Now This Bill Could Erase Nearly Half of All Public Lands
The Public Trust Is Being Dismantled. It’s Time to Push Back.
It feels like groundhogs day around here.
And boy did we pick a hell of a week to be out in the wild - just back into “the office” from the redwoods.
Four out of every ten acres of public land in America. That’s where we stand.
Another quiet proposal. Another backroom clause. Another attempt to sell off the commons while no one is watching. Senators Mike Lee and Steve Daines. Those are the perps. The usual suspects.
This time, it’s not a few parcels tucked behind a spreadsheet. It’s not a single state or a forgotten corner of desert scrub.
It’s three million acres, marked for mandatory sale - and up to 40% of all federal public lands set up to follow. Land held in trust since the founding of the American public estate. Land walked by hunters, mapped by schoolteachers, grazed by ranchers, prayed over by tribal elders. Land that holds no title but the one etched in the national memory.
They’ve written it into the budget. Hidden behind the dry language of disposal and discretion. But make no mistake: this is a liquidation. A slow-motion auction of the American West.
This is not about balance sheets.
This is about belief.
Whether we still believe that some things are too large to be owned.
Whether we still believe that land can be held in common, not parceled off for profit.
They want you to look away. To think it’s complicated. To think it doesn’t affect you.
But nearly half the country’s public lands - the forests, the plains, the quiet - are on the line.
And if they pass this bill, they won’t stop at three million acres. They’ll keep going until the word “public” is meaningless.
So let’s start with what’s in the bill. And what’s coming if we let it stand.
What the Bill Actually Says
The Senate budget bill includes two provisions that would trigger the largest loss of public land in modern history.
First, it mandates the sale of 3 million acres of federal land. This land will be sold, full stop. There is no requirement for public input, environmental review, tribal consultation, or resource assessment. It will be auctioned off whether the public wants it or not.
Second, it grants the Secretary of the Interior authority to sell an additional 253 million acres at their discretion. That amounts to 40 percent of all federal public land.
There are no rules on how much land can be sold, how fast it can be moved, or who can buy it. There is no guarantee of public review. There is no conservation filter. There is nothing in the bill that protects ecologically sensitive areas, sacred sites, or places used for hunting, fishing, or recreation.
The language sounds sterile.
“Disposal.”
“Divestment.”
“Asset management.”
But make no mistake. This is a plan to break apart the public estate and transfer it to private hands.
It’s a transfer of ownership without accountability.
It’s a transfer of power without permission.
It’s a decision that would reshape the map for good.
Where Would the Land Come From?
Nearly all of it would come from two agencies: the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Together, they oversee hundreds of millions of acres of federal land – most of it in the American West.
The likely targets are no mystery.
Nevada. Utah. Idaho. Arizona. New Mexico. Colorado. Oregon. California. Alaska. These are not theoretical outlines on a map. They are real places. And they are first in line.
In Nevada, public land makes up nearly 85 percent of the state. In Utah, it’s over 60. In Alaska, more than 220 million acres are held in public trust.
Strip these protections, and it’s not just the land that gets erased. It’s the whole idea of the West.
These aren’t wastelands. They’re water sources, winter range, fire buffers, and flyways. They’re sacred grounds, hunting grounds, working ranches, and hiking trails.
They are where Americans go to breathe.
And once sold, they won’t come back.
What This Really Means
Call it what it is: liquidation.
This is not budget reform.
This is not “streamlining” or “modernizing land use.”
This is a coordinated attempt to dismantle the American public estate.
A land base that took more than a century to assemble is being treated like surplus equipment. Entire landscapes reduced to “assets” and marked for sale by people who will never walk them.
The word “disposal” appears over and over in the text. That is how they describe the land. Not protected. Not inherited. Not shared. Just excess to be cleared.
There is no plan to replace what’s lost. No standard for what stays. No conservation requirement. No cultural consideration. No public input. Just the assumption that privatization is always the answer.
And it fits a pattern.
First they starve the agencies.
Then they call the land underused.
Then they sell it.
This isn’t policy. It’s plunder.
Written in the language of management.
Delivered under the cover of budgeting.
And aimed squarely at the foundation of the public trust.
You cannot protect what you treat as disposable.
And you cannot defend public land if you’re willing to sell it off behind closed doors.
Who Wins
You don’t have to look far to see who benefits.
Real estate developers.
Mining companies.
Oil and gas firms.
Private equity groups that specialize in flipping land for profit.
This bill opens the floodgates.
Public lands become private inventory.
What was once protected by law is now available to the highest bidder with no ceiling on how much they can buy, and no floor on what they have to protect.
The winners are the same ones who always win when land is stripped of meaning and handed to markets.
The ones who see a canyon and think golf course.
The ones who see a trailhead and think access fee.
The ones who see sacred ground and think mineral rights.
And they’re using the same playbook that’s been deployed across government. Starve the agencies. Smear the mission. Sell the land.
This provision wasn’t written for the public. It was written to bypass the public.
It’s a shortcut for industry, buried in the fine print of a budget bill, so no one has to say out loud what it really is.
This is not stewardship. This is a transfer of wealth, of power, of land itself – from the many to the few.
What’s at Risk
This is not just about land.
It’s about everything the land holds.
If this provision becomes law, nearly half of America’s public lands could be up for sale. That includes national forests, wildlife habitat, cultural sites, and recreation areas that fuel a $1.1 trillion outdoor economy.
It puts at risk:
— Critical wildlife corridors for elk, mule deer, salmon, and migratory birds
— Sacred Indigenous sites, many of which have no formal protection
— Watersheds and headwaters that supply drinking water to cities
— Carbon sinks and old-growth stands that buffer us against climate collapse
— Access to hunting, fishing, and camping on land that’s been open for generations
This is fragmentation on a national scale.
It’s not just parcels being sold. It’s whole systems being broken.
Once a landscape is carved up and privatized, you don’t get it back.
You get fences. You get padlocks. You get warning signs where the trail used to begin.
This is how a country loses its commons.
Not all at once. But acre by acre, clause by clause, sale by sale.
Not One Acre
A republic cannot survive if its foundations are for sale.
And land held in common is one of those foundations.
Not as asset. As inheritance.
This land is not a line item.
It is not a commodity.
It is not for sale.
Strip this provision from the bill.
Expose the scheme for what it is.
Stand for the places that cannot speak for themselves.
Not one acre.
Not now.
Not ever.
What You Can Do
Start with this: share this post.
With anyone who hikes, hunts, camps, fishes, or believes the land should remain in public hands.
With anyone who thinks a budget bill should not contain the seeds of national dispossession.
With anyone who’s been to a trailhead and felt something bigger than themselves.
Then, contact your members of Congress.
Call them. Email them. Show up.
Tell them this is not acceptable. Tell them to remove this provision. Tell them not one acre gets sold.
Focus pressure on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
They are the ones who let this slip in. They are the ones who can strip it out.
You do not need to be a policy expert to make yourself heard.
All you need is a voice, and a memory of a place that matters.
Public land is only public as long as the public defends it.
Now is the time to do that. Again. Loudly.
Until next time,
Will
You wrote:
"It’s not just parcels being sold. It’s whole systems being broken.
Once a landscape is carved up and privatized, you don’t get it back. You get fences. You get padlocks. You get warning signs where the trail used to begin."
Truer words were never spoken. It's a one-way ratchet.
I’d like to point out the selling of our public lands that’s being written into a gigantic spending bill with the hopes it will be overlooked. dismissed, and passed without public debate is unconscionable. And, it’s a dream Utah Senator Mike Lee (R) has been instrumental in pursuing for some time (please inundate his offices with your outrage: 202-224-5444)
In great contrast, the Oklahoma Land Run of 1893, also known as The Cherokee Strip Land Run, opened millions of acres for SETTLERS to claim; for towns to be created, businesses to serve those Individuals who made claims on small parcels of land
for homesteading, and of course, to begin new lives. The land was opened for people to settle, not to corporations to abuse or profit. My grandfather was one of those settlers who helped “found a town,” opened a drug and bookstore and eventually became instrumental in building a State College. My roots go deep along the Cherokee Strip in Northwest Oklahoma where public lands were offered for Western expansion by the government — not to exploit, but to provide communities.
I hope many, many more of us continue to speak out loudly against allowing the vast areas in the Western United States to be exploited.