The Mountaineers
One of the ways the recreation community speaks up for the lands we love is by participating in public comment opportunities provided by federal land agencies like the Forest Service and the National Park Service. Many opportunities to weigh in on land management planning processes are required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Through the years, Mountaineers have continued to answer calls to action to participate in NEPA processes, including efforts to protect Washington’s Methow Valley from mining and how to access Mount Rainier National Park during the peak summer season.
NEPA protects the public’s right to review and provide input on potential environmental impacts of federal projects and other agency actions. NEPA is one of the most important laws for environmental quality and public lands management because it requires that agencies measure the impact of changes to public lands - like building a new mine, a timber sale, or enlarging a parking lot. Another example of a NEPA process our community has engaged in is the effort to update the Northwest Forest Plan.
As the year progresses, legislative and administrative attacks on NEPA continue to mount. We’ve compiled a policy update that runs down the latest threats to public engagement and environment protection from the effort to undermine NEPA. Spoiler alert: It’s not looking good. In fact, the future of NEPA looks pretty dire.
Congress Undermines NEPA Through Budget Reconciliation
Last month, we were disappointed to see efforts to undermine NEPA in Congress’ final 2025 budget reconciliation bill, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” NEPA-related language in the bill allows developers to pay to expedite environmental reviews, bypass judicial review, and circumvent public input. These unprecedented actions would set up a pay-to-play model, giving a rubber stamp to potential environmental harm and undercutting public review of federal projects.
These moves to undermine NEPA and short-circuit public review sends federal permitting down the wrong path. Unfortunately, the recent efforts to overhaul this bedrock environmental law don’t stop there.
Ongoing Administrative Efforts to Reshape NEPA
This summer, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced interim final rules that would change longstanding public engagement provisions of NEPA, affecting several agencies including the National Park Service and the Forest Service. These rules would significantly curtail opportunities for the public to comment on the environmental consequences of agency actions. Alarmingly, the rules would remove the requirement for public comment opportunities on draft environmental impact statements. This means that the people and communities most impacted by these types of projects, including the outdoor recreation community, would be left without a voice at a critical juncture in the review process.
Several other provisions of the rule would eliminate scoping processes - a key step where agencies offer a range of potential actions for consideration. This change eliminates an essential up-front opportunity for our community to identify issues relevant to outdoor recreation that may merit further analysis or changes to project design.
The interim final rule would also reshape NEPA by expanding and loosening the use of categorial exclusions. Categorial exclusions exempt a project from a full environmental analysis through the NEPA process. In addition to significantly building out exemptions, the rule would rush NEPA analysis to meet one or two-year deadlines and narrowly redefine environmental effects during project reviews. These changes would prioritize expediency over decision-making driven by the best available science and public comments.
Defending NEPA
We understand that NEPA isn’t perfect, but these harmful changes would significantly impact our lands, waters, and communities. Once the rule is implemented, it will be harder to restore the vital aspects of this important law. The Mountaineers and our partners at Outdoor Alliance provided public comment on the administration’s proposed interim final NEPA rules. The DOI and USDA interim final rules are already in effect, and we expect the final rule to take effect this fall.
We’ll continue to track these efforts to undermine NEPA and share our concerns about the likely impact on impending loss of public review and input. With public input significantly curtailed moving forward, it will be more important than ever for outdoor enthusiasts to speak up for a more sustainable future for our federally managed public lands.
We’ll keep our community updated on future opportunities to speak up for strong environmental review and public processes. In the meantime, learn more about the different steps and opportunities provided by the NEPA process, and get ready to provide public comment in our Advocacy 101 eLearning course. Together, we can shape more sustainable management of our shared lands and waters.
