A new report notes the Trump administration has issued executive orders mandating a 25% increase in federal logging quotas while bypassing standard environmental review processes and public comment periods. (Famartin/Wikimedia Commons)
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By Suzanne Potter
Feb 4, 2026
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump completely disavowed Project 2025, a sweeping plan to reshape the federal government. And yet, a new report finds his administration has already pushed through 80% of the plan’s recommendations on public lands, in Nevada and across the United States.
Researchers from the Center for Western Priorities found multiple efforts to undermine the environmental review and public comment processes under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Kate Groetzinger, the center’s communications manager, said this is highly relevant in Nevada, where more than 80% of the land belongs to the federal government.
“The Trump administration has really cut the ‘public’ out of public lands,” she said, “by limiting the amount of work that companies need to do to get a permit and limiting the opportunities for public participation in permitting.”
The Trump administration maintains that environmental reviews often take years, slowing projects that could support jobs and tax revenue. The report also finds the administration has made good on Project 2025’s goal to reduce the federal workforce by stripping civil service protections so employees can be fired at will. Researchers estimate more than 15,000 employees have left the U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department in the past year alone.
Groetzinger said this leaves public lands at risk.
“These land management agencies have been gutted and directed to only work on things that help oil and gas companies, ranchers and mining companies,” she said. “So, it really is a perversion of what the land management agencies are supposed to do, which is serve the people and protect the environment.”
Congress actually rejected one Project 2025 public lands goal, which was to lift the prohibition on capturing and killing wild horses.
