Wild Narrative Project

07/30/2026

Most of us will never read a Forest Service handbook.

But those internal documents help shape decisions across millions of acres of public land.

Our latest investigation examines a Forest Service proposal that would make portions of those handbooks advisory rather than mandatory—and the questions that proposal has raised about transparency, consistency, and how ecological outcomes will be evaluated.

Whether you're planning to submit a comment or simply want to understand what's being proposed before the deadline, this piece examines one of the Forest Service's least-visible decision-making systems—and why it matters for the management and preservation of 193 million acres of public land across the country.

*The public comment period closes tomorrow, July 31.*

Most Americans assume decisions about their national forests are governed by federal law.

07/24/2026

California is building out its response to wolf-livestock conflict.

With $2 million in new funding, the state is expanding both sides of the equation: compensating producers for verified losses while investing in nonlethal deterrence, training, technology and livestock management intended to reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock.

One thing isn't changing: CDFW says it alone will continue deciding whether a livestock loss qualifies for public compensation.

For the latest at the Wolf Desk, we mapped out who does what — and what's changing as California's gray wolf program grows.

https://open.substack.com/pub/wildnarrativeproject/p/california-expands-wolf-conflict

07/02/2026

Today is the deadline.

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on a proposal that could shape how future wild horse gather decisions are analyzed across the West.

Our latest story breaks down:

• What BLM is asking the public to comment on
• Why the proposal matters beyond a single roundup
• Where the public notice was—and wasn’t—shared
• What today’s deadline could mean for future environmental reviews

Whether you support or oppose current wild horse management, understanding how these decisions are made is just as important as the decisions themselves.

Read the full story here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/wildnarrativeproject/p/final-day-to-comment-on-blm-proposal?r=5rxpxj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

06/23/2026

We were halfway across Highway 50 in Nevada—the Loneliest Road in America—when the rain clouds began to build.

But the rain never reached us.

Instead, we spent two days documenting hundreds of cattle, stock ponds, reservoirs, scattered wildlife, abandoned infrastructure, bare ground, and a landscape that raised more questions than answers.

Just weeks earlier, the Department of the Interior proposed sweeping changes to how livestock grazing is administered across nearly 250 million acres of public land.

The agency says the proposal will reduce red tape, improve efficiency, and help keep public lands healthy for future generations.

But after reviewing records tied to Nevada’s Jakes Wash Herd Area—and returning to the landscape for the third time in less than a year—we found ourselves focused on a different issue:

How do we know whether management decisions are actually improving the health of the land?

Our latest What We’re Watching examines the proposed Grazing Rule, the paper trail behind land-health assessments, and what we found on the ground in central Nevada.

Read the story on our Substack — link in bio.

03/13/2026

Four wild horse gathers were announced in Nevada this week.

The operations, announced on March 10th, are scheduled to begin on March 15th and could remove more than 2,000 wild horses and 425 burros from public lands across the state.

The public lands where these horses currently live span about 5.5 million acres.

Well over 200,000 AUMs (animal unit month) of privately owned livestock are permitted to graze much of the same public acreage.

Unlike helicopter roundups, these operations will use bait-and-trap methods, and the Bureau of Land Management is prohibiting public observation, citing an effort to prevent excessive activity near the traps.

Nevada experienced severe drought in 2025, yet current conditions documented by NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System show mild drought improvement across the state at the start of the year, including regions where the four wild horse gathers will occur.

Read the full story at our link in bio.

02/05/2026

Federal grazing fees are going up—for the first time since 2016. The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service announced the 2026 fee will be $1.69 per animal unit month (AUM), up from $1.35—the legal minimum that held from 2020 through 2025—with the new rate effective March 1, 2026.

An AUM (often treated as a “head month” for fee purposes) represents one month of forage for one cow and calf, one horse, or five sheep/goats. The fee is set by a formula rooted in the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 and a 1986 executive order that caps annual changes at 25% and locks in the $1.35 floor—constraints that have kept public-lands grazing prices unusually low for long stretches.

01/10/2026

Congress just moved the FY2026 Wild Horse & Burro budget — here’s what changed.
On Jan. 8, 2026, the House passed the Interior-Environment appropriations package 397–28.

Key points for the Wild Horse & Burro Program:

- $144,000,000 for FY2026 (House position)

- Up to $11,000,000 for immunocontraceptive fertility control strategies

- House report language also mentions permanent sterilization efforts

- Long-running limits remain in place that restrict using funds to destroy healthy animals and bar sales leading to commercial processing

Senate action is next; agencies are operating under continuing funding through Jan. 30, 2026

This is a budget story, but it’s also a policy story: the numbers and the rider language shape what BLM can fund—and what’s off-limits.

Keeps “no slaughter” guardrails and fertility control budget

12/06/2025

***Our new WNP apparel just dropped — and this campaign is open through this weekend only, so everything ships in time for the holidays!***

Every purchase supports our women-led nonprofit newsroom and helps fund field reporting across the American West. About $10 from every item goes directly to our investigative work.

Wear the story. Fuel the journalism.

SHOP BELOW!

We're a watchdog news organization covering public lands policy, combating disinformation, and sharing true stories from the range.

12/06/2025

ICYMI!

Nevada holds some of the most consequential public lands in the West — ground zero for how the federal government assesses drought conditions, manages grazing pressure, and makes decisions about wild horses.

A brief visual record of the public landscapes we documented across Nevada this year

11/29/2025

Nevada Public Land, November 2025

Cows in the road. Cows tucked into low draws, cows dotting the hillside and spread across the wash. Over the course of our field observation last week, we saw hundreds.

The ground told the same story: chewed-down grasses, cloven hoof-muddied watering holes, and bare swaths of land where the soil is taking the hit.

Wild horses, on the other hand, were almost invisible. In this area where they’ve been zeroed out for nearly two decades by the Bureau of Land Management “for range health,” we saw only four—and they were so far away we could barely pick them out, even with binoculars.

This is one snapshot of what “multiple use” looked like on this stretch of Nevada public land in 2025. We’ll keep documenting what we find out here, and dig into the decisions behind it in upcoming reporting.

Special thanks to for the es**rt and the local expertise.