President Trump has turbocharged logging on public lands in ways that are likely to increase dangerous wildfire, writes Mitch Friedman. Inside the “Big Beautiful Bill” that became law this summer, a provision directs the Forest Service to annually increase the timber it sells until the amount doubles to 6 billion-board-feet by 2032. And with many environmental protections dropped, it’s the big trees that will get logged, leaving behind smaller, flammable trees. “This will worsen existing tinderbox conditions, particularly in the West,” Friedman warns.

The Wyoming man who deliberately ran down a wolf with his snowmobile in 2024 didn’t suffer much afterward unless you count a $250 fine for “possessing a live animal.” But as the story and graphic photos of the wolf’s suffering was retold, public reaction could be summed up as “horrified,” writes Wendy Keefover.But nothing changed in the state until last week, when a grand jury indicted Cody Roberts for animal cruelty, a felony. Now, writes Keefover, Wyoming has a chance to change its relationship with wildlife.

In December, residents of Teton County, Wyoming, learned they were the wealthiest people in the country, making an average of $471,751 a year. That news instantly intrigued four, longtime, "dirt bag" residents of Jackson Hole. What would it be like, they wondered, if they lived and worked in the nation's second wealthiest place—Aspen, Colorado? A visit to Aspen by road bike led them to reach at least one conclusion: Second-hand clothing stores are a must when you live cheek by jowl with the rich.

Over the last decade as the failing economics of coal shuttered a series of power plants, the air on the Colorado Plateau—when not sullied by the ever-lengthening wildfire season—became ever cleaner and clearer. Yet in defiance of the free market that boosted cheaper renewables, the Trump administration is throwing multiple lifelines to the flagging coal industry.

Picture our ancestors spellbound by star-drenched skies, their lives woven into the vibrant dawn and night’s inky embrace. These celestial rhythms guided their slumber, journeys, and myths, tying us to the cosmos.

This week’s opinion is from Marjorie ‘Slim’ Woodruff, about the increasing popularity of electric bikes. Always up for a fight, Woodruff argues that their use at national parks and other public lands is a slippery slope of electric bikers clamoring for ever-greater access—to the detriment of trails and experience in the wild.

Last week, writes T.A. Barron, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee updated its bill to include privatizing over 250 million acres of public lands in 11 western states, making them eligible for “disposal.” Barron urges public land users to stand up now against this sell off. Once in private hands, he warns, wild places are gone forever and “no trespassing” signs are the result.

Erasing history, one park at a time, by Ernie Atencio, tells of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's plan to eliminate "negative" depictions of U.S. history at national parks, monuments and other public lands. Not so easy, writes Atencio, as Americans expect to learn a true story no matter how cruel or unpleasant. How, for instance, do you sanitize the World War II creation of Japanese American internment camps? Atencio warns: “The past might not be pretty, but what occurred is called history, and it’s important that we learn what we hope never to repeat.”

In the Northwest’s old-growth forests, home of the timber wars of the 1990s, brown-striped barred owls are moving in and stealing the prey base needed by the smaller, and endangered, northern spotted owls. The federal solution, writes Mitch Friedman, is for sharpshooters to kill 16,000 barred owls a year. Decades ago, Friedman was an Earth First! member who spent days as a tree sitter, hoping to thwart old growth logging. Now, the spotted owl that halted the logging of ancient trees needs drastic help. Friedman explains where he stands on this controversial issue.

Because of federal staff cuts, two online registries for cancer studies and the health status of firefighters are down and no longer operate, writes Riva Duncan, wildland firefighter and advocate. As the busy summer fire season approaches, it’s just one more “punch in the gut,” says one firefighter. “But when the fire call comes, we’ll respond like we always do and worry later.”