Department of the Interior develops four-year strategic plan

On April 10, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum appointed local Wyoming Attorney Karen Budd-Falen as the temporary deputy secretary and his senior advisor to help with the four-year strategic plan which details the department’s goals and priorities for 2026-30.

According to an April 29 WyoFile article by Angus M. Thuermer, Jr., the department’s four-year strategic plan is to use natural resources across 19.9 million acres of national parks and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property in Wyoming, and the internal document calls for opening new lands to oil and gas drilling, coal mining and other uses.

However, the four-year DOI plan was leaked to Public Domain and is posted to the organization’s website.

The WyoFile article states, “The DOI blasted the leak and called its publication ‘irresponsible.’”

The draft plan, which the agency told WyoFile is not final nor ready for release, sets four goals and several objectives to accomplish them.

The goals include restoring American prosperity, ensuring national security through infrastructure and innovation and allowing sustainable enjoyment of natural resources.

It would do this through the fourth goal – collaboration with states, Tribes and local governments.

The draft

The internal DOI document, dated April 21, lists the four strategic goals President Donald J. Trump has set for his second term, including a plan to restore American prosperity using American energy to lower costs and increase affordability.

According to Public Domain’s website, the DOI strategic draft plan is written as a string of bullet points, remaining broad and vague but as a whole, boosts oil, gas and coal production and opens lands to development. 

“The nation’s largest land management agency is gearing up to squeeze revenue from the federal estate, opening up new lands to drilling and other extractive development while reducing federal land holdings and slashing environmental regulations, with its top goal being to restore American prosperity,” states the website.

The document calls to open Alaska and other federal lands for mineral extraction, while mapping out all DOI-held lands for energy and minerals and quantifying their value. 

“It is beyond unacceptable an internal document in the draft/deliberative process is being shared with the media before a decision point has been made,” an DOI’s spokesperson wrote in response to queries from Public Domain. “Not only is this unacceptable behavior, it is irresponsible for a media outlet to publish a draft document. We will take this leak of an internal, pre-decisional document very seriously and find out who is responsible. The internal document is marked draft/deliberative for a reason – it’s not final nor ready for release.”

While the DOI draft sets to increase revenues from grazing, timber, mining and other development on federal lands, it simultaneously aims to reduce the costs for grazing and other land uses.

The draft also calls for delisting some species from Endangered Species Act protections and streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act.

The plan does promote conservation, Public Domain mentions, ensuring ecosystems are healthy, balanced and thriving, and the draft calls for cleaning up abandoned coal mines, ensuring aquifers are clean, promoting hunting and fishing and maintaining trails for public access. 

The document also discusses the importance of ensuring sovereignty and self-determination for Tribal nations, while promoting comanagement of federal resources and supporting the Native community’s traditional use of lands, as the DOI is responsible for overseeing the government’s trust responsibilities to federally-recognized Tribes, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The draft also indicates DOI will pursue further cuts and mentions the reduction of unnecessary staff, canceled facility leases, a reduction in unnecessary vehicles and the removal of unnecessary assets. 

Melissa Anderson is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.