As predicted, the Bush Administration continues to push through last-minute regulations and policy changes detrimental to America’s public lands.

The latest is a flawed new wilderness stewardship policy for the National Wildlife Refuge System, released yesterday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service without any opportunity for public comment. Among other things, the new policy exempts the 80 percent of America’s refuges located in Alaska from wilderness review requirements, and totally ignores the very real threats posed to refuges by global warming.

When I last visited Joshua Tree National Park, I couldn’t help but notice the number of teetering Joshua Trees interspersed between the creosote bush, ocotillo and chollo cactus of the high Mojave and low Colorado desert landscapes. A friend explained that these iconic trees, which are unique to this landscape, can become too large for their own roots.

Here I am at one of the West’s wildest and most spectacular waterways — eastern Oregon’s Owyhee River will offer the chance to escape to a remote desert canyon for six days, where I’ll enjoy stunning towers and rock formations, soak in natural hot springs, catch glimpses of soaring raptors and California bighorn sheep, and test my skill against exciting whitewater rapids.

A vast area of glistening lagoons and wetlands punctuated by jagged mountains and volcanic peaks, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is critical habitat for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, as well as marine mammals, grizzlies and caribou. But Congress is considering a bill that would result in a road being built through the heart of this refuge, destroying the intact watershed the animals depend on for survival.