Conservation groups are bracing for battles with the incoming Trump administration/Rebecca Latson file

Memories of the approach the Trump administration took to the environment, and concerns over a "conservative blueprint" for the coming administration, sent shudders through the conservation community after Donald Trump's re-election.

"The impacts of this election are already being felt around the globe. Even before President-elect Trump takes the oath of office, Americans want to know what it will mean," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association.

How Might Project 2025 Materialize?

Much was made by Democrats during the presidential campaign of "Project 2025," a conservative blueprint, if you will, for how a Republican president should govern, beginning next year. Trump worked throughout the campaign to distance himself from that document, which was written by former members of his last administration and who were all members of the conservative Heritage Foundation.  

Nevertheless, concerns that some, if not many, aspects of Project 2025 will surface were voiced Wednesday by conservation groups worried about the future of the Endangered Species Act, other wildlife measures and issues, and clean water.

"In the aftermath of the United States 2024 elections, one reality remains unchanged — human activities are driving over one million species to extinction,” said Susan Holmes, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “President-elect Trump and the new Senate majority are no friends to wildlife. Mr. Trump and his allies have stated that they will seek to end protections for vulnerable species like wolves and grizzlies and open up essential habitats to oil and gas development. We will do all we can to stop President-elect Trump’s extinction agenda before cherished plant and animal species are lost forever."

At Defenders of Wildlife, Andrew Bowman, president and CEO, weighed in that "[W]e don’t need a crystal ball to know that the incoming administration, led by President-elect Trump, will push a legislative and regulatory agenda that is designed to dismantle bedrock conservation laws like the Endangered Species Act, and destroy the wildlife and habitat we cherish. We’ve seen this story before. Thankfully, however, we not only have allies on Capitol Hill who value wildlife and wish to preserve it for future generations, but we also have a game plan in place to ensure wildlife isn’t sidelined in the tumultuous weeks and months ahead."

Tom Kiernan, president and CEO of American Rivers, wasn't as harsh in speaking of the next administration, saying "[R]ivers offer a chance for divided communities to come together around desperately needed solutions. American Rivers looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and all of our elected leaders to make every community in our country stronger, safer, and healthier by investing in clean water and healthy rivers."

"NPCA has been fighting for parks alongside our members and supporters for more than a century," Pierno pointed out. "We have worked with 19 presidential administrations, dozens of Interior Secretaries and every single National Park Service director. We always strive to find common ground — and we most certainly fight back when our parks need us to.

"During the last Trump administration, we saw attempts to weaken or dismantle the agencies that protect parks and public lands," she went on. "We saw attempts to undo environmental protections that had stood for decades. Thanks to our community of park supporters, we were able to stop many of those attacks — and we’re prepared to defend our parks again."

What Does Project 2025 Call For?

While the concerns of conservation and environmental organizations are tied to the first Trump administration's approach to the environment — he downsized national monuments, ignored climate change warnings, hampered land acquisition through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, pushed for oil and gas drilling in parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and eased Endangered Species Act provisions that benefited wildlife, just to name a few anti-environment steps he took — the contents of Project 2025 also are worrisome to them.

For instance, the document calls for:

• Removal of the 10-mile buffer that blocks oil and gas development around Chaco Cultural Historic National Park in New Mexico for 20 years;
• Reinstating President Trump's rules pertaining to the Endangered Species Act definitions for Critical Habitat and Critical Habitat Exclusions;
• Reinstating President Trump's rules pertaining to the Migratory Bird Act;
• Revoking National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules regarding predator control and bear baiting, "which are matters for state regulation";
• "Recognizing Alaska’s authority to manage fish and game on all federal lands in accordance with ANILCA as during the Reagan Administration, when each DOI agency in Alaska signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game ceding to the state the lead on fish and wildlife management matters";
• Reviewing and downsizing national monuments;
• "[S]eeking repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906, which permitted emergency action by a president long before the statutory authority existed for the protection of special federal lands, such as those with wild and scenic rivers, endangered specials, or other unique places";
• Reforming the National Environmental Policy Act and "[reinstating] the secretarial orders adopted by the Trump administration, such as placing time and page limits on NEPA documents and setting forth—on page one—the costs of the document itself. Meanwhile, the new administration should call upon Congress to reform NEPA to meet its original goal. Consideration should be given, for example, to eliminating judicial review of the adequacy of NEPA documents or the rectitude of NEPA decisions";
• Pushing meaningful reform of the Endangered Species Act, which "requires that Congress take action to restore its original purpose and end its use to seize private property, prevent economic development, and interfere with the rights of states over their wildlife populations";
• Delisting the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems;
• Delisting the gray wolf in the lower 48 states;
• Directing the Fish and Wildlife Service to "end its abuse of Section 10( j) of the ESA by re-introducing so-called 'experiment species' populations into areas that no longer qualify as habitat and lie outside the historic ranges of those species"; and,
• Directing the Fish and Wildlife Service to: "(1) design and implement an Endangered Species Act program that ensures independent decision-making by ending reliance on so-called species specialists who have obvious self-interest, ideological bias, and land-use agendas."

Civil Servants Or Not

Trump also moved during his first term to reduce many civil service protections and reclassify jobs as "policy" positions that would serve at the president's pleasure. Part of the Executive Order he signed to create a new category of the federal workforce stated that agencies needed “the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation.”

President Biden revoked the order, much to the approval of the National Parks Conservation Association, the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, and the Association of National Park Rangers.

"[W]e completely agree with President Biden’s rationale for revoking the Trump executive order," the group's said in comments made on the Biden administration's proposed rule to uphold Civil Service Protections and Merit System Principles. "In essence, the goal of E.O. 13957 was to make it easier for the Trump administration to fire federal civil servants and replace them with political appointees who would be loyal to their political agenda, and not to the American people or the missions of the federal agencies that employed them. There is good cause to be concerned that a future administration that does not value nonpartisan civil servants could again pursue an effort such as was envisioned in E.O. 13957."

During Trump's first term his Interior Department forced out some Park Service officials. Among the victims was Dan Wenk, a decades-long Park Service employee who was superintendent of Yellowstone National Park when he retired in 2018 rather than move across the country to oversee the National Capital Region of the Park Service. A member of the Senior Executive Service, Wenk's position with the Park Service was at the will of the agency's director. And when he and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke got cross-wise over how Yellowstone's bison herds should be managed, Wenk was told to either head to Washington or retire.

Intermountain Regional Director Sue Masica also decided to retire that year rather than move to Omaha, Nebraska, to take over the Midwest Region office, which had been headed by Cam Sholly until he was told to take over at Yellowstone. And while Zinke wanted Lake Mead National Recreation Area Superintendent Lizette Richardson to take over for Masica at the Intermountain Region, she, too, decided to retire.

Those decisions opened vacancies for directors of the Midwest, Intermountain, and National Capital regions, which combined oversee more than 150 units of the National Park System.

Not to be overlooked was that the first Trump administration never hired a permanent Park Service director, instead relying on a series of "acting" directors.