Big Bend border wall protest this morning in Terlingua, Texas, population 138. Rural Texas is not going to let this administration come lock their river behind a wall of steel.

Standing room only tonight for a screening of “The River and the Wall” and forum about Big Bend border wall construction in Marfa, TX. A quarter of the town’s population is here, and they’re seriously mobilizing against the project.

Don’t mess with Texas, right? Well, Trump is picking a fight with Big Bend, the most sacred and publicly loved place in the whole damn state. They want to rob this natural heritage from us. But a massive, bipartisan resistance is growing like nothing I’ve ever seen. We can’t let off the pressure.

ALERT: I'm seeing headlines like this claiming victory on the Big Bend border wall. THIS IS COMPLETELY FALSE. All DHS did was change the color of a line on a map. DHS engineers have mapped out a course for the wall in Big Bend National Park. They showed their cards. (thread 1/6)

DHS is rapidly moving forward with plans to wall off virtually every river access point to Big Bend National Park. This would effectively end all whitewater boating on this world-class stretch of the Rio Grande, killing the recreation economy and robbing this majesty from us all.

The Senate ENR committee advanced Steve Pearce’s nomination this morning. Our response: “Pearce is Trump’s hand-picked hatchet man to liquidate the West for private profit. Every senator who voted for him showed they’re willing to let our country’s wildest places be torn up and sold for parts."

DHS is pushing to wall off Big Bend National Park, a crown jewel of America’s natural heritage. Yet across the 517-mile Big Bend Sector— an area larger than California—DHS apprehended just 151 migrants last month. The park itself is only a tiny slice of that vast, remote border.

DHS is rapidly pushing to wall off Big Bend National Park. Big Bend's former NPS superintendent says: “This is the biggest incursion on the integrity of national parks since the construction of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite more than a century ago.” www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Confirming Pearce would put many of our favorite campsites, streams, and hiking trails across the West directly in the crosshairs 🎯🎯 Save our #PublicLands! Urge your Senators to VOTE NO on Steve Pearce for BLM Director by calling them at 202-224-3121 and by clicking this link ➡️ biodiv.us/pearce

A Senate committee votes weds on Steve Pearce for Bureau of Land Management director. Pearce's entire career is defined by an outright disdain for public lands. If appointed, he'll rapidly advance Mike Lee's sell off plans & move to hand vast swaths of America's lands over to private industry.

National parks are understaffed, underfunded & under attack. A new poll shows 86% of Westerners say cuts to NPS funding is a serious problem. But a tiny group of DC insiders who wouldn't last a day in the wilderness want to dismantle the natural heritage that belongs to us all.

Trump just nominated a corporate stooge with no conservation experience to run the National Park Service. It's another huge step in this admin's plan to hand America’s most cherished public lands over to extractive industries, real estate developers & corporate interests. We're fighting back.

Trump's nominee to lead the National Park Service, Scott Socha, helped run a company that claimed trademark ownership over historic place names at Yosemite—many rooted in Indigenous history—then sued the NPS over name use, costing taxpayers millions. Now he wants to run the agency? Disgraceful.

"This admin doesn't see parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone & the Grand Canyon as national treasures, but as branding opportunities & profit makers... They'll stop at nothing until they're carved up for profit & turned into playgrounds for the ultra-rich.” www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2026/02/upda...

“Trump and his cowardly border officials want to rob this iconic place from all of us, locking away our swimming holes, hiking trails and desert vistas behind a monstrous steel wall, even as border crossings are at record lows.” www.marfapublicradio.org/news/2026-02...

BREAKING: DHS waives dozens of laws to rush border wall construction through Big Bend State Park. They want to rob this iconic western landscape from all of us, locking away our fishing holes & campsites behind concrete and steel. It's a grotesque act of political vandalism.

Trump just nominated a corporate stooge with no conservation experience to run the National Park Service. It's another huge step in this admin's plan to hand America’s most cherished public lands over to extractive industries, real estate developers & corporate interests. We're fighting back.

These former Republican & Democratic Forest Service chiefs -- folks who rarely agree on anything -- are rallying together to protect the roadless rule from Trump's push to slash it & open up our wild forests to industry takeover. thehill.com/opinion/ener...

Public lands aren’t a culture war in the West. Despite corporate politicians like Mike Lee & Steve Pearce pushing to hand them over to industry, voters in deep-red states oppose efforts to sell off & dismantle them. Western voters reject Pearce for BLM nominee. www.mtexpress.com/news/environ...

A Wyoming housing proposal would put a private development on national forest land. It would set a precedent for carving up public lands whenever local housing or economic pressure mounts. It's a small project, but a terrible precedent to set. wyofile.com/teton-county...

Congress is trying to wipe out one of Utah's National Monuments with a procedural trick. This would clear the way to hand much of Grand Staircase-Escalante over to extractive industry. Billionaires get richer while we get locked out of our public lands. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

The National Park Service has already pushed out 1/4 of the agency's staff. Now they're firing more rangers while bringing in surveillance drones & self-driving shuttles. This is the corporatization of our National Parks while the surveillance state creeps into our public lands.

74% of (deep-red) Utah voters support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante protected as a National Monument. Yet, Utah's delegation are pushing a secret plan to steamroll Indigenous tribes and the public to slash protections.

A new leak reveals just how far Trump is going to decimate the National Park Service. The playbook goes like this: crush morale, force rangers to quit, hollow out the agency and let parks fall into disrepair. Then they'll call parks “mismanaged” and invite private interests in to pillage them.

A new leak reveals just how far Trump is going to decimate the National Park Service. The playbook goes like this: crush morale, force rangers to quit, hollow out the agency and let parks fall into disrepair. Then they'll call parks “mismanaged” and invite private interests in to pillage them.

A top official told colleagues that a change to a National Park Service employee policy was part of a “reign of terror.”

This is how public lands are lost. Not all at once. Not with a single vote. But through smiling press conferences, hollow assurances & “partnerships” with people who have proven, repeatedly, that they cannot be trusted with what belongs to the public. morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/utah-seize...

And to be crystal clear: THEY ARE NEGLECTING IT SO THEY CAN JUSTIFY DISPOSING OF IT.

Trump axed National Park Service staff by 25%. This is insane. When I worked for NPS from 2015-2017 we were backlogged, understaffed & visitor services slammed. I can't imagine working on the inside now. Not even America's best idea is spared from Trump's madness. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...

Despite ongoing border wall construction, a new ocelot & a new jaguar have arrived in AZ. “We may be the last Arizonans to share mountains where jaguars & ocelots still roam” McSpadden said. “I think history will judge us... if we fail to protect this rare, wild freedom.” tucson.com/news/local/s...

It’s not just the ICE terror in Minnesota. This admin is continuing to tear up the borderlands, militarize communities, crush the endangered species, and wall people off from nature while pissing away billions of our tax dollars. Now they're obliterating one of my favorite places in south Texas:

When a motorsports outlet sounds the alarm about Utah's attempt to exert control over federal public lands, Gov Cox oughta listen. Just like Mike Lee, Cox's goal here kick the public off our shared land & turn it over to industry pillage. Everyone opposes that. www.rideapart.com/news/784140/...

Rep. Vasquez slams Trump plan to burn $1.6 BILLION on border walls where nobody crosses with crossings at record lows. “It’s ironic that by building roads that lead right to the border, the admin is making it easier for folks to enter our country illegally.” fox5sandiego.com/news/border-...

The New York Post & Daily Mail are circulating a fake story on an outdated issue using a recycled quote I gave Nat Geo 6 years ago. No attribution, no context, no current relevance. They're trying to drum up conservative rage to cover for the atrocities this admin is committing across the nation.

Don't be fooled. This is a backdoor push to advance the privatization of 8 million acres of public national forests by chipping away at public ownership. Just like Mike Lee, Cox's only goal here kick the public off our shared land & turn it over to industry pillage. www.sltrib.com/news/environ...

“It’s been chaos, for staff,” said one NPS entrance booth staffer. “A lot of people just turn around, some people yell and get angry. It’s an outrageous fee, it’s like we are telling people we don’t want them here. It’s not in the spirit of national parks.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

BREAKING: the Trump admin is green-lighting Utah's attempt to assert control over 8 million acres of public land without a vote, notice or public input. After failing to seize public lands outright, Utah is chipping away at at public land ownership at large. biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

Breaking: Trump's pick to lead the BLM is a walking conflict of interest and an anti-environment extremist who's encouraged vigilantes to seize control of federal public lands. We’re sounding the alarm to Senate leaders. Read the letter, signed by 81 orgs: biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

The Department of the Interior just banned putting stickers over Trump's face on National Park Passes. National parks are not a personal branding opportunity. They’re the pride and joy of the American people. We've already sued over this ridiculous stunt. More soon. www.sfgate.com/national-par...

"Pearce's track record screams danger, warned Laiken Jordahl, a national public lands advocate at @biologicaldiversity.org. An obsessed Pearce spent years flogging off America's public lands to the highest bidder, Jordahl wrote Thursday for the Arizona Mirror."

Razor wire is "spreading like a cancer" across the border lands, posing grave risks of entanglement and death to wildlife, including jaguars and ocelots, while doing little to stop migrants' crossings. tucson.com/news/local/s...

COMMENTARY: Putting Steve Pearce at the helm of BLM would put Arizona’s cherished landscapes at risk of being stripped of protections, ransacked by extractive industries and sold to the highest bidder.

@biologicaldiversity.org is suing to wipe Trump's face off the America the Beautiful National Parks pass. By law, the pass must display the winning photo of a federal #PublicLands picture contest. Instead, Trump plastered his own face on it. Trump's vanity pass is not American, beautiful, or legal

Steve Pearce, Trump's nominee to lead the BLM, might be the single biggest threat Western public lands have ever seen. He's long been obsessed with selling off our natural heritage & urged local governments to take control of federally protected public lands. We must stop him.

A rare bit of good news: a federal judge just ruled DHS can’t use the government shutdown as an excuse to stall our border wall lawsuit while construction barrels ahead through critical jaguar habitat in the San Rafael Valley. www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report...

Oil tycoon Steve Pearce is a disastrous pick to run the BLM. He's long pushed for the liquidation of public lands & championed efforts to obliterate national monuments. Just like Sen. Lee, he'll be chomping at the bit so sell our public lands off to corporations & billionaires. He's also a creep.

“We’re already seeing drought stress, with half the mature oaks in the valley dead,” Palma said. “The wall will only accelerate the collapse. You lose the trees, you lose the shade. The creek dries, the habitat dies. It’s a cascade of ecological devastation.” azluminaria.org/2025/10/07/a...

This interview with my dear colleague Russ McSpadden is a phenomenal roundup of our work to stop Trump's absurd and irreversibly destructive push to wall off Arizona's San Rafael Valley. And if you're not already following @peccarynotpig.bsky.social, you should!

Excited to share this! Join us to celebrate the release of BORDERLINGS, the debut book of poems from environmental activist RUSS MCSPADDEN, Saturday October 18, 2025, 6:30pm doors, 7pm reading and book signing. Free & all-ages. Che's Lounge, 350 N. 4th Ave, Tucson Published by Artspeak Press.

The Trump administration is declaring a bogus emergency and tossing aside decades of hard-won environmental protections to fast-track wall construction. It's yet another senseless attack on the wildlife and communities of California’s borderlands. inewsource.org/2025/09/24/h...