America’s public lands are now under new leadership.
On April 17, Secretary Doug Burgum handed control of the Department of the Interior (DOI) to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Burgum’s order gave DOGE’s assistant secretary of policy management and budget, Tyler Hassen, authority over 400 national parks and historic sites, 500 million acres of land, treaty rights with Native American tribes, and more.
Hassen’s LinkedIn profile lists him as the current CEO of Basin Energies, a global oilfield manufacturing and service business. Now, he will wield broad powers for the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). That includes the power to make funding decisions, fire employees, create policy, and transfer funds.
Burgum’s order tasks Hassen with “the consolidation, unification and optimization of administrative functions” in order to achieve “accountability and cost savings for the American taxpayer.” This transfer of authority does not require Hassen to report back to Secretary Burgum for any management decisions he makes regarding U.S. public lands or the employees who operate them.
Conservation advocacy groups like the Center for Western Priorities immediately protested the announcement. Jennifer Rokala, the group’s executive director, said in a statement that if Burgum doesn’t want his job, he should just quit instead of handing it over to DOGE.
“DOGE’s unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no idea how to staff a park, a wildlife refuge, or a campground,” Rokala said. “They have no idea how to manage a forest or prepare for fires in the wildland-urban interface. But Doug Burgum just gave DOGE free rein over all of that.”
DOGE Takes Over NPS, BLM, and More
This is the latest development in a string of policy changes aimed at U.S. national parks and public lands under President Trump’s leadership. In February, Trump authorized the immediate firing of thousands of national park workers. Many essential offices, like the NPS headquarters in Moab, Utah, have been slated to have their leases cancelled. Refuges and monuments have also been opened for development and commercial fishing.
As a result, many services and operations at national parks and on public lands have been stalled. High-visitation areas like Arches National Park’s Fiery Furnace have been closed, and campgrounds in popular parks like Great Smoky Mountains National Park have been left unopened because of staffing shortages.
Now, DOGE will be directly in charge of overseeing the “reorganization” of the DOI. Burgum’s secretarial order gives control over “human resources, information technology, financial management, training and development, international affairs, contracting, communications, federal financial assistance, and other administrative functions” to Hassen and DOGE.
In a March interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier, Hassen joined a half-dozen other DOGE workers in discussing their approach to government cuts. They shrugged off public concerns about how DOGE operates and the number of U.S. workers losing their jobs. Even Musk joined the interview, arguing that DOGE’s cuts represent a historic achievement for the country.
“This is a revolution and I think it might be the biggest revolution in the government since the original revolution,” said Musk.
No Expiration Date
The order from Burgum states that this concession of power is “effective immediately” and “will remain in effect until the plan outlined above is completed and any resulting changes are incorporated into the Departmental Manual.”
“This order shows what it looks like when leaders abdicate their jobs and let unqualified outsiders fire thousands of civil servants who are working on behalf of all Americans and their public lands,” Rokala said.
Even as protests rage around the country, the Trump administration continues to pull funding, shift management, and cut staff from public lands. Under DOGE’s oversight, the DOI is now an even easier target for these policies.
“Since Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands, it’s up to Congress and the American people to stand up and demand oversight,” Rokala said.
You can find contact information for your local representatives on the official U.S. House’s Directory of Representatives.
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