Writing in Defense of Our Public Lands in the Age of Trump—Again
In each new administration, I collect my op-eds and essays in defense of our public lands on these pages. I’ll keep updating as we progress (probably the wrong word choice!) through the cruelty and truth-trashing of the current administration.
First up, I couldn’t help but remember Bernard DeVoto’s classic essay, “The West Against Itself,” as I listened to Utah’s politicians rant about government overreach, praise Elon Musk’s sabotage of federal land management agencies, and refuse to acknowledge the importance of federal money and jobs in the rural West. I wrote about this for Writers on the Range.
When six southwestern tribes joined forces to create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Inter-tribal Coalition in March 2025, I saw this as a transformation worth celebrating in this dark time. I wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about this marker of a cultural shift in America, even as the president and his cronies do their best to repress these voices. The Coalition is launching just in time to defend this astonishing landscape from attempts by the Trump administration to modify the monument’s boundaries or reduce its protection. Let's hope these eloquent Native people and their allies in the conservation community succeed in keeping Grand Staircase fully intact and wild--a model for including Indigenous voices in public lands management.
It’s hard to keep up with Trump’s destruction of all we hold dear. As I watch blow after blow come to people and government and science—and to American culture itself, I keep wondering, “why aren’t we all out in the streets, protesting, every day?” Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, provides some of the answer: we lack “social capital.” We are isolated from each other in our bubbles. So how do we get together, how do we fight back? In this piece for Writers on the Range, “Americans Face a Test of Community and Citizenship,” I look for a path forward. We’ve got to find this path together.
When Jane Goodall died in October 2025, a new online series broadcast her last interview, recorded not long before, to be broadcast only after her death. Goodall looked us in the eyes and asked us to never give up: “Without hope, we fall into apathy and do nothing. If people don’t have hope, we’re doomed. Let’s fight to the very end.” Her words fueled an op-ed for me when I was having trouble responding to the never-ending stream of cruelty and insanity. I wrote a piece for Writers on the Range calling out the attacks on Utah public lands by our deranged senator, Mike Lee. Just writing the column gave me a dose of hope.
When I started noticing references in the media to Native people I interviewed 40 years ago for book projects, it made me smile. How cool to see these remarkable people still out there, dedicating long and full lives to their culture and their people—and being recognized. At the same time, Donald Trump was issuing proclamations about Columbus Day and Thanksgiving that showed profound disrespect and ignorance toward Indigenous people. Trump cannot erase this strength, this history, the Indigenous core of our continent. I wrote about this stark contrast between values for the Los Angeles Times.
Toquima Cave, in the middle of nowhere in Nevada—on federal lands, Indigenous land, public land, always-endangered land.
