Government

A new study from Headwaters Economics shows that housing on public lands would have only a minimal impact on the West’s housing crisis, with most potential development being focused in a small number of states. Economist Megan Lawson also says that wildfire danger would be a huge risk to these potential homes.

In a 4–3 vote, the Basalt Town Council will charge STR license-holders $2,532 per bedroom starting in 2026. The move aims to ease housing impacts and raise $100,000 annually for affordable housing, but it’s drawing legal threats from some property owners.

Democrats said the bill was anti-public lands and anti-environment, even before Utah and Nevada representatives introduced an amendment to sell public lands in their states.

Prescribed burns can be a valuable tool when preventing damage from increasingly destructive and wildfires driven by climate change. These projects, however, require significant staffing and logistical planning, making their future uncertain as the federal government looks to slash federal agencies.

The Trump Administration is directing federal agencies like the Department of the Interior to ramp up mining operations on federal public lands. The order singles out copper, uranium, potash, and gold.

Freshman Representative Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) is sponsoring a bill that would require Bureau of Land Management field offices across the west to adopt plans that would open up more lands to oil and gas drilling.

About a hundred people came out to U.S. Forest Service offices in Glenwood Springs on Thursday, just hours after a judge ordered that federal probationary workers be reinstated. They held signs, waved at honking cars, and worried about the impacts to public lands in the community.

Allison Stegner, a former USGS researcher, discusses her experience in the civil service, and the important role fired federal workers play for land management agencies, and what the administration is losing with massive job cuts.

Lawmakers and advocates in the West are sounding the alarm on the impacts of federal jobs cuts in land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. They say services like firefighting, recreation management, and access to permits for extraction will be affected.

Sen. Bennet (D-Colo.) is pledging to fight for public land protections and funding for agriculture, and is looking for more support from the federal government in Colorado River negotiations.