New map illustrates public lands reach of Trump’s “energy dominance” vision

WASHINGTON D.C. (Feb. 24, 2025) — A new map and data from The Wilderness Society illustrate the potential reach of executive and secretarial orders issued to fulfill President Trump’s fossil fuel-centric “energy dominance” vision. 

Places at risk include Bears Ears National Monument, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the watershed of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Trump’s day-one executive orders and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s secretarial orders from two weeks later positioned drilling and mining interests as the favored users of America’s public lands and threatened to scrap existing land protections and conservation measures. Following those orders, assistant secretaries were supposed to have submitted action plans to Secretary Burgum on Feb. 18 with steps to review, revise and rescind protections for potentially hundreds of special places nationwide. The department has not yet commented on the content of these plans or committed to any public input or transparency around the process. 

In the absence of that transparency, the new Wilderness Society map gives a sense of some of the places that could fall under the Trump administration’s punitive microscope, including natural and cultural treasures like Bears Ears National Monument, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the watershed of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  

“As we speak, the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior is deciding which of our treasured places to sell out for drilling and mining. Our analysis shows that their plans could end up removing or reducing protections for tens of millions of acres’ worth of wildlife habitat, ancient cultural sites and outdoor recreation areas,” said Dan Hartinger, senior director of agency policy at The Wilderness Society.  

Following his inauguration, President Trump directed agencies to “unleash” fossil fuel production on federal public lands and waters. This onslaught could come at the expense of countless lands that American communities rely on for life and livelihood. Among them, the orders could result in reduced protections for, and increased destructive development on, the following: 

National monuments designated under the Antiquities Act 

The secretarial order titled "Unleashing American Energy” calls for steps to “review and, as appropriate, revise” certain public land protections, including national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act. While the monument “review” during the first Trump administration focused on more recently designated monuments, and some monuments remain at greater at risk than others, the administration’s current review has such broad criteria it could apply to more than 13.5 million acres of public land.[1] The national monument lands in the field of fire contain approximately: 

• 6.7 million acres of critical wildlife habitat for 32 endangered species and 27 threatened species listed under the Endangered Species Act, plus 1.2 million acres of big-game wildlife migration corridors 
• 6.8 million acres of land that is among the “wildest” 10% of lands in the contiguous U.S., as measured by factors like habitat intactness 
• 5,000 miles of streams and rivers, plus watersheds that collectively supply drinking water to about 2.4 million people 

Arctic Refuge, Tongass National Forest and other Alaska wildlands 

The executive and secretarial orders titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” call on the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture to take a range of actions that would reduce protections for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other public lands in Alaska. These include steps to begin the process of:   

• reinstating canceled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and rolling back Biden administration protections, threatening the homeland and subsistence wellspring for Indigenous communities in the area 
• authorizing the Ambler Road, which would cut across the Brooks Range and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to provide access to a mining district deep in the heart of the Arctic 
• removing protections for the Western Arctic to pave the way for more oil and gas leasing and development 
• expediting development of a road through the heart of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a key stop for migrating birds 
• removing “roadless” forest protections in the Tongass National Forest, one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests 

Other national forests, wildlife refuges and public lands nationwide 

The executive and secretarial orders titled "Unleashing American Energy” prioritize offering up more parcels of public land for drilling and mining in general and making it easier to develop with little oversight and environmental regulation. In addition to threatening national monument lands mentioned above, the actions laid out in these plans could mean: 

• a path to reinstating canceled mining leases in the Superior National Forest, once again threatening the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness 
• rolling back resource management plans that provided protections for Wyoming’s Northern Red Desert (via the Rock Springs RMP) and greater sage-grouse habitat 
• revoking drilling protections the Biden administration instituted for lands adjacent to Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) 

While all these spots on the map indicate places that could fall prey to the Trump executive and secretarial orders, countless lands and waters beyond those listed above could see reduced protections. 

For example, hundreds of millions of acres of public lands could become more vulnerable to reckless development thanks to calls to suspend, revise or rescind rules finalized during the Biden administration. These at-risk rules include the BLM Public Lands Rule, which confirmed that conservation of nature, cultural resources and outdoor recreation areas is on equal footing with drilling and mining across BLM lands; the BLM Oil and Gas Leasing Rule, which was designed to reform the badly outdated federal leasing program and make oil and gas companies clean up after themselves; and the BLM Renewable Energy Rule, which promoted responsible solar and wind energy development on public lands while minimizing damage to sensitive areas. Just last week, the White House scrapped rules dictating how agencies implement the National Environmental Policy Act, clearing the way for even more damage to public lands with less oversight. 

Public lands are a vital institution in American life, and people overwhelmingly want to see them managed in a balanced and responsible way—not divvied up for the benefit of industrial interests. In the months and years ahead, we will call on agency heads and elected officials to stand against the Trump administration’s destructive designs and ensure we are able to hand public lands down to future generations in good shape.  

1. Total acreage of land-based national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act that have not since attained a more protective status.

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