildlife protection and hunting. For federal public lands, there is new concern about spending cuts under the Trump administration affecting national parks. There is also political pressure to sell off public lands for fossil fuel-related production, with Republicans arguing America needs to reassert its energy independence.

Miller noted a donation and a federal grant from last year helped push the deal across the finish line, key steps since the state lacked funds to cover all the costs. Beyond recreation, he added there is an ecological benefit, describing the unique piece of land as a "forested island" along the Big Sioux River.

"When you look at it from above, you can see this ribbon of green, usually inside of a big land of cropland of corn and beans," Miller observed. "The migratory pathways for the birds, for other animals to move along there is absolutely essential."

Polling has indicated most Americans, no matter their political beliefs, prefer to conserve public lands, not develop them. In a new poll from Colorado College, which reached out to voters in eight Western states, 72% of those surveyed preferred conservation.

Two new national monuments in California are in jeopardy after the White House announced a plan to revoke them and then appeared to retreat.

On Saturday, the White House told the Washington Post President Donald Trump planned to rescind President Joe Biden's order creating the Chuckwalla National Monument near Palm Springs and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in Northern California. Then language about the moves disappeared from a White House fact sheet with no explanation.

Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, which advocated for the creation of the two new monuments, said the move was not unexpected.

"This administration has been pretty clear that they want to utilize federal public lands as a giveaway to corporate polluters and private developers," Goldbeck noted. "We are anticipating, whether it's these two monuments or others, that there will be some attempts to reverse federally protected public lands."

Trump claimed the monuments "lock up vast amounts of land from economic development and energy production." But Goldbeck pointed out Chuckwalla has not been targeted for oil and gas drilling or mining but rather is most valuable for outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat. The White House has yet to take concrete steps to rescind the monument designations.

Brandy McDaniels, national monument lead for the Pit River Nation, said the tribe has been fighting off geothermal development and other industrial uses for decades.

"This is not a Biden vs. Trump situation. It is a tribally led initiative that's been going on for a very long time," McDaniels explained. "This is a sacred landscape for our people. It is the actual place of the creation narrative of our people."

Sáttítla, also known as the Medicine Lake Highlands, is also home to the headwaters providing much of California's drinking water.


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The Sierra Club is taking the Trump administration to court, joining a slew of legal challenges over the mass firings of federal workers.

Sierra Club Managing Attorney Gloria Smith said the purge conducted by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency will have immediate impacts on Colorado's public lands and parks.

Trails won't be maintained and campgrounds will not be cleaned up.

"You know, after a long winter and the snow and storms, there's a lot of work that goes into making a park presentable and safe for the high season," said Smith, "when millions and millions of people visit."

Federal judges in California and Maryland have ruled that the firings were illegal, and ordered the Trump administration to immediately rehire up to tens of thousands of probationary workers across multiple agencies.

The Maryland court ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by Colorado's Phil Weiser and 20 other state attorneys general.

The Trump administration has called the rulings an unconstitutional effort to seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch, and promised to appeal.

Smith said she supports the recent court decisions, but notes it remains to be seen whether or not the Trump administration will follow court orders.

She said park visitor safety, wildlife protection, and wildfire prevention are all still at risk. And she said workers dedicated to protecting lands owned by all Americans deserve better.

"Obviously this is of the highest importance," said Smith. "People have lost their jobs. This is going to affect communities, people's families. They can't pay their rent or their mortgages."

Sierra Club members are especially concerned about firings at the National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Forest Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - which includes the National Weather Service.

Smith said real-time weather service data is vital.

"For example, on a rafting trip, if there's a huge storm then there are flash flood risks," said Smith. "So the National Weather Service is absolutely critical."