Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is making changes to a popular conservation program in ways that have some environmental groups crying foul.
In a secretarial order, Burgum is limiting how much money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund can be used.
The order prioritizes acquisitions for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the National Park Service, which will have the result of discouraging land acquisition for the Bureau of Land Management. It also calls for the selling of federal lands to states, requires a state’s governor and local leaders to agree to any federal LWCF acquisitions, and would limit the ability of non-profits to participate.
The Interior Department said Order 3442 “is designed to provide clarity and consistency in how the Land and Water Conservation Fund is implemented, while aligning with the Trump administration’s priorities of cutting red tape, promoting outdoor recreation and ensuring responsible stewardship of public lands.”
But some conservation groups argue it is doing the opposite, putting up barriers to access the program.
“It is rather stunning to see Secretary Burgum come in and, for no reason at all… really try to kneecap this conservation program,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities. He said the LWCF has been a successful bipartisan conservation program under past administrations.
The LWCF is fueled by royalties paid by energy companies drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf. Making that funding permanent was a final legislative win for Colorado’s former Republican Senator Cory Gardner before he lost his reelection bid in 2020.
Weiss expressed a number of concerns about the new policies, from an attack on the right of private owners to sell their land to the government to going after non-profit organizations.
Amy Lindholm, national coordinator of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition, said the order is severely restrictive. She said it will “cause projects to just not get done.”
“That’s going to have a really negative impact on Colorado’s public lands because there are parcels up for sale within the boundaries of our lands all the time,” she explained. “If Land and Water Conservation fund dollars are not available, or if all of these top-down restrictions are put on what types of projects can get done, then fewer and fewer of them will get done and places will be lost to the highest bidder instead.”
One example of a project that could not happen under the new order is the South San Juan project. The BLM used LWCF money to acquire land in southwest Colorado to support outdoor recreation, public access and the protection of natural resources.
Lindholm said many of these projects “bubble up from the bottom, so imposing this kind of Washington-driven solution on what projects can get done and where is antithetical to what they claim to be about.”
One of the biggest concerns her group has is that the order restricts a landowner’s rights to sell their land to whoever they choose, by requiring local approval for those sales.
“No other landowner in America has to get the sign off of their governor or their local county commissioner to sell their land to whoever they want to sell it to,” she said.
At the same time, conservation groups are concerned about the provisions restricting land sales to the federal government; others are flagging the likelihood public lands could be transferred in the opposite direction.
That’s the biggest concern for Devin O’Dea, western policy manager for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. He fears the new order could be a back door to selling off public lands.
“We've long emphasized the risks of transferring federal lands to states because those lands very often then get privatized or sold because there are not the same type of overarching protections for state lands that we have on [federal] lands,” he explained. The fears also come on the heels of Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s attempt to include large public land sales in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful bill.
However, not all conservation groups share these concerns over the order.
Isaiah Menning, external director at the American Conservation Coalition Action, said the LWCF was a conservation success of the first Trump Administration. The president signed legislation first permanently authorizing the LWCF and then permanently and fully funding it, through Gardner’s Great American Outdoors Act.
“We support the intent of the order,” Menning said, adding that it’s re-centering the mission of public lands “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
“There are times when states are better positioned to manage federal lands and can do it in a better way,” Menning said, pointing to a deal in his home state of Utah that saw federal lands sold to the state for a park. “Some of the concerns that you’re seeing from groups aren’t extremely warranted.”
While they disagree on the order’s impact, conservation groups generally said the order was not a surprise. It is similar to one issued by former Sec. David Bernhardt during Trump’s first term. In fact, many were relieved it didn’t go further, like diverting money from the LWCF to National Park maintenance.
Still, groups said they’re engaging with the Administration and the Interior Department in the hopes that some changes will be made.
“We certainly want to work with the administration and the Department of Interior as much as possible,” said O’Dea, “to make sure that we're not gonna be putting roadblocks and restrictions on really good bipartisan, stakeholder-driven projects that are broadly supported.”
Lindholm noted many people are also voicing concerns with the department. “I hope that dialogue will continue, and, honestly, I hope the President will kind of step in here and want to protect his own conservation legacy.”
The order does not apply to the U.S. Forest Service, which is overseen by the Department of Agriculture.
