It wasn’t all data, statistics, and facts in the news, but it’s (a) a really important part of what happened, and (b) we have some Interior data and stats at the end. Check it out.

What happened

This week we’ll just highlight two main stories and have short blurbs on several other items:

1. Assault on the integrity of federal data, statistics, and facts. While the immediate impact is to BLS and its now-former Commissioner, the impact will be much more expansive and will impact Interior. What happened and why does it matter? Here’s the intro from Tuesday’s Memo on the subject: 

“On Friday, 01 August, after a bad jobs report, President Donald Trump made unfounded accusations of impropriety against the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Dr. Erika McEntarfer, and directed that she be fired. This is an inexcusable action, not just because of the impact to Commissioner McEntarfer, BLS, and its work, but because it is a direct assault on the integrity of data, statistics, and facts from across the federal government. The loss of integrity will harm people, institutions—including the Department of the Interior—and the Nation as a whole. Congress, the business sector, civil society organizations, and people everywhere must speak up for integrity, and against this action, to make clear that the President's intransigence is unacceptable.”

2. The harms of Trump administration cuts are being felt. Things are at the limit with the National Park Service as they struggle to meet demand after extensive cuts and staff losses. It is not surprising given the cuts that have been documented. This is bad for visitors, bad for the resources, will only get worse, and may open the door to discussions of privatization, which are as old as the parks themselves. And no, bringing Confederate statues back won’t help (next time it should be melted down so they don’t try again…). 

And remember, this reporting is just for the best-known, most public-facing part of Interior: parks. Who knows what damage is being done in Indian Country as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education cut take effect. On our already-strapped national wildlife refuges and across public lands. We see snippets from frozen funds for water in the West, and it’s not good. There’s an opportunity for a deep dive on Interior’s cuts, maybe like the report from the minority staff for Senate Investigations on the massive ($21.7 billion) waste from DOGE.

Additional news items:

• Energy
  • The favors for oil and gas and coal and attacks on wind and solar keep coming even as former staff speak up.
    • That includes complete policy incoherence, like with migratory birds.
  • See also how “dominance” is coming to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as they meet with “senior industry leaders” and others.
• Lands
  • I like to imagine a future Department of the Interior that takes science and Indigenous Knowledges about fire and really puts them to good use, like described in this really cool paper.
  • The mapping app onX and Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership put together a tool to visualize where Bureau of Land Management lands might be sold off.
  • The ever-excellent Alexandra Petri takes on Trump’s dreams of our parks.
• Wildlife
  • The Senate confirmed Brian Nesvik, former director of Wyoming Game and Fish, as the next Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
  • Good news from FWS! A threatened wildflower, Virginia sneezeweed, is proposed for delisting. I haven’t looked at its status in many years but understood that it has been doing well, so assume this is a legit recovery.

• Miscellaneous
  • Next Interior submitted comments on the Department’s proposed changes to NEPA guidance, building off of the themes in last week’s Next Interior Memo from Ryan Fleetwood.
  • If you know someone in need of whistleblower protections at Interior, make sure to remind them that PEER is available and excellent at handling these issues.
• “Bonus” reads: not directly about Interior but ultimately relevant:
  • The cross-cutting issue of rule of law—or lack thereof.
  • Weekly AI warning: “AI thinks you should go to jail, even if you didn't do the crime: Evidence from using ChatGPT as a prosecutor”
  • AI continued: a very similar line of arguments as what we made in Next Interior Memos—harms to people, knowledge, and the planet—but in favor of strict regulation.
  • The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is closing down because of Trump’s and Congress’s cuts.

What is coming up?

Not much. Congress is out of session, and it’s good to see that people are engaging out in the districts where members are holding town halls (no matter how absurd the member’s answers may be). Get out and get engaged if you can! Can't get out? Make a call and speak up for parks, wildlife, water, energy, our obligations to Tribes...anything that moves you!

We’re going to be out in the field next week and the weekly digest may be skipped, depending on connectivity…and how much fun is happening. But if something breaks we’ll try to keep you covered!

Did you know?

Last week, we noted that Next Interior “will be releasing data and a tool to make it easy to quantify and describe the Department of the Interior’s contributions to states and congressional districts across the country.” We made a lot of progress cleaning the data, checking results, and more, but they’re not quite ready for release yet. That said, we’ve got the start of some good estimates and insights, and will share more soon:

• Every state and territory has at least one Interior unit within its boundaries, and that’s before we get to adding dams, BIA/BIE offices, and other parts of the Department’s mission.
• Do you like parks? California does…they’re home to the most national park units, nearly 40, providing people access to about 7 million acres of lands and waters.
• And California has nearly 500 units from the Bureau of Land Management, like field offices, wilderness areas, and more!
• North Dakota has nearly 100 Fish and Wildlife Service units, like wildlife refuges, but Alaska is home to the most FWS area—on the order of 80 million acres.
• Here close to my home in Maryland, we’ve got dozens of sites, thousands of acres, miles of trails, and great sunrises: