Earth In Their Eyes

Land & Law

Who controls the land, who writes the rules, and who pays the cost.

Land & Law

Bears Ears and the Question of Who Decides

Bears Ears National Monument has been designated, reduced by 85%, restored, and threatened with reduction again in seven years. The land itself has not changed. The question of who has authority over it has never been resolved.

18 min read
Land & Law

The Sackett Problem

In Sackett v. EPA, the Supreme Court eliminated Clean Water Act protection for wetlands that lack a continuous surface connection to navigable waters. The decision removed federal safeguards from an estimated 51 to 63 million acres.

17 min read
Land & Law

Three Letters During COVID

The Bureau of Land Management's entire tribal consultation for the largest lithium mine in North America consisted of three mailings to three tribal offices during a pandemic. The process is not broken. It was never built.

17 min read
Land & Law

The Green Mine Paradox

The federal government is simultaneously lender, equity investor, and environmental regulator of a lithium mine on a massacre site sacred to Indigenous peoples. The contradictions are structural.

16 min read
Land & Law

The $300 Billion Giveaway You've Never Heard Of

A 154-year-old law allows unlimited extraction of gold, silver, lithium, and copper from public land without a single dollar in federal royalties.

15 min read