As nearly everyone who hunts, hikes, camps, climbs, paddles or otherwise recreates on public lands knows well, during the first half of 2025 we fended off repeated attempts in Congress—spearheaded by Utah Senator Mike Lee—to put public lands on the chopping block, selling them off to the highest bidder.

A controversy over public lands’ management in Indiana’s 204,000-acre Hoosier National Forest turns out to be a microcosm of a burning (pun intended) national debate over using fire and targeted logging operations to create habitat for wildlife and a healthier, more diverse and more resilient forest.