Interior Department hires a fighter against public lands to manage public lands

In classic Trump administration fashion, a vocal critic of federal lands management will soon take a lead role at—you guessed it—the federal lands agency. Karen Budd-Fallen, a member of President Trump’s transition team in 2016, will join the U.S. Interior Department as the deputy solicitor for parks and wildlife, where she will help settle disputes over the Endangered Species Act, the National Park Service, and our national monuments—all of which have faced recent attacks by the Trump administration. Budd-Fallen's troubling track record as a Wyoming property rights attorney includes aligning herself with anti-public land extremists, suing low-level Interior Department employees for simply implementing longstanding laws, and publicly disavowing bedrock conservation laws, like the Endangered Species Act, that protect our natural heritage.