Patterns Across Case Files

01Comment periods compressed against the process that built the protection

In five files the window for public input on undoing a protection is substantially shorter than the process that created it, or absent entirely.

• Chaco Culture National Historical Park (Greater Chaco Landscape)The scoping window on revoking the 336,404-acre withdrawal opened at seven days on March 31, 2026. The withdrawal itself came out of a roughly 1.5-year process carrying 150 days of public comment.
• Red Desert / Rock Springs Resource Management PlanA 30-day scoping window, later extended 45 days, to amend a plan that took 12 years and two extended comment periods to complete.
• Tongass National Forest (2001 Roadless Rule Rescission)Scoping closed September 19, 2025. As of May 2026 the Forest Service had held no public meetings specific to the Tongass; the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council convened its own hearings instead.
• Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine (Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni National Monument, Grand Canyon region)Arizona regulators are 'not required to accept formal comments' on the arsenic-limit permit amendment the Havasupai Tribe is formally contesting.
• Big Bend National ParkNo environmental impact study was conducted, a direct consequence of the IIRIRA section 102(c) waivers.

02Consultation structures dismantled, not merely bypassed

Four files record the removal or circumvention of a standing consultation mechanism — a different act from declining to consult on a single decision, because it removes the venue for the next one as well.

• Bears Ears National MonumentThe July 13, 2026 proclamation declared the Bears Ears Commission 'disbanded and terminated.' Interior had committed in a June 2025 letter to contact the Commission before any boundary or management change; the Coalition states no such consultation occurred.
• Chaco Culture National Historical Park (Greater Chaco Landscape)A Chaco Heritage Tribal Association cultural-resources study, funded by Interior and completed in 2025, was reportedly not incorporated into BLM's 'little to no effect' determination.
• Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine (Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni National Monument, Grand Canyon region)The Havasupai Tribe states it was cut out of the Energy Fuels-Navajo Nation haul-route negotiations. The Forest Service was separately documented as 'not a part of' those talks.
• Tongass National Forest (2001 Roadless Rule Rescission)Tribal governments have explicitly asked to be treated as cooperating agencies in the environmental review, indicating that status had not been granted as of their public statements.

03Statutory review waived, downgraded a tier, or routed outside the Federal Register

Four files record the level of environmental or procedural review being lowered rather than the underlying decision being argued on its merits.

• Big Bend National ParkMore than 28 federal laws waived under IIRIRA section 102(c), including the NPS Organic Act, ESA, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act — the first time such a set was waived for construction inside a national park.
• Red Desert / Rock Springs Resource Management PlanThe amendment proceeds by environmental assessment, a lower tier of NEPA review than the environmental impact statement that produced the plan being amended.
• Chaco Culture National Historical Park (Greater Chaco Landscape)The draft environmental assessment phase was tracked only on BLM ePlanning under DOI-BLM-NM-F010-2026-0002-EA; per BLM it never reached the Federal Register.
• Artificial Intelligence as a Driver of Public-Lands ThreatsExecutive Order 14318 section 5 directs agencies to identify NEPA categorical exclusions usable for data-center projects and to streamline ESA section 7 consultation for common construction activities.

04Recently completed, multi-year decisions reopened within months

Four files record a protection being undone close enough to its completion that the record of the process producing it was still current.

• Red Desert / Rock Springs Resource Management PlanPlan finalized December 2024; Interior granted review authority February 2025; notice of intent to amend published October 2, 2025 — nine months after a 12-year process closed.
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Superior National Forest watershed)Public Land Order 7917, issued January 26, 2023 for a 20-year term, was revoked by H.J.Res. 140 in April 2026.
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National MonumentThe January 2025 Record of Decision drew a Congressional Review Act disapproval resolution, S.J.Res. 109, within roughly a year of signing.
• Bears Ears National MonumentRestored to approximately 1.36 million acres in October 2021; reduced to approximately 121,096 acres on July 13, 2026.

05Mechanisms that foreclose future protection, not only present protection

Three files record actions whose documented effect extends past the decision at hand to constrain what a later administration or Congress can restore.

• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Superior National Forest watershed)Earthjustice records H.J.Res. 140 as the first use of the Congressional Review Act to eliminate a public-lands mineral withdrawal. Opponents state the CRA's bar on rules in 'substantially the same form' blocks any similar future withdrawal absent new congressional authorization.
• Bears Ears National MonumentTerminating the Commission removes the standing government-to-government co-management structure, not only the boundary — a restored boundary would not restore the body.
• Artificial Intelligence as a Driver of Public-Lands ThreatsExecutive Order 14318's ESA section 7 streamlining for common construction activities is framed over a ten-year horizon.

06Openings mandated or expedited, met with limited commercial interest

Four files record the commercial case for the extraction being opened as weak, unproven, or historically loss-making on the documentary record.

• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — Coastal Plain688,829 acres offered on June 5, 2026; 5 tracts covering 72,049 acres drew bids; approximately $3.7 million in total high bids from two bidders, with no major oil company participating.
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National MonumentThe Utah Geological Survey records the monument's known coal, oil and gas and mineral resources as 'generally undeveloped because market areas are distant' and transport routes are limited.
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Superior National Forest watershed)Antofagasta acquired Twin Metals after a 2014 disclosure showing a projected rate of return of roughly 10%.
• Tongass National Forest (2001 Roadless Rule Rescission)A published estimate puts the cost of industrial Tongass logging to taxpayers at $1.7 billion over 40 years.

07A stated AI and energy-demand rationale sits upstream of land decisions

Four files trace back to instruments whose own stated purpose invokes artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The linkage is documentary, not inferred: it is what the orders say. Where an agency action does not itself invoke AI, the case file says so explicitly.

• Artificial Intelligence as a Driver of Public-Lands ThreatsExecutive Order 14261 section 1 ties coal resources to 'the rise in electricity demand due to... the construction of artificial intelligence data processing centers,' and section 10 is titled 'Powering Artificial Intelligence Data Centers.'
• Federal Coal Lands — Nationwide Leasing ExpansionInterior opened 13.1 million acres to coal leasing and cut the royalty rate to 7% citing that order — while the release itself does not mention AI or data centers, a distinction the file preserves.
• Big Bend National ParkThe technology component of the 'smart wall' in this region is Anduril's AI-enabled Sentry Towers, feeding the company's Lattice software.
• Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine (Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni National Monument, Grand Canyon region)Uranium was added to the USGS 2025 critical minerals list, the list that governs which domestic supply chains receive priority treatment.

08The same parties recur across otherwise unrelated files

Named companies and agencies appear in more than one case file, in matters that share no geography. The recurring-parties table below is generated from the Named Companies section of every file, so it stays accurate as files change.

09Operative dates fall after the announcement

Five files carry a future date on which something changes — the point at which a signed decision becomes an operative one. These are the dates a reader tracking this registry should be watching.

• Bears Ears National MonumentExcluded lands scheduled to reopen to new mining claims and mineral leasing on or about September 11, 2026, 60 days after the July 13 proclamation.
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National MonumentExcluded lands scheduled to reopen on the same date, on or about September 11, 2026.
• Red Desert / Rock Springs Resource Management PlanBLM's target for a signed Record of Decision on the amended plan is October 2, 2026.
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Superior National Forest watershed)The Governor's and DNR's authority to cancel the state mineral leases is reported to run only through the end of 2026.
• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — Coastal PlainThe second of four lease sales mandated by section 50104 is due by July 4, 2028.

⚠Where the record contradicts itself

Agencies, courts, and reporters do not always agree on a number, a date, or a document number. When they disagree, this registry states every figure and names its source rather than quietly picking the cleanest one. Each row below corresponds to a conflict flag or a corrections-log entry on the case file it links to. This table is, deliberately, a list of the places where this site is least certain.

☰Every file, side by side

All 14 case files on record. Every cell is pulled directly from that file — nothing is added or interpreted for this table. The consultation column shows the first documented sentence of that file's full Tribal / Public Consultation Status section; a one-sentence excerpt cannot carry every nuance, so read the file itself before citing it.