# Our Public Lands & Waters Our Public Lands & Waters is an independent one-man publication about U.S. public lands and waters, wildlife, conservation, and sustainable outdoor recreation. Page: Feed: --- ## [Wallace Stegner’s “Wilderness Letter” Is the Perfect Inspiration For Writing Your Own Comment to Protect Public Lands](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/wallace-stegners-wilderness-letter) _2026-08-19 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Stegner’s now-iconic letter was also a public comment, urging officials to protect wild places from road building and development ## [Forest Service Moves to Rescind the Roadless Rule in Its Entirety](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/forest-service-moves-to-rescind-the) _2026-08-18 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Trump administration rescission would open 44 million acres of public lands and waters to road building and industrial logging ## [Proposed Sheep Creek Rare-Earth Mine Threatens Montana's Bitterroot River and Over 1,400 Farm Families](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/proposed-sheep-creek-rare-earth-mine) _2026-08-14 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ It's officially a modest exploration proposal, but locals see it as the opening move toward an industrial mine in the headwaters of one of Montana’s great trout rivers ## [Watch Federal Contractors Destroy Big Bend National Park](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/watch-federal-contractors-destroy) _2026-08-07 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ New images and video footage show the beginning of the end of the Big Bend National Park experience that we've known and cherished for 80+ years ## [The Bulldozers Have Arrived in Big Bend National Park](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/the-bulldozers-have-arrived-in-big) _2026-08-05 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Contractors are grading roads and surveying the Rio Grande corridor even as lawmakers, outfitters, and residents plead for basic answers about a $1.7 billion border barrier project ## [A Quiet Rule Review Could Drain the Prairie Pothole Region, America’s “Duck Factory”](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/a-quiet-rule-review-could-drain-the) _2026-07-31 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule revision would drain thousands of tiny-but-vital wetlands across the northern Great Plains ## [Bureau of Land Management Approves First-Ever AI Data Center on Public Lands](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/blm-approves-first-ever-ai-data-center) _2026-07-29 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Data center project in Nevada "is substantially the same" as a previously proposed solar farm, Trump administration claims ## [Okefenokee Becomes First National Wildlife Refuge to Gain UNESCO World Heritage Status](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/okefenokee-becomes-first-national) _2026-07-25 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Georgia's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge protects the largest and most intact precipitation-based freshwater wetland ecosystem in the United States ## [Call to Action: Help Protect the Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape, One of America's Most Endangered Historic Places](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/call-to-action-help-protect-the-greater) _2026-07-21 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Speak up to prevent destructive oil and gas development around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a World Heritage Site ## [Try Before You Buy, Risk-Free (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/Lnel0ZrZOm4L) _2026-07-21 · **Sponsored**_ Free trial hosting plus refunds processed in 12-24 hours, guaranteed. ## [Trump Administration Strips Away More Threatened and Endangered Species Protections, Putting Grizzly Bears in Its Crosshairs](https://ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com/p/trump-administration-strips-away) _2026-07-17 · Our Public Lands & Waters_ Interior Department issued two new rules, weakening protections for threatened species and critical habitat