The fight has moved to the Senate. Call Congress now: no restructuring, no glyphosate. Call your congressperson →
Timeline
On June 4, the House Appropriations Committee advanced its FY27 Interior bill — and the fight moved to the House floor and the Senate.
Stripping the restructuring funding is still our best shot at halting the changes, and the Senate is where it can happen.
If we go quiet now, the decisions get made without us.
Call Your Reps Now via 5calls.org →Here is the full record of what's happened to our public lands since January 2025. Every entry is documented. Every number is sourced. This is what we're fighting to stop.
Trump signs "Unleashing American Energy," directing agencies to open public lands to oil, gas, coal, and mining. A separate order removes the Tongass National Forest from Roadless Rule protections. A hiring freeze across all federal agencies takes immediate effect.
OPM launches a "deferred resignation" program offering federal employees continued pay through September 2025 in exchange for leaving. Approximately 75,000 federal employees accept, including thousands of public lands agency workers.
In a single holiday weekend, approximately 3,400 probationary Forest Service employees and 1,000 National Park Service employees are terminated. Many were hired under the Inflation Reduction Act for wildfire mitigation, trail maintenance, and conservation. Several ranger district offices are forced to temporarily close.
The Merit Systems Protection Board rules the mass firings were unlawful, ordering reinstatement. USDA places fired employees back on paid administrative leave. Separately, a DOGE-associated official, Tyler Hassen, is given senior authority over Interior Department reorganization, including control over funding and personnel.
Interior consolidates HR, communications, IT, and finance into centralized offices, stripping operational capacity from NPS, BLM, and Fish and Wildlife. Reports emerge that Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and others are under review for boundary reduction or revocation.
The Trump FY26 budget proposes eliminating $1.4 billion from the Forest Service — a proposed 65% cut to total FS funding, per Sen. Heinrich. The entire $283M State, Private & Tribal Forestry account is zeroed out. NPS, FWS, and BLM face a combined 35% cut.
The House approves an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill authorizing sale of over 500,000 acres of federal lands. The provision draws immediate backlash from hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation groups.
The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel releases an opinion concluding presidents have authority to fully revoke national monuments under the Antiquities Act — naming Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands (both California) as likely targets.
USDA announces intent to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, opening 44.7 million acres of National Forest System lands — including 9.3 million acres of the Tongass — to logging and road construction. Over 500,000 public comments opposing the rollback are submitted.
The budget reconciliation bill passes 51–50 (VP Vance casting the tiebreaker) and is signed on July 4. Key provisions: mandates ~80% increase in federal timber harvests; requires 4+ ANWR oil lease sales; opens 200M+ BLM acres for oil and gas leasing. The land sale provisions are stripped after widespread opposition from outdoor and hunting groups.
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court allows the administration to proceed with Reduction in Force actions across federal agencies. Land management agencies are immediately authorized to move forward with large-scale layoffs. Justice Jackson is the sole dissenter.
Forest Service prescribed burning drops to approximately 900,000 acres in 2025 — down from over 1.6 million acres in each of 2023 and 2024. The decrease is directly attributed to staff losses. Approximately 27% of wildland firefighting positions are vacant heading into fire season.
Combined workforce across BLM, Forest Service, NPS, and Fish and Wildlife falls to approximately 63,141 — a 20% reduction from the March 2024 level of roughly 79,070. The Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, which placed conservation on equal footing with extraction on 245M BLM acres, is proposed for rescission.
BLM targets 474 additional layoffs across Oregon, Utah, California, Idaho, Arizona, and Colorado. Recreation staffing could fall by as much as 62%. Separately, BLM issues a Record of Decision formally reopening the 1.56-million-acre ANWR Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing.
The administration transfers approximately 1.4 million acres of federal public land to the State of Alaska to facilitate development of the 200-mile Ambler mining road through remote wilderness.
NPR and public radio outlets report the Forest Service has fallen significantly behind on wildfire prevention as the 2026 fire season approaches. Prescribed burn acreage is well below targets and historical levels due to ongoing staffing losses.
The House Appropriations Committee advances the FY27 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill, chaired by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID). It now heads to the full House, then the Senate — the next and best chances to strip funding for the restructuring.
With the House bill heading to the floor, the Senate is where the restructuring can still be stopped. Call both your senators this week: block the reorganization in the FY27 bill, and hold the line on merging wildland firefighting until the required feasibility study is done this fall.
Every entry on this timeline happened because Congress let it happen. The FY27 bill — now moving to the House floor and the Senate — is the next chance to stop it.