Trailheads

Since February, the Trump Administration has made several moves that could alter the future of public lands in the United States. According to several reports, the administration has proposed selling public lands to develop housing in the West and to generate revenue for a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. Additionally, the administration plans to open thousands of acres of public land to mining as well as oil and gas drilling.

In response, The Conservation Alliance (TCA) has launched several Priority Campaigns, where the organization devotes extraordinary support to immediate, significant threats to wildlands. Chief among these new efforts is TCA’s Public Lands Grab campaign.

“Typically, our priority campaigns focus on a single landscape, but this one is unique because it’s a broader campaign—more of a general defense,” says Lilly Zoller, TCA’s director of marketing and communication. “We don’t know exactly what might happen in terms of rollbacks or attacks on public lands in the next few weeks or months or however long.”

Each year, TCA collaborates with approximately 200 member companies to support dozens of projects that protect national parks and monuments, wilderness areas, national forests, BLM lands, and other wild places. TCA members include outdoor industry companies as well as manufacturers, media, and creative agencies from different business sectors.

Typically, TCA supports projects with grants that range from $10,000 to $50,000. For Priority Campaigns, the organization also provides additional support.

“We put all of our weight behind each of those campaigns in terms of our advocacy efforts, our communications, and marketing,” says Zoller.

For Priority Campaigns, TCA leads trips to Washington, D.C., where the organization’s member companies meet with decision makers in the government. It also creates letters that member companies sign to support issues and then sends the letters to legislators.

TCA also hosts events in the field, where representatives from member companies visit areas under threat to connect with the local landscape. “They can then tell that story through their own platforms to help spread awareness,” says Zoller.

For its Public Lands Grab campaign, TCA says it will employ a range of strategies to highlight the economic benefits of maintaining federally managed public lands. “Along the way, TCA will keep our members informed on any developments at the congressional, administrative, and judicial levels and mobilize businesses against any efforts that could

lead to major public land sell-offs from federal to state or private ownership,” TCA says in a statement.

While TCA is pouring energy into the Public Lands Grab campaign, it is also running several other Priority Campaigns. Here are a few significant efforts: 

• Defending D-1 Lands in Alaska
  • The Defending D-1 Lands in Alaska campaign, launched in 2023, is an ongoing effort to protect 28 million acres of land, featuring world-class areas for packrafting, photography, hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities. In 2024, TCA worked with grant recipients and tribes to secure permanent protection for the land in Alaska, noting it was “one of the largest conservation victories in the nation’s history.” However, President Trump has signed executive orders to open more than 13 million acres of Alaskan land to drilling and mining.
    
    
• Defending Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument/Antiquities Act
  • In 2023, President Biden designated the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument (BNIK) in Arizona. It protects nearly 1 million acres surrounding Grand Canyon National Park from new uranium mining claims. In February 2025, Trump issued the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, which requests reviews of all existing regulations, orders, and policies that could hinder using natural resources, including mining, for energy extraction and production. The executive order could reduce protections for the national Grand Canyon National Monument, or even eliminate the monument, and allow new mining claims. According to the TCA, it’s “working with its members, partners on the ground, and local Tribes to ensure that protections for Baaj and the 20-year mining ban are retained throughout the second Trump Administration.”
    
    
• Protecting the Boundary Waters
  • In 2023, the Department of the Interior enacted a 20-year mining ban on federal lands surrounding the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which covers more than 1 million acres in Minnesota and includes over 1,200 miles of canoe routes.
    
    In March, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production.” It orders the secretary of the interior to identify all federal lands known to hold mineral deposits and reserves and prioritize mineral production as the primary purpose for these lands. With this executive order, the Trump Administration could lift the 20-year mining ban for the Boundary Waters.
    
    For its Protecting the Boundary Waters Priority Campaign, TCA and its members are joining the national Save the Boundary Waters campaign, which is rallying the national business community to support permanent protections and communicate the economic value of retaining clean waters in this important wilderness.
    
    Click here to read about more TCA Priority Campaigns.