Washington, D.C. — The sight of President Donald Trump’s face on the new national park annual passes will be a sad reminder of his administration’s historic attack on America’s parks and public lands over the past year.
A new analysis from the Center for American Progress explains how Trump has steadily weakened conservation protections for public lands, gutted funding and staffing needed to manage these lands, and opened massive areas of public lands to drilling, mining, and logging. Those actions to eliminate conservation protections for public lands have already broken records set over the course of Trump’s first term.
“The story of 2025 has been a dark one for America’s parks and public lands, but the mobilization of people across the country in defense of those lands has been a bright spot,” said Drew McConville, senior fellow at CAP and author of the analysis. “If President Trump’s agenda for 2026 stays focused on firing rangers, erasing protections, and selling off public lands, it will remain unpopular and deeply out of touch with what the American people want.”
A recent CAP report found that the Trump administration’s actions would strip protections from nearly 88 million acres of public lands—the equivalent of 117 Yosemite national parks. In fact, Trump remains the only president in U.S. history to have removed protections for more public lands than he has protected. These attacks on conservation protections were mirrored by unprecedented cuts to the staff and budgets dedicated to stewarding public lands across the United States.
Read the analysis: “A Historically Bad Year for Public Lands Under President Trump” by Drew McConville
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected].