In the vast expanses of the Mojave National Preserve, a dormant gold mine has sparked a contentious debate over the management of public lands. Dateline Resources Ltd., an Australian firm, has resumed operations at the historic Colosseum Mine, seeking rare earth minerals. This move has embroiled the company in a dispute with the National Park Service, which claims unauthorized operations have harmed the local environment.
The controversy highlights a broader clash between conservation efforts and industrial interests. The National Park Service alleges that Dateline is exploiting the mine without proper permits, relying on an outdated plan submitted to the Bureau of Land Management decades ago. The situation has become a litmus test for President Trump’s administration, which took office shortly before these tensions flared.
With the Trump administration now firmly in support of corporate interests, it has shifted policies to prioritize mineral extraction on federal lands. President Trump ordered the Department of Interior to emphasize mining, fast-tracking permits and environmental reviews for energy projects and critical minerals, even designating metallurgical coal as a critical mineral, which qualifies for tax credits.
Further policy shifts include reduced royalty rates for extracting resources from public lands, alongside incentives for such projects. The Department of the Interior has also expanded coal leasing and moved to rescind rules protecting national forests and public lands from exploitation.
This deregulatory wave also aims to open parts of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and other conservation areas to mining and drilling, including Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Legislative allies have overturned plans limiting energy development across various states.
According to the Center for American Progress, these actions have affected nearly 90 million acres of public land, with potential impacts extending to 175 million acres when considering habitat protections weakened by modifications to the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico criticized these moves, comparing them to historical periods of unchecked resource exploitation. She has proposed legislation to increase fees for speculative mining claims, directing funds towards conservation, as part of efforts to counter the administration’s approach.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior’s decision to allow Dateline Resources to continue operations at the Colosseum Mine without additional permissions marks a victory for the company, which has seen its stock rise and commenced a new drilling phase. The company plans to resume its activities after the holiday season.
More recent land news
The Pacific Forest Trust returned nearly 900 acres of land near Yosemite National Park to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation in a transfer partially financed by the state, reports Kurtis Alexander of the San Francisco Chronicle. Members of the Indigenous group were forced off their ancestral lands during the California Gold Rush, when state-sponsored militias undertook efforts to exterminate them. Some now hope the new property will bolster their decades-long push for federal recognition.
California State Parks is violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing offroaders to drive over dunes that are home to western snowy plovers, a judge recently ruled in a long-running legal case over the use of Oceano Dunes State Recreation Area along the Central Coast. Edvard Pettersson of the Courthouse News Service reports that State Parks will need a federal “take” permit to continue to allow offroading at the popular beachside spot.
California lawmakers introduced legislation to conserve more than 1.7 million acres of public lands across the state, in part by expanding the Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain National Monument, according to Stephanie Zappelli of the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
The federal public lands grazing program was created as a bulwark against environmental damage but has been transformed into a massive subsidy program benefiting a select few, including billionaire hobby ranchers and large corporations, according to an investigation by ProPublica and High Country News. The three-part series also found a loophole allowing for the automatic renewal of grazing permits has led to less oversight over the health of these lands.
A few last things in climate news
President Trump’s media company is merging with a nuclear fusion energy firm in a $6-billion deal that some analysts have described as a major conflict of interest, my colleague Caroline Petrow-Cohen reports.
House Republicans pushed through a bill that would overhaul the federal environmental review process in a way that critics say could speed up the approval process for oil and gas projects while stymieing clean energy, report Aidan Hughes and Carl David Goette-Luciak of Inside Climate News.
The iconic chasing-arrows recycling symbol is likely to be removed from California milk cartons, my colleague Susanne Rust reports. The decision exposes how used beverage packaging has been illegally exported to East Asia as “recycled” mixed paper, violating international environmental law.
Wind energy is again under attack from the Trump administration, which this week ordered all major wind construction projects to halt. As The Times’ Hayley Smith notes, the White House has been consistent in slowing down clean energy development in 2025, but offshore wind has been a particular bête noire for the President.
We’ve published a comprehensive collection of stories looking back on the wildfires that burned though Altadena and Pacific Palisades last January and all that’s happened since, which columnist Steve Lopez calls “one of the most apocalyptic years in Southern California history.” Check out After the Fires here.
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Original Story at www.latimes.com