The Interior Department is planning significant reductions to its administrative and support workforce, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signing away the process to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an organization in the Executive Office of the President, according to a secretarial order penned by Burgum.

According to the order issued Friday, Burgum said he is committed to DOGE’s’ Workforce Optimization Initiative, and will be “unifying and consolidating” many of its functions within the Office of the Secretary. This will include human resources, information technology, financial management, training and development, international affairs, contracting, communications, federal financial assistance and other administrative functions.

“Further optimization will create significant efficiencies across the Department by improving processes, eliminating redundant efforts, and helping integrate technology adoption,” the order said.

The hope is that the “unification effort” will accelerate technology advancements and enhance the department’s ability to deliver on core missions, which includes preserving more than 400 national parks and historic sites, delivering on legal responsibility to 574 federally recognized Native American tribes and entities, managing more than 500 million acres of U.S. land, conserving our nation’s fish and wildlife, and offering emergency response and law enforcement capability across a broad and diverse geographic footprint.

DOGE is not a cabinet-level agency with Senate-approved leadership and has no statutory authority to alter congressionally appropriated funds. Regardless, changes are expected to be announced within weeks. The department, like many agencies, reopened the deferred resignation program that many have opted for. After the department assesses how many employees took advantage of the program and other incentives to voluntarily leave, it is expected to make a determination on further cuts. 

Burgum has handed full control of the department’s organization and staffing over to Tyler Hassen, who serves as Interior’s acting secretary for policy, management and budget. Hassen is the chief executive of an energy company in Houston, according to his LinkedIn profile.

One interesting caveat: The order does not require Hassen to report back to Burgum regarding the reorganization, nor does it reserve any authority to Burgum if Hassen were to fire thousands of public lands managers, park rangers or wildfire specialists across the country.

Wildland firefighters are expected to be exempt and the National Forest Service posted job openings last week.

The moves made by DOGE have seen many agencies working to conserve habitat and wildlife tightening their belts, and at the same time refusing to talk to the press. Many environmental nongovernmental organizations are upset by the Trump administration moves, including laying off some of the most senior and experienced members of agencies.

In response, the Center for Western Priorities (a nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization) essentially called for Burgum’s resignation.

“If Doug Burgum doesn’t want this job, he should quit now,” said Executive Director Jennifer Rokala. “Instead, it looks like Burgum plans to sit by the fire eating warm cookies while Elon Musk’s lackeys dismantle our national parks and public lands.”

She said the 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.

“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. DOGE’s unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no idea how to staff a park, a wildlife refuge, or a campground. 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,” she said.

The order comes at a time when the administration is simultaneously working to remove protections for threatened and endangered species and diminishing staffs working to conserve species of concern. The Trump administration proposed a rule April 17 that would eliminate habitat protections for endangered species. The rule would change — for the first time in half a century — the basic definition of what has been considered “harm” to threatened and endangered wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“The Trump administration is trying to rewrite basic biology — like all of us, endangered species need a safe place to live,” said Earthjustice vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife, and oceans Drew Caputo. “This misguided new proposal threatens a half-century of progress in protecting and restoring endangered species. We are prepared to go to court to ensure that America doesn’t abandon its endangered wildlife.” 

Last week, the president directed agencies regulating energy and the environment to sunset a number of environmental protections, among other steps, to curb environmental protections in an attempt to spur development and economic growth.

“The Trump administration is moving to undo years of popular progress we have made. People across this country don’t want dirtier air. We all worry about more superstorms and deadly wildfires. No one wants more toxic chemicals in our drinking water. Yet that’s where the administration’s actions will take us,” according to a recent Earthjustice press release.

It is sure to spawn a multitude of lawsuits by environmental groups, including from Earthjustice, said Kristen Boyles, one of their more than 200 full-time staff lawyers for the organization, which was originally part of the Sierra Club.

Boyles said the many Trump administration reorganization plans and firings are overwhelming, including environmental concerns, economic layoffs, immigration issues, and other problems. However, the issue is directly related to possible extinction threats, she said.

“The Fish and Wildlife Services proposed a rule that would get rid of the definition of harm, which has been for decades, for 50 years, that when you harm the habitat of a endangered or threatened critter ... it’s as if you’re actually killing the critter itself. It’s illegal, and by withdrawing that definition, if it’s finalized, it makes it easier for harmful activities to occur on species habitat of species who are the least able to bear that kind of harm, because they’re the ones right on the brink of extinction.”

The proposal would fully rescind this definition, opening the door for industries of all kinds to destroy the natural world and drive species to extinction in the process, the organization said in a press release issued earlier this week.

A 30-day comment period on the proposal expires on May 19 until May 19 to comment. If it proceeds along a normal path, the rule would become final sometime in the summer, she said, emphasizing that it’s important to make comments as  before the deadline.

“If people think this is a bad idea, then they should be telling them it’s a bad idea,” she said.

She said that the sudden massive amount of changes proposed by the Trump administration is to frustrate citizens.

“The point is to throw so much at people that it’s overwhelming. And not just in the environmental health, but also in the layoffs, the economy and the immigration issues — you know, kidnapping people and sending them to foreign prisons — I think it’s all supposed to make everyone feel helpless and confused,” Boyles said in an interview with the Tribune.

She said it’s hard to stomach that the government would want to attack the ESA in an effort to open critical habitat to development. She warned that, barring a reversal of the proposal, the organization, as well as others, will sue the administration to stop their actions.

“I seriously want to know what they value, and when they go out in our public lands and forests,” she said. “It could have real impacts on things that people care about.”

According to the 2025 Colorado College State of the Rockies poll, 76% of Wyoming residents polled would prefer decisions about public lands, water and wildlife be made by career professionals such as rangers, scientists and firefighters rather than new appointed officials who come from other industries. And 55% prefer that leaders place more emphasis on protecting water, air, wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities over maximizing the amount of land available for drilling and mining.