All Categories

Time to get your 2026 California State Park Pass

12/30/2025

SACRAMENTO — As California celebrates its 175th anniversary, California State Parks is highlighting its annual passes as the perfect gift for 2026 to experience the extraordinary beauty and diversity of the Golden State. From beaches and redwood forests to mountains, lakes, off-highway vehicle parks and historic sites, there’s sure to be a park in the nation’s largest state parks system to capture your imagination in the new year.

Whether you know a nature buff or want to give the gift of adventure, State Park passes offer something for everyone. It’s also the perfect gift to give yourself.

Special for 2026, annual passes purchased beginning Jan. 1 will feature a CA 175/America 250 logo commemorating 175 years of statehood and 250 years of U.S. independence – making them a unique collector’s item.

How to Buy a California State Parks Pass
Annual passes are available for purchase via our online store and in-person at many locations throughout the State Parks System. They are also available for purchase at most district and sector offices and many park units. Please call ahead for availability at the in-person locations. Gift cards can be purchased and redeemed online at store.parks.ca.gov/collections/park-passes.

Discount passes require an application and may be applied for online, by mail or in person. The list of locations and contact information is available on the Pass Sales Locations webpage.

UPDATE: Off Highway electric motorcycles now required to be regulated and licensed by DMV

12/29/2025

January 1, 2026 - Senate Bill No. 586 classifies an off-highway electric motorcycle as an off-highway motor vehicle, thereby subjecting off-highway electric motorcycles to the rules and regulations relating to off-highway motor vehicles. It regulates Off-Highway Electric Motorcycles (eMotos), defining them and guiding their operation in the state of California.
In California's 2025-2026 session, legislation like Senate Bill 586 (SB 586) is defining Off-Highway Electric Motorcycles (eMotos) as specific OHVs, bringing them under existing OHV rules for identification, while broader e-bike safety rules (SB 1271) also impact electric two-wheelers, focusing on battery safety, labeling, and usage, for clearer regulation and better consumer protection.

UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION
California's SB 586 primarily targets off-highway electric motorcycles (e-motos) like Sur-Ron and Talaria, classifying them as OHVs, not traditional e-bikes; therefore, standard, compliant Class 1, 2, and 3 electric bicycles (e-bikes) with motors under 750W and meeting speed/pedal requirements are generally exempt from SB 586's focus on motorcycles, but must still follow general e-bike laws (age, helmets) and cannot be converted to meet OHV standards for road use.  Do be aware, some of the e-moto bike manufacturers are considering adding non-functional decorative pedals to their bikes to simply get around the requirements of this new law.   This new law has little impact on the e-bike problem on non-motorized trails.

Here is the complete text of the law:
Senate Bill No. 586
CHAPTER 588
An act to amend Sections 38010 and 38012 of, and to add Section 436.1 to, the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles.
[ Approved by Governor  October 10, 2025. Filed with Secretary of State  October 10, 2025. ]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTSB 586, Jones. Off-highway electric motorcycles.
Existing law defines an off-highway motor vehicle as a motor vehicle that operates on lands, other than a highway, that are open and accessible to the public, as specified. Existing law establishes rules for the operation of an off-highway vehicle and imposes specified safety requirements, including, among other things, a requirement that a person operating an off-highway vehicle wear a safety helmet. Existing law requires every off-highway motor vehicle that is not registered under the Vehicle Code to display an identification plate or device issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles, except as specified. A violation of these rules and requirements is a crime.

This bill would define the term “off-highway electric motorcycle” as an off-highway motorcycle subject to identification that is (1) designed by the manufacturer for operation primarily off the highway, (2) powered by an electric motor for which a motor number is not required, (3) has handlebars for steering control, (4) has a straddle seat provided by the manufacturer, (5) has two wheels, and (6) is not equipped with pedals from the manufacturer.

The bill would classify an off-highway electric motorcycle as an off-highway motor vehicle, thereby subjecting off-highway electric motorcycles to the rules and regulations relating to off-highway motor vehicles.

By expanding the scope of existing crimes with respect to off-highway electric motorcycles, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES

Bill TextThe people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 436.1 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read:

436.1.
An “off-highway electric motorcycle,” commonly referred to as an eMoto, is an off-highway motorcycle subject to identification under this code that meets all of the following requirements:
(a) Is designed by the manufacturer for operation primarily off the highway.
(b) Is powered by an electric motor for which a motor number is not required.
(c) Has handlebars for steering control.
(d) Has a straddle seat provided by the manufacturer.
(e) Has two wheels.
(f) Is not equipped with pedals from the manufacturer.

SEC. 2. Section 38010 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:

38010.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b), a motor vehicle specified in subdivision (b) of Section 38012 that is not registered under this code because it is to be operated or used exclusively off the highways, except as provided in this division, shall display an identification plate or device issued by the department.
(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to any of the following:
(1) Motor vehicles specifically exempted from registration under this code, including, but not limited to, motor vehicles exempted pursuant to Sections 4006, 4010, 4012, 4013, 4015, 4018, and 4019.
(2) Implements of husbandry.
(3) Motor vehicles owned by the state, or any county, city, district, or political subdivision of the state, or the United States.
(4) Motor vehicles owned or operated by, or operated under contract with a utility, whether privately or publicly owned, when used as specified in Section 22512.
(5) Special construction equipment described in Section 565, regardless of whether those motor vehicles are used in connection with highway or railroad work.
(6) A motor vehicle with a currently valid special permit issued under Section 38087.5 that is owned or operated by a nonresident of this state and the vehicle is not identified or registered in a foreign jurisdiction. For the purposes of this paragraph, a person who holds a valid driver’s license issued by a foreign jurisdiction is presumed to be a nonresident.
(7) Commercial vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds unladen.
(8) A motorcycle manufactured in the year 1942 or prior.
(9) Four-wheeled motor vehicles operated solely in organized racing or competitive events upon a closed course when those events are conducted under the auspices of a recognized sanctioning body or by permit issued by the local governmental authority having jurisdiction.
(10) A motor vehicle with a currently valid identification or registration permit issued by another state, if the other state recognizes an identification plate or device issued by the department pursuant to subdivision (a) as valid for use in that state.

SEC. 3. Section 38012 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:

38012.
(a) As used in this division, “off-highway motor vehicle subject to identification” means a motor vehicle subject to subdivision (a) of Section 38010.
(b) As used in this division, “off-highway motor vehicle” includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(1) A motorcycle or motor-driven cycle, except for any motorcycle that is eligible for a special transportation identification device issued pursuant to Section 38088.
(2) A snowmobile or other vehicle designed to travel over snow or ice, as defined in Section 557.
(3) A motor vehicle commonly referred to as a sand buggy, dune buggy, or all-terrain vehicle.
(4) A motor vehicle commonly referred to as a jeep.
(5) A recreational off-highway vehicle as defined in Section 500.
(6) An off-highway electric motorcycle as defined in Section 436.1.

SEC. 4. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.

CLICK HERE to see the original law text.

Join us for First Day Hikes on January 1 - in California State Parks!

12/28/2025

Step into 2026 on the right foot and on the right trail! California State Parks is inviting outdoor enthusiasts to bring their family and friends to the annual First Day Hikes on Thursday, Jan. 1, to embrace a healthy start and breath in fresh air. As the Golden State continues to celebrate its 175th anniversary of statehood, State Parks is offering over 80 guided hikes at more than 60 of California’s more diverse and iconic parks in the nation. Californians and visitors from around the world can hike amongst the gentle redwoods or learn about the geology of the desert or catch a glimpse of bald eagles and other unique wildlife—California has some of the most unique and iconic parks in the country for everyone to explore.

First Day Hikes is a national-led effort that encourages individuals and families to experience, with a seasoned guide, the beautiful natural and cultural resources found in the outdoors and in doing so may inspire them to take advantage of these treasures throughout the year and an individual’s lifetime. Nature has been proven to boost our moods and make us feel healthy and exploring the outdoors is the perfect way to start the new year.

Visitors are encouraged to check out details on our website for start times and hike descriptions. There you can see the First Day Hikes interactive map below lets you easily search for hikes by park name, region or by clicking directly on the map. Visitors can also type in their address and it will show nearby hikes taking place. Participants are also able to see the status of the hike and the last time it was updated, and by zooming into the map, they can find hikes taking place near that region of the map. Additionally, this webpage provides information on new hiking opportunities around the holiday.

Whether you are an experienced outdoor enthusiast or a new one, we look forward to seeing you in California’s park trails, beaches, mountains and the deserts but ask that you recreate responsibly. Make sure to dress in layers, bring plenty of snacks and water, and appropriate hiking shoes. Visit the latest safety tips for more information.

Please continue to visit the webpage as it will get updated regularly with any additional hikes or cancellations.

Auburn SRA
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 9:00 AM
Length of Hike: 4.6 miles, 4 hours

Auburn SRA
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 5:00 PM
Length of Hike: 2.5 miles, 3 hours

Calaveras Big Trees SP
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 11:30 AM
Length of Hike: 1.7 miles, 2 hours

Marshall Gold Discovery SHP
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 10:00 AM
Length of Hike: 4.0 miles, -10 hours

Marshall Gold Discovery SHP
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 10:15 AM
Length of Hike: 1.0 miles, 1 hours

California State Capitol Museum
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 9:00 AM
Length of Hike: 0.5 miles, 2 hours

Sutters Fort SHP
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 11:30 AM
Length of Hike: 1.0 miles, 3 hours

California State Capitol Museum
Start Time: 1/1/2026, 11:00 AM
Length of Hike: 0.5 miles, 1 hours

View the dashboard in full screen (Best viewed on a desktop brower)

Visit our website at https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30737

Where can I ride my horse or mt. bike on rainy days? Don't.

12/27/2025

Muddy trails are vulnerable trails. Every trails organization, whether it be IMBA, the main organization for mt. bikes, or BCHC and CSHA for horse folks, have strict rules against riding on wet trails. Why? Because hooves and tires cause erosion…both of different sorts. Tires create ruts, where subsequent rains and water channel and rut deeper. Hooves on hard trails create circles of mud, actually helping deter run off, BUT if horses go off the trail, even a few inches, deep holes are made. If horses head straight downhill on a steep trail, the slide marks will create ruts and encourage erosion. Both modes of transportation destroy delicate trails.

From IMBA's rules for mt. bikes:
"Be sensitive to the dirt beneath you. Wet and muddy trails are more vulnerable to damage than dry ones. When the trail is soft, consider other riding options. This also means staying on existing trails and not creating new ones.."

From BCH and California State Horsemen:
Avoid sensitive areas and wet or muddy trails. Leave no Trace. Practice Gentle Use Principles. Be sensitive to the earth beneath you. Recognize different types of soils and trail conditions. Wet and muddy trails are more vulnerable to damage, so consider other options. Please stay on existing trails; do not create new ones and do not shortcut."

So, where do you ride?
First, wait. Wait for 24 to 48 hours after the last rain for most trails to adequately dry out. If there are puddles in the middle of the trail, DO NOT RIDE AROUND THEM. Your horse or bike will widen the trail - soon, instead of a 5 feet wide trail, you have a 15 feet wide trail of ruts.

Where is the best place to ride after I wait?
The sandier, the better. Sandy soil drains much faster than clay soil. In our area, for example, the trails around Folsom Lake SRA have a natural base of decomposed granite and are good to go after the wait. Or, stay on the gravel ranch roads at Hidden Falls Regional Park or Empire Mine.

Where shouldn't I ride right after the rains?
Trails that are clay based will retain water longer, your tires will rut, and hooves will slip and slide, destroying the trails. Typical red clay-based trails are the narrow, cliff side trails in Hidden Falls Regional Park.

On these rainy days, it's a good time to repair and clean your bike, brush your horse, and wait for the sun to dry out the trails. Or, even better, put on your hiking boots and enjoy walking the quiet trails without your bike or horse.

E-bikes not allowed on trails at Empire Mine SHP

12/11/2025

Several people have reported unsafe e-bike usage on the multiuse trails at Empire Mine SHP and were unsure if they were allowed on the trails there. California State Parks has not authorized use of any e-bikes (electric motorized bikes) on any trail in Empire Mine SHP.

Please go here to see which parks do and do not allow e-bikes:
"State Parks units NOT LISTED BELOW DO NOT allow electric bicycle (e-bike) use except on roads open to public, street-legal vehicle use."
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30521

Empire Mine SHP is not listed there. The gravel fire road through the park is not open to public vehicle use, so e-bikes are not allowed on the fire road.

Time for change; Folsom Police and E-Bike issues

11/15/2025

Rohrbough emphasized the impact on existing trail users. “Thirty feels like sixty on the trail,” she said. “Even that’s disorienting, especially when I’m watching toddlers walk around and then dogs and any other pets.”
FOLSOM — A surge of dangerous, disruptive and increasingly confrontational e-bike and e-motorcycle behavior among juveniles across Folsom prompted an extended and unusually urgent briefing before the Folsom City Council Wednesday night, as police laid out the full scope of the issue and previewed changes they hope the city will adopt next month. With calls for service up nearly 300 percent, collisions tripled, new hotspots emerging and riders fleeing police with growing regularity, council members said the problem is no longer a fringe nuisance but a full-scale public-safety challenge affecting parks, playgrounds, trails, businesses and neighborhoods throughout the city.

He explained the distinctions among Class 1, 2 and 3 e-bikes, then shifted to one of the most misunderstood problems: e-motorcycles that resemble bicycles but behave like motor vehicles. “It goes faster than 30 miles an hour—some upwards of 60 or even 70 depending on the battery,” Yet officers regularly encounter minors riding them at high speeds without any of the required credentials. “You wouldn’t let your 15-year-old drive a Tesla,” he said he often tells parents, “but when it comes to the e-motorcycle, there’s some sort of a disconnect.”

Coupled with the 300 percent increase in calls for service and significant spikes in collisions, he said the usage surge is directly contributing to what officers see daily on trails, at parks and around schools. The city saw e-bike–related calls for service jump from 23 to 350—an increase of nearly 300 percent. “More than 90 percent of those are involving juveniles,” Verhalen said. Collisions tripled as well. “We only had four in 2023,” Verhalen said. “We’ve had 12 in 2025… and almost two-thirds of the riders were juveniles.” In about three-quarters of those incidents, the juvenile rider was at fault.

Council Member Anna Rohrbough said her Parkway district is inundated. “This is very concerning,” she said. “It’s pretty much the northern side of Parkway… what people reference as the Duck Pond… and they’re taking those motorcycles through that area, which is a nature reserve.” She questioned whether lowering trail speed limits, increasing fines, or adding signage would help.

Like Rohrbough, Kozlowski said drones could be a valuable enforcement tool. He expressed concern over the safety of chasing riders on trails. “Putting a motorcycle on the trails and chasing kids down… is probably dangerous,” he said. Verhalen clarified that officers do not chase riders on trails; motorcycle units use the access to “tuck away” with LiDAR and deter speeding. “As somebody comes down the trail… click the button… pull them over,” he said. For those who flee, he said drones can track them home. “Follow the person on that e-bike home with the drone… knock on that door.”

Rohrbough emphasized the impact on existing trail users. “Thirty feels like sixty on the trail,” she said. “Even that’s disorienting, especially when I’m watching toddlers walk around and then dogs and any other pets.”

Council members discussed signage, community involvement, neighborhood speed monitors, and the possibility of posting fines more visibly. Rohrbough said, “There’s not that many signs. I’m on the trails almost every day.” She said the city should consider placing more signs emphasizing the rules for e-bikes specifically.

CLICK HERE to see the complete article in the Folsom Times newspaper.

A new start after 60: I found my feet in midlife, became a park ranger at 85 – and retired happily at 100

11/14/2025

At 104, Betty Reid Soskin has had the most extraordinary life, from protest singing to civil rights activism to meeting the Obamas. She reflects on what it takes to stay strong and keep going
(Photo Credit: Soskin announces her retirement at a news conference in Richmond, California, 15 April 2022, aged 100. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Betty Reid Soskin was 92 when she first went viral and became, in effect, a rock star of the National Park Service. She was the oldest full-time national park ranger in the US – this was back in 2013; she’d become a ranger at 85 – but she had been furloughed along with 800,000 other federal employees during the government shutdown. News channels flocked to interview her. She was aggrieved not to be working, she told them; she had a job to do.

“In a funny way, I suppose that started lots of things,” Soskin says. Her memoir, Sign My Name to Freedom, was published in 2018, and a documentary about her work, No Time to Waste, was released in 2020. Another film is in the works. Barack Obama called her “profoundly inspiring”. Annie Leibovitz photographed her. Glamour magazine named her woman of the year. Now, Reid Soskin is 104, and “all of whatever I was supposed to do, I’ve done”, she says.

She retired as a ranger at 100, having helped to establish the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front national park in Richmond, California, where she shared, day after day, the wartime experiences of people of colour, because “what gets remembered is determined by who’s in the room doing the remembering”. At the time, she joked that her job was almost “like I’m running a federally funded revolution ... I was very aware that I was in my 90s and I really didn’t have time to waste,” she says.

Understandably, Soskin’s sense of time has evolved since entering her second century, softening into something more amorphous. “Now that I’ve held on a few more years, I really do feel old,” she says. “Memories are getting dimmer and dimmer, and events feel as if they happened yesterday … and simultaneously many years ago. Time has collapsed in on itself.”

Political events, too – she mentions Donald Trump’s deployment of the national guard to US cities – are collapsing “in on themselves. And I feel as though it’s all of a piece.”

Soskin is still not sitting back. “I follow politics very closely,” she says on a video call from her home in Richmond, where she lives with her daughter, Di’ara. “Even going through the 50s and the 60s with civil rights, that was all [progress],” she says. “I don’t feel as if that’s so now ... It’s seemed to me that [Trump] has no idea what he’s doing. I think we’ve lost our sense of direction. And that’s terrifying to me, because I’m going to leave the world in such a shape.

“I find myself wondering what [the world] is going to look like and I don’t have any idea. This is a time of chaos … We grow through life always thinking there’s something better ahead. And for the first time in my life, I’m not sure there is.”

Soskin was born Betty Charbonnet, and grew up initially in New Orleans; the family moved to Oakland, California, after the floods of 1927. Her father came from a Creole background, her mother a Cajun background, and her great-grandmother, who lived to 102, had been born into slavery in 1846. But after she came to public attention, new episodes of Soskin’s long and varied life kept coming to the fore. There are many different Bettys – she refers to herself as Betty, as a way to uncouple herself from the men in her life – and for a long time, she says, she didn’t know “who Betty was”.

There was the Betty who had opened Reid’s Records in 1945, one of the first black record shops in California, with her then husband, Mel Reid. There was Betty the singer of protest songs, who surfaced on social media a few years ago in a set of reel-to-reel tapes recorded in her 30s. There was Betty the civil rights and community activist who raised funds for the Black Panthers and later helped to tackle the drug trade in the area around Reid’s Records. There was Betty who worked in local government as a legislative aide. All this before she became famous as the National Park Service’s oldest, and possibly most outspoken, ranger.

It was when “the three men” in her life died – Reid; her second husband, the psychologist William Soskin; and her father – in a three-month period in the late 1980s, that Reid Soskin’s life was transformed. “It’s like I stepped out of one life and went into another,” she says.
“That was actually when my life started. Because I didn’t really know who I was until then. Then I became Betty. Oh, that was wonderful. I really began to see myself as being a part of the world. I began to be in my own shoes. I had things to do – and that lasted until I was 100. I went on doing things. I was no longer becoming, I was simply being.”

In 2015, she was asked to introduce Obama at the national Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Washington DC. (She had previously declined an invitation to the White House from George W Bush.)
“I remember being led to where [the Obamas] were standing between two flags. And rather than look at the president, I was looking at her [Michelle] and saying out loud, ‘You are so beautiful.’” Soskin had in her pocket that day a photograph of her great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, whom Betty knew well into her own 20s. I stood there like a page of history,” she says. “I was standing beside the president of the United States. I was standing within the shadow of the White House. And it was built by slaves.”

She holds a commemorative coin up to her camera: Obama slipped one just like it into her hand when he shook it. The original was stolen in a house burglary, so this one is a replacement. “I don’t think there’s ever anything that matches the lived moment,” she says. Mementoes are “like ashes. They’re simply symbols of what was.”

Soskin says she no longer thinks of herself as a feminist or an activist, just “as a person. I never did like labels.” She doesn’t even regard herself as “a singer”; simply as “a Betty who sang”. She started composing songs on a guitar, a Christmas gift from Reid, when their marriage was disintegrating. “I was in the middle of a breakdown, and I thought I was remembering things,” she says, realising only much later that she was actually creating them – “and seemed to have captured all the things that were important”.

She could have been a successful singer. She once performed with Pete Seeger, and after the film-maker Henry Hampton heard her at a Unitarian convention, she says, “he convinced me that I could sing, and he had me come to Connecticut. I spent two weeks with a musical director.” But on the eve of her audition to sing at the Village Vanguard in New York she says, she decided to go home instead. She had been to a party in New York: “I found myself in a room filled with people who were using marijuana. I had never seen it. And I decided then that wasn’t the world for me. I went home.”
Soskin only sings now, she says, when she’s asleep: “I remember every line of everything in my dreams.”

In an age when longevity is prized, how does she feel about living so long? “I think it’s given to us. I don’t know that I could have controlled what I’m doing or how I’m living. I just – I don’t. I think it’s a gift. I don’t know where it will lead or where it’s going to take me. I have no idea. Except it’s off. It’s running free.”

To read the original article in The Guardian newspaper, CLICK HERE.

California State Parks has free admission for military members on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2025

11/10/2025

Participating State Park Units for Free Admission for Veterans, Active and Reserve Military Members – Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025
Participating Parks in our area

Auburn State Recreation Area (SRA)
Bidwell-Sacramento River SP
California State Railroad Museum
Colusa-Sacramento River SRA
Donner Memorial SP
Emerald Bay SP
Empire Mine SHP
Folsom Lake SRA
Folsom Powerhouse SHP
Lake Oroville SRA
Malakoff Diggins SHP
Marshall Gold Discovery SHP
Prairie City SVRA
South Yuba River SP
Sutter’s Fort SHP

*Veterans, active duty and reserve military personnel must show a valid military ID, or proof of discharge other than dishonorable or bad conduct, in order to receive the free admission.

For more information and a list of all the parks, click here:
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=31769

Trump nominates oil executive to be BLM Director to open millions of acres of public lands to drilling and mining

11/8/2025

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP News) — President Donald Trump nominated Steve Pearce from New Mexico on Wednesday to oversee the management of vast public lands that are playing a central role in Republican attempts to ramp up fossil fuel production. The land bureau went four years without a confirmed director during Trump’s first term.

The nominee for the Bureau of Land Management, former Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico, who led a successful oil-services company in New Mexico. He was first elected to the House in 2003 and served seven terms in a district spanning oil fields and vast tracts of public land under federal oversight. The agency manages a quarter-billion acres — about 10% of land in the U.S. It’s also responsible for 700 million acres of underground minerals, including major reserves of oil, natural gas and coal. Pearce must be confirmed by the Senate.

The agency’s policies have swung sharply as control of the White House has shifted between Republicans and Democrats.

Under Democratic President Joe Biden, former bureau Director Tracy Stone-Manning curbed oil drilling and coal mining on federal lands while expanding renewable power in a bid to curb climate change. Trump and Republicans in Congress have moved quickly to unravel those actions. In a matter of months they’ve opened millions of acres of public lands for mining and drilling and canceled land plans and conservation strategies that other administrations took years to formulate.

But some moves have fallen flat, including a proposal by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee to sell more than 2 million acres of federal lands to states or other entities. In October, the largest government coal lease sale in more than a decade drew a dirt-cheap bid that was rejected.

A previous nominee to lead the agency, longtime oil and gas industry representative Kathleen Sgamma, withdrew in April following revelations that she criticized Trump in 2021 for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Pearce is a former fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran who led a successful oil-services company in New Mexico. He was first elected to the House in 2003 and served seven terms in a district spanning oil fields and vast tracts of public land under federal oversight.

Pearce had a conservative voting record. He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Tom Udall in 2008, and lost a bid for governor in 2018 to Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham. Pearce later served as chair of the state Republican Party and was a strong supporter of Trump, who lost three times in New Mexico.

During Trump’s first term, Pearce urged the U.S. Interior Department to reduce the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument outside Las Cruces, New Mexico, as part of a nationwide review of monument designations. He said a reduction would preserve traditional business enterprises on public lands. That earned him lasting ire from environmentalists who called Wednesday for his nomination to be rejected.

The Sierra Club said in a statement that Pearce was “an opponent of the landscapes and waters that generations of Americans have explored and treasured.”

Livestock industry groups expressed support. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Public Lands Council said in a joint statement that Pearce “understands the important role that public lands play across the West.” "Pearce’s experience makes him thoroughly qualified to lead the BLM and tackle the issues federal lands ranchers are facing,” the groups said.

The land bureau went four years without a confirmed director during Trump’s first term. The Republican president also moved its headquarters to Colorado before it was returned to Washington, D.C., under Biden.

The agency had about 9,250 employees at the start of the government shutdown on Oct. 1. That’s down by roughly 800 employees since the start of Trump’s term, following widespread layoffs and resignations driven by the administration’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce.

Oil, gas and coal permitting has continued during the shutdown and most land bureau employees were exempted from furloughs.
___
Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
By MATTHEW BROWN and MORGAN LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tahoe National Forest prescribed burn in Scotts Drop area

11/4/2025

PRESCRIBED FIRE:
Tahoe National Forest will be conducting a prescribed burn below portions of the Scotts Drop Trail on November 5th. The trail will remain open, however, we urge riders to use caution while in the area due to potential smoke impacts.

<<Previous

Archives

Categories