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First, the Trump administration went after Mendocino County’s local land managers when the Department of Government Efficiency announced plans to close the Bureau of Land Management field office in Ukiah. This office manages 270,000 acres across our region, assists with wildfire communication and works with local ranchers, recreationists and traditional land stewards. Then they came for our national environmental protection policies like the National Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act and the Roadless Rule.
Proposed funding cuts and plans to close the U.S. Department of Agriculture regional offices are another attack on our local land managers who are vital for forest and fire management and agricultural production throughout California.
Now they are coming for our Public Lands Rule, a rule that ensures our public lands and wild forests remain accessible and are used sustainably. This systematic dismantling of public land protections is being orchestrated from Washington D.C., but we are feeling it right here in Mendocino County, and we’re about to lose treasures that define our community.
On September 10, the Trump administration moved to eliminate the Public Lands Rule, a rule supported by 92% of the more than 150,000 Americans who commented on it. The rule recognizes conservation as a legitimate land use alongside recreation, grazing and resource extraction. Built on science and centuries of management experience, it gives local land managers the tools to maintain healthy ecosystems while supporting the diverse ways our communities depend on public lands.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which stretches in the coastal ranges from Mendocino County across Lake, Yolo, Solano, Glenn, Colusa and Napa counties, exemplifies true multiple use by simultaneously sustaining recreation, grazing, cultural preservation and conservation. Local BLM managers and US Forest Service Rangers work with ranchers, tribal nations, scientists and outdoor enthusiasts to balance these uses while protecting the area’s incredible cultural and biological diversity.
Now this balanced approach faces multiple threats: office closures and staff reductions at the BLM and US Forest Services offices that manage the Monument, evisceration of the Roadless Rule and rescission of the Public Lands Rule that provides multiple use management tools. What emerges from this combination of attacks won’t be multiple use — it will be single use focused on extraction and private profit.
The pattern is clear: eliminate local expertise, remove protective rules and auction off our public lands to the highest bidder.
Conservation is multiple use
The Public Lands Rule recognizes conservation as a type of land use, understanding that our landscapes require rest and recovery. When mining operations contaminate watersheds, it impacts families, local businesses and agricultural communities downstream that rely on clean water.
The Public Lands Rule recognizes this interconnected reality. It’s designed to ensure that the places we depend on, whether for recreation or our livelihood, stay healthy enough to support these uses long-term. It ensures responsible and sustainable grazing practices, forest management and water quality.
Without the Public Lands Rule, land managers, ranchers and local community members are stripped of the necessary tools to monitor landscape health, costing us all to lose equal access to healthy public lands and our shared natural resources.
Cashing In on our commons
Decisions made by the Trump administration have focused on short-term profit, extraction and selling public lands to private entities rather than investing in the spaces that support our local rural communities and their livelihoods.
Supporting rural communities means ensuring local farmers and ranchers have healthy lands they can depend on. It means empowering local BLM managers who understand what their communities need to thrive. But those managers are being eliminated, and the tools they need are being stripped away.
Public lands and national forests are being viewed as assets to be cashed in on rather than spaces to invest in so the American people can access the places we love for recreation, mental health, and community and economic well-being. Here in Mendocino County, our public lands drive tourism, support local businesses, and provide the natural amenities that make our communities desirable places to live, work and visit. When we lose these lands to private interests, we lose more than beautiful spaces, we lose economic engines and community identity.
It’s not too late
As a community, we have a choice: watch this systematic dismantling of our public lands or fight for the lands that belong to all of us. We have the power to call our congressional representatives and state legislators, voice our opinions, and raise our voices in unison for the public lands we cherish.
The dismantling of our treasured landscapes is happening piece by piece, but our response can be just as systematic: community by community, voice by voice, until we’re too loud to ignore. The question isn’t whether these jewels that define our community are worth fighting for, it’s whether we’ll fight before it’s too late.
Tuleyome is a 501(c)3) nonprofit that engages in advocacy and active stewardship with diverse communities to conserve, enhance, restore and enjoy the lands in the region. Sandra Schubert serves as the organization’s executive director, while Bryan Pride is its policy director.