Randy Newberg is an optimist. He’s also exceptionally good at demystifying confusing laws to help workaday hunters understand what’s going on with our public lands. And right now, there’s a lot going on.
This week on the Outdoor Life Podcast, OL hunting and conservation editor Andrew McKean sits down with Newberg to discuss what’s happening on our federal public lands. That includes how a little-known — and unprecedented — tool is being used by Congress to dismantle past laws and public input in places like the Boundary Waters watershed.
“I do not like the use of the Congressional Review Act to shortcut and disregard all the public opinion, all the public comment that went into these projects,” says Newberg. Lawmakers are “rolling back [existing laws] and saying, ‘We don’t want it, regardless of what the public wanted. The reason everybody should be concerned about this is because it’s coming to your favorite duck hunting spot. It is coming to your favorite fishing spot. It is coming to any place where the people who have the levers of power, whether they’re appointed or elected, if they see a shortcut for them to get what they want and disregard all this public process that we have in this country, it’s coming to your backyard. I don’t know how else to say it. They are not slowing down on this.”
McKean and Newberg discuss everything from hunting with one of Teddy Roosevelt’s descendants to how upcoming elections could influence conservation. He also has predictions for when the next public-land sale bill might crop up again, and why.
One of the final — and most important questions — McKean poses to Newberg is about how hunters can influence what’s happening on the federal level: “How do we ask, and convince my listeners and your listeners, to pull their heads up — out of this feeling of helplessness and inscrutability, and say, ‘Okay, I need to pay attention to this. I can make a difference.’ How do we do that?”
To find out Newberg’s answer, listen to this week’s episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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