A tracker maps the combined reach of US public-land policy changes

What you need to know

• The tracker brings 12 federal policy actions together and considers their potential effects in eight categories. These include reduced public participation, weakened protections and lasting damage. Those are the Conservation Lands Foundation’s interpretations of the actions, not an official government assessment. 2
• The widely cited figure of more than 86 million acres comes from a separate Center for American Progress analysis, not from the tracker itself. It describes land affected by actions initiated or completed by 17 June 2026, rather than land on which all protections have definitively been removed. 134
• The analysis methodology removes overlap between categories when calculating acreage. It also includes actions at different stages, including those initiated but not necessarily completed. These qualifications matter when interpreting the estimate as a measure of changed protection. 4
• July 2026 presidential proclamations modified the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The Bears Ears proclamation cites the Antiquities Act and sets out the administration’s view of appropriate monument boundaries. Reporting also describes the changes as contested. 15
• Utah officials supported the monument changes, while tribal representatives objected to effects on culturally significant lands and raised concerns about consultation. The sources document the competing positions, but do not quantify the eventual ecological effects of every action in the tracker. 12

Why this matters

Taken together, the tracker and the acreage analysis offer ways to examine the reach of changes across federal public lands. But they answer different questions: the tracker categorises potential impacts, while the acreage estimate combines actions with different statuses. Neither establishes the eventual ecological effects across all the land counted. 234

What happens next

Key unresolved issues include which listed actions have taken full legal effect and which remain proposed, under review or subject to litigation. The reporting also identifies a need to test whether the acreage estimate can be reproduced from its underlying data and assumptions, and to measure resulting changes to habitats, species, cultural access and public use. 134

What we know

• The Conservation Lands Foundation tracker lists 12 policy actions and uses eight categories to assess their potential impacts. 2
• The Center for American Progress estimate covers actions initiated or completed by 17 June 2026 and accounts for overlap between categories. 34
• A federal proclamation documents a boundary change at Bears Ears; reporting also describes July 2026 changes at Grand Staircase-Escalante. 15

What we don't know

• The reporting does not establish how many tracker actions have taken full legal effect or remain proposed, under review or subject to litigation. 1
• It remains unclear whether the 86-million-acre estimate can be independently reproduced from its underlying spatial data and assumptions. 34
• The sources do not measure the eventual effects of the actions on habitats, species, cultural access and public use. 12

Read the reporting

This WildNews briefing synthesises and summarises reporting from the sources below. WildNews did not produce the original reporting. Learn more about how we use AI