Return public lands to Indigenous people

Since the start of Donald Trump's second term, his Administration has fired thousands of federal workers across multiple public-lands agencies. The effects of this are vast: it's going to cause immeasurable harm to America's wildest places and devastate the economies built around them.

- JOE WHITTLE

After serving 12 years as a backcountry wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, I'm convinced there is an alternative: the U.S. needs to return its public lands to Native Americans. It might be the only way to save our wildlands from corporate privatization and destruction—and preserve public access to them.