Dispatches from the Wild: Project 2025’s assault on the wild

BIG SKY • September 28, 2026

Project 2025 was never merely a campaign document. It was a blueprint for dismantling the laws, agencies and scientific safeguards that protect America’s air, water, public lands and wildlife. Less than two years into the Trump administration, much of that blueprint has become federal policy. The damage is already spreading across landscapes and ecosystems, while some of its most dangerous proposals remain unfinished. In September 2026, the administration finalized regulatory changes that weaken how the Endangered Species Act, is implemented, including removing the regulatory definition of “harm” to distinguish between accidental and intentional killing, and revising protections for threatened plant and animal species. This administration seems to want only more profit, more extraction and more greed. At what cost? The potential tragedy of Project 2025 is not only what could be lost, but how casually loss is treated. The public won’t even notice until things are gone.~ Benjamin Alva Polley