DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency—controls your public lands now. I wish I was kidding, but on April 17th, supposed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum handed Elon Musk the entirety of America's accumulated public lands. That includes national parks, Bureau of Land Management, and Forestry lands, as well as the fates of hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
And to top it off, while Burgum gave Musk total control—one without an expiration date which I'll get to in a moment—Musk isn't the one overseeing the overhaul of our public lands. No, that'll be handled by DOGE's Assistant Secretary of Policy Management and Budget, Tyler Hassen. Want to guess what Hassen's other job is?
Yep, you guessed it, Greenpeace officer. HA, just kidding, he's the CEO of Basin Energies, an oil conglomerate. Yeah, he's an oil executive who's in charge of your public lands as the administration and specifically the Department of the Interior, headed by Burgum, has been beating the war drum of selling your public lands to extractive industries.
Totally not a conflict of interest. But let's get into the details of this unheard-of abdication of power by a sitting Cabinet member.
Burgum's order is titled "Consolidation, Unification and Optimization of Administrative Functions" which sounds like a page turner, no doubt. But the contents within are terrifying if you love, enjoy, or recreate on public land.
"The purpose of this Order is to authorize and direct the actions necessary to effectuate the consolidation, unification and optimization of administrative functions within the Department of the Interior (Department) in order to achieve effectiveness, accountability and cost savings for the American taxpayer," Burgum writes, adding, "The Department is committed to supporting President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) No. 14210, titled “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” issued on February 11, 2025. As part of that commitment, the Department will be unifying and consolidating many of its functions within the Office of the Secretary. This will include human resources, information technology, financial management, training and development, international affairs, contracting, communications, Federal financial assistance, and other administrative functions."
Burgum also adds that "Further optimization will create significant efficiencies across the Department by improving processes, eliminating redundant efforts, and helping integrate technology adoption." However, it's right after this passage where Burgum peaces out and hands over control to Hassen.
"The Assistant Secretary – Policy, Management and Budget (AS-PMB) is hereby assigned to lead and
coordinate the consolidation, unification and optimization efforts within the Department and its
Bureaus and Offices," i.e. Hassen will be in charge of consolidation and optimization at DOI, as well as unification which means to bring about the Administration's hell bent efforts on privatizing public lands. And he has the power to do so, as outlined by the order, too.
It also gives Hassen—again, an oil CEO—unlimited rope, as the order doesn't come with an expiration date as to when he no longer controls the Department of the Interior, it's budget, resources, or staff. He is, and by extension Elon Musk, now the head of the Department that controls our public lands.
The Center of Western Priorities, an organization that fights on behalf of the public's use of our public lands, immediately called this what it was: a coup on public lands. Executive Director Jennifer Rokala stated, " If Doug Burgum doesn’t want this job, he should quit now. Instead, it looks like Burgum plans to sit by the fire eating warm cookies while Elon Musk’s lackeys dismantle our national parks and public lands." I'm inclined to agree with that testament.
Honestly, we need to act and act now. I know my own senators, Utah's John Curtis and Mike Lee don't care, but there are others that we can contact, as well as representatives that might have a line or an ear on folks like Lee and Curtis, who can bend them to our want to conserve public lands and public land access.
We can support outfits like Center of Western Priorities and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. We can call on our local and state representatives to protest this seizure. And if emails or phone calls aren't working, you can still fax a lot of these folks through the service Fax Zero which makes it incredibly easy to voice your concerns through the ancient technology. However we can, we must. Because if we fail to do so, we risk losing the lands that make this country truly great.
