https://www.megcarney.com/outdoor-minimalist

Outdoor Minimalist, Ely, MN (2026)

09/07/2026

The Trump administration is pitching the repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule as a way to improve wildfire mitigation.

The argument is that removing restrictions on road construction and timber harvesting would give the Forest Service greater access to roadless areas and make it easier to conduct fuels reduction work.

But the Forest Service’s own draft environmental impact statement found that repealing the rule could increase the risk of wildfire starts, while the potential benefits from additional fuel-reduction work in roadless areas would be “modest.”

A Forest Service research study has also found that roads can bring increased human-caused fire ignitions, while concluding that the idea that eliminating road restrictions would improve forest health isn’t supported by nearly two decades of monitoring data.

The proposed repeal would remove protections from nearly 45 million acres of national forest, and the public comment period is currently open through September 21.

[link to comment in bio]

Listen to the September 7 episode of the Outdoor Minimalist podcast for the full interview.

09/03/2026

The Trump administration is moving to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which currently limits road construction and reconstruction in roughly 45 million acres of national forest land.

At the same time, the Forest Service is proposing major changes to the Travel Management Rule that would flip the current approach to motorized access: instead of vehicles being allowed only on routes designated for motorized use, roads and trails would generally be presumed open unless specifically closed.

Here’s where these two proposals intersect:

The Roadless Rule rollback could make it easier to build new roads in areas that are currently protected from most road construction.

The Travel Management Rule changes could then make more of those roads and routes available for motorized use.

The administration says these changes will improve access and give land managers more flexibility, including for wildfire management.

But more roads and more motorized access can also mean more human activity in previously remote areas, and research has found that human-caused wildfire ignitions are disproportionately concentrated near roads.

So what happens when you combine the removal of protections against new roads with a rule that expands motorized access?

I spoke with Thomas Delehanty, a senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office, to break down what these changes could mean for our national forests.

Tune into the September 7 episode of the Outdoor Minimalist Podcast to hear the full conversation.

And if you want to weigh in: the Forest Service is accepting public comments on the proposed Travel Management Rule changes through September 23, 2026.

09/02/2026

A federal administrative judge has halted construction of a proposed data center on Bureau of Land Management land near Boulder City, Nevada.

The Interior Board of Land Appeals granted a stay on September 1, putting construction on hold while it considers challenges to BLM’s approval of the project.

The data center is proposed by Townsite Solar 2 on roughly 80 acres of federal land.

The project originally received BLM approval in 2023 as a solar and battery-storage facility. Earlier this year, Townsite Solar 2 amended the project to instead build a data center.

BLM approved the change without conducting a new environmental review or public-comment period, arguing that the data center was “substantially the same” as the previously approved solar project.

That decision prompted two appeals.

Boulder City filed its own appeal, arguing that BLM failed to adequately consult with the city or provide the public with the opportunity for input required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity also appealed, challenging BLM’s environmental analysis and its decision to treat the solar project and data center as substantially the same.

In granting the stay, Administrative Judge David Gunter found that the environmental groups had made a persuasive case that BLM violated NEPA and acted arbitrarily or capriciously in approving the project.

The stay effectively halts construction while the appeal is resolved, a process that could take years.

If built, the Townsite Data Center would be the first data center permitted on BLM-managed land, making the outcome of this case potentially significant well beyond Boulder City.

Listen to new a Public Lands News Briefing every other Monday on the Outdoor Minimalist Podcast.

Available on all podcast platforms, including YouTube.

Sources: 3News Las Vegas, The Nevada Independent, Bureau of Land Management, City of Boulder City

08/31/2026

Something I’ve always loved about human-powered adventures is that it can teach you a lot about what you really need to live a happy, fulfilled life.

Riding a bike, whether it’s on a trip thousands of miles across the country or down the street to a grocery store, access to safe and easy biking routes is also an avenue to building community.

But what’s interesting about biking, especially in the United States, is how novel it actually is, and how in many ways, our limited access to biking and walking is by design.

My guest today is Taylor Nichols. Taylor is the producer and co-host of Bike Talk, a podcast and radio show covering urban planning, cycling, and bicycle advocacy.

An avid cyclist himself, he combines his background in journalism and storytelling to explore how bikes shape transportation, communities, and public policy.

Listen on all podcast platforms.

08/27/2026

The Trump administration’s decision to dramatically shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments has already had consequences on the ground.

We covered this right before it happened last month, but a lot has happened since then.

Just one day after the proclamation reducing Bears Ears was signed, Kimmerle Mining filed seven mining claims in areas cut out of the monument.

Soon after, two more claims were filed in areas removed from Grand Staircase-Escalante.

And even under the Trump administration’s own proclamations, mining claims aren’t supposed to be staked in these areas until September 11.

At the same time, the administration has been removing monument signs from both landscapes, including the five Tribal seals that represented the Tribes involved in the Bears Ears Commission.

And the backlash has been growing, with Tribal nations, Utah residents, conservation groups, and lawmakers pushing back against the rollbacks and preparing to challenge them in court.

To better understand what these changes mean for everyone, but especially for Tribal communities, I spoke with Autumn Gillard, a Southern Paiute and coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition in the August 24 episode of the Outdoor Minimalist Podcast.

Listen on all podcast platforms.

08/24/2026

Earlier this month, bulldozers and other heavy equipment moved into Big Bend National Park as part of the Trump administration’s border infrastructure expansion through the Big Bend region of Texas.

Crews have cleared vegetation and built roads through areas that include archaeological resources and landscapes that remain culturally and spiritually significant to Indigenous communities today.

Two lawsuits have now been filed challenging the construction. One, brought by People of La Junta for Preservation, argues that the project threatens archaeological resources, ancestral landscapes, traditional-use areas and places of religious significance.

A second lawsuit, filed by several individuals and organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity, challenges the federal government’s use of broad legal waivers to move the project forward.

Then, last week, Customs and Border Protection announced a pause on construction in Big Bend National Park while CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott conducts an on-the-ground evaluation and meets with local leaders and stakeholders.

But the pause comes after ground-disturbing work has already begun, and it does not mean the project has been canceled.

The lawsuits also warn that additional work could resume as soon as September 9.

For Christina Hernandez, founder of People of La Junta for Preservation, the stakes go far beyond the construction itself:

“We’re the next group of people on the chopping block, and that we don’t matter.”

Christina joined me for the latest episode of Outdoor Minimalist: Public Lands News Briefing to talk about what is happening in Big Bend, the cultural and religious significance of the Rio Grande, and what this fight looks like for the communities who have maintained relationships with this landscape for generations.

Listen to the full interview on the August 24 episode of Outdoor Minimalist podcast.

08/21/2026

Okay, I know I have been gone a lot lately, but this is FINALLY a trip that’s not work-related.

I’ve been working hard to scale this show and that has taken a lot of travel + face-to-face networking and I’m exhausted from all the socialization and travel.

And while we have been making progress, this paddle trip is one I’ve been looking forward to with my best friend since birth and will hopefully stave off this looming burnout a little bit longer.

You’ll still hear the Outdoor Minimalist podcast this coming Monday, featuring two amazing guests + expect to see some scheduled posts pop up throughout the week as well.

Thank you all so much for your continued support, and with that, I’m off to spend some quality time with our public lands and a couple of the souls I cherish most ❤️

08/20/2026

The Trump administration, specifically USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, is moving to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which has protected more than 44 million acres of national forest land from most road construction and timber harvesting for the past 25 years.

On August 18, USDA announced its proposed rule to rescind the Roadless Rule, along with a draft environmental impact statement.

If finalized, the change would eliminate the national restrictions and return decisions about roadless areas to individual national forests through their land management plans.

That does not mean roads and logging would immediately be allowed across all roadless forests.

But it would give local Forest Service officials greater flexibility to approve road construction, timber harvest and other activities where land management plans allow them.

USDA’s own analysis says the proposal could expand opportunities for timber harvest and road construction and could affect recreation and other uses of roadless lands.

And in the press release, Brooke Rollins stated, ““For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities.” And falsely claimed that logging is needed in roadless forests for wildfire prevention.

Under the roadless rule, wildfire management mitigation in roadless forests is allowed.

Now, the public can weigh in.

Comments are due by midnight on September 21, 2026.

Submit comments through Regulations.gov [link in bio] by searching for “RIN 0596-AD66” or “docket FS-2025-0001” but just searching “roadless rule” can work too.

Your comments will become part of the public record and will be considered as USDA develops the final rule and environmental impact statement.

08/18/2026

On Tuesday, August 18, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order today aimed at protecting the Boundary Waters from nonferrous mineral mining, directing state agencies to halt new environmental review and permitting for mining proposals in the Rainy River Headwaters watershed, which is the watershed that feeds the Boundary Waters.

The order also stops the state from issuing new mineral and surface leases for mining in the watershed, directs the review and enforcement of existing state leases, and tells the DNR to draft legislation that would permanently prohibit nonferrous mining there.

Earlier this year, Congress overturned the federal government’s 2023 decision to withdraw 225,504 acres of federal land and minerals in the watershed from the federal mineral leasing program for 20 years.

That withdrawal followed a 454-day process that included nearly 675,000 public comments and 22 scientific resource reports.

The federal protection is now gone, so Minnesota is using the authority it still has to try to prevent mining from getting a foothold in the watershed.

But this executive order is not the same thing as a permanent ban.

It is an executive action that could be undone by a future administration, and existing state mineral leases are not automatically canceled.

The more lasting piece of the order is its direction to draft legislation banning sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed, but that legislation still needs to become law.

For now, Minnesotans can contact their state representatives and senators and ask them to make permanent protection for the Boundary Waters a reality.

I’ll be breaking down what this executive order means and the broader fight over the Boundary Waters on the August 24 episode of the Outdoor Minimalist podcast.

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, including YouTube.

08/17/2026

When the political moment feels overwhelming, what role do public lands actually play?

Are they a luxury issue or something more fundamental to democracy itself?

These are some of the core questions at the root of our conversation today, but much of what we need to know to protect our public lands might actually come from the history of these lands themselves.

Will De Man is a Michigan-based educator, writer, and public land advocate. He combines history and advocacy to help his audience understand and respond to the many issues our public lands and national parks are facing.

And as you’ll hear in my full conversation with Will, he challenges us to reevaluate our relationship with civic engagement, to find beacons of hope through dark times, and to reflect on the history that has brought us to the public lands we know and love today.

Listen to the full interview in episode 229 of the Outdoor Minimalist podcast.

Available on all podcast platforms, including YouTube.

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