'Drill baby drill': Trump opens wilderness to big energy

America's beloved national parks and public lands face conservation rollbacks and sell-offs as the Trump administration pushes for fossil fuel and timber extraction.

From the majestic valleys of the Grand Canyon to the granite peaks of the Yosemite National Park and ancient trees of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, US President Donald Trump has pledged to make America's federal nature reserves "beautiful again."
National parks make up one part of over 600 million acres (243 million hectares) of US public lands that span forests, deserts, waterways and wildlife refuges.

"These include some of the most ecologically intact and biodiverse lands in the country," said Jenny Rowland-Shea, who directs public lands policy at the Washington-based think tank, Center for American Progress.

But critics say these landscapes are threatened by steep budget cuts and environmental rollbacks that open them to resource extraction.

In May 2025, for example, the Trump administration proposed cutting nearly $1 billion (€860 million) from the National Park Service budget — a reduction that park advocates warn could force hundreds of sites to close or sharply scale back services.

For Rowland-Shea, the weakening of the National Park Service and its conservation mission "under the guise of 'government efficiency' has only made parks and public lands less safe, less clean, less accessible, and more crowded than ever before."
Two months after announcing the cuts, Trump signed an executive order devoted to "improving" national parks.

While lyrically invoking natural areas that have "inspired generations," it also called out "land-use restrictions" that have "stripped hunters, fishers, hikers, and outdoorsmen of access to public lands that belong to them."
But by casting nature conservation measures as impediments, there is a fear that Trump was flagging a bigger policy shift that opens more federally managed lands to mining, drilling and logging.

National parks remain hugely popular
Celebrated for preserving an iconic landscape, the national park network is often called "America's best idea." In 2024, the parks alone set a record with about 332 million visitors who spent roughly $29 billion in nearby communities.

A November 2025 YouGov poll showed that a strong majority (69%) of Americans oppose the Trump administration's proposed cuts to the National Park Service.

This was played out in the Senate in January when a bipartisan budget bill rejected those cuts.

Still, park advocates cautioned that since language was removed from the bill ensuring that national parks remain public lands, they are now vulnerable to a potential sell-off.

Millions of hectares opened to mining and logging
More than 40% of the total US public lands have long been subject to oil , gas, coal and mineral extraction, including the so-called federal mineral estate that produces 15% and 9% respectively of domestic oil and gas .

But Trump is now focused on "unleashing" more American energy on public lands by rolling back "ideologically motivated" regulations, including environmental and climate laws , as he said in an executive order in January 2025.

This includes a proposal to end the 2024 Public Lands Rule, which the Biden administration instituted to equally balance resource extraction on these lands with conservation.

"Trump's actions are largely aimed at weakening protections," Rowland-Shea told DW.

"The value of public lands is determined by their potential resource extraction and market value."
Citing the need for reducing "foreign dependence" on critical minerals, in March 2025 the Trump administration ordered a significant increase in domestic "mineral production" on federal lands.

Large swaths have been identified for fast-tracked mining leases for "critical minerals" like copper, uranium and gold.

The administration has also opened up millions of acres of public land and water to oil drilling and coal mining to " secure reliable energy ," while overturning a rule that prohibited logging and road construction to allow "responsible" timber production and "fire prevention."
Preserved public lands vital for 'disappearing wildlife'
And it's not entirely new.

Back in 2017 when Trump took office for his first term, Stephen Nash, an environmental researcher at the University of Richmond in Virginia, described how the administration quickly removed millions of acres from protected public lands, and made them available for logging and mining.

These included Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, and vast canyon complexes in southern Utah — though this was reversed by the Biden administration.

Oil and gas leasing on public lands also tripled in less than a year.

In Trump's second term, Nash is concerned that, while landmark national parks are likely safe from major extraction projects, the "much larger portfolio of public lands" that includes national forests and wildlife preserves will be severely degraded.

"Those other public lands are even more crucial as habitat for our rapidly disappearing wildlife," Nash told DW, explaining that thousands of plant and animal species will need these lands as they migrate from extreme temperatures linked to planetary heating.

Scientists have noted, for example, how the return of once-endangered American bison to national parks like Yellowstone are helping to restore ecosystems.

And until recently, such parks also contributed to educating patrons about the impacts of climate disruption on the natural environment.

Instead, the administration remains focused on "eliminating impediments" to "responsible forest management," or what conservationists like Nash call "immediate exploitation."
"The only natural resources they esteem are the ones they can extract and sell," he said.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins and Tamsin Walker
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