The 2026 proposed DOI budget. Let's talk numbers...
- Thread starter Justabirdwatcher
- Start date
Nameless Range
Well-known member
So many local efforts I'm aware of are really dying on the vine, if not being totally demolished. So much good from the past and opportunity for the future busted up. And for what?
It's not hard to reach out to your congressman and say you oppose the sale of public lands outright, but it is much harder, and I sense, less effective, to talk numbers in a budget. More often lately I am resigned to feeling like we are on a ride and the best you can do is hang on and hope for the future. One of the challenges with a budget like this is the damage it will do, won't reveal itself immediately or even in the term of this administration. The opportunities we will lose, won't ever be seen, and the counterfactual is a difficult story to tell.
I know it's a tired subject on here, but I feel a real lack of silence from some of the bigger conservation orgs out there. Perhaps they are working "behind the scenes", but that just doesn't connect for me - maybe their opposition is lost in the onslaught of information. For people who care, this is exhausting and I suppose that's the tactic.
It's not hard to reach out to your congressman and say you oppose the sale of public lands outright, but it is much harder, and I sense, less effective, to talk numbers in a budget. More often lately I am resigned to feeling like we are on a ride and the best you can do is hang on and hope for the future. One of the challenges with a budget like this is the damage it will do, won't reveal itself immediately or even in the term of this administration. The opportunities we will lose, won't ever be seen, and the counterfactual is a difficult story to tell.
I know it's a tired subject on here, but I feel a real lack of silence from some of the bigger conservation orgs out there. Perhaps they are working "behind the scenes", but that just doesn't connect for me - maybe their opposition is lost in the onslaught of information. For people who care, this is exhausting and I suppose that's the tactic.
I think you’re on to something with this. In a bizarre way, this admin’s incoherence may be its strategic advantage.
Hunting Wife
Well-known member
Aside from the budget, there are administrative restrictions being placed on how funds get utilized. For example, DOI is now requiring county commissioners and the state governor to officially provide a “non-objection” before LWCF funds can be used for acquisitions- both easement or fee-title.
It might get left in the budget, but the administration is going to throw up as many hurdles as possible for spending it.
It might get left in the budget, but the administration is going to throw up as many hurdles as possible for spending it.
SAJ-99
Well-known member
There is no clean way out of this mess, and certainly not one that politicians will embrace. The next messaging cycle will be "we will grow our way out of it". We won't. Holding steadfast to ideologic belief that taxes are too high or that the less-fortunate should be given free stuff is a poor combination for any solutions. Now I know how Diogenes felt.
