Public Lands Are Being Starved for Profit—Here’s Who Wins

Why the most lucrative use of public lands is the one they downplay the most

They say public lands need oil, gas, and logging to “pay their way.”

As if a trillion-dollar industry needs a bailout from fossil fuels.

The truth is outdoor recreation generates more revenue than oil, gas, and mining combined—and it’s not even close. It’s a $1.1 trillion industry—fueling 7.6 million jobs, sustaining thousands of small businesses, and keeping rural communities alive. Every year, our government hands over land to industries that make less money while doing more damage. And they know it.

Why? Because this isn’t about economics. It’s about power.

I’ve spent my life working in and around public lands—filming them, advocating for them, and watching one administration after another chip away at their future.

Last week, I wrote about how the National Park Service layoffs weren’t about saving money. They were about setting public lands up to fail using a tried and true playbook.

And it gets worse.

This fight isn’t just about jobs. It’s about a strategy—a slow, deliberate process designed to make public lands look like a burden.

Once you see how it works, you’ll never look at public land policy the same way again.

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Public Lands Are an Economic Powerhouse—So Why Do We Treat Them Like a Burden?

If public lands were a company, they’d be the most profitable in the country—ahead of Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

In 2023, outdoor recreation generated $1.1 trillion in economic output—more than triple Apple’s annual revenue of $391 billion. Yet instead of treating public lands like a Fortune 500 success story, the government treats them like a failing side project—underfunded, ignored, and stripped for parts whenever a corporation wants a bargain.

Imagine if Apple—one of the most valuable companies in the world—was forced to slash its budget, fire half its employees, and stop maintaining its stores. Then, when customers started complaining about the long lines and broken iPhones, the government stepped in and said: “See? This company isn’t working. Time to sell it off.”

That’s exactly what’s happening to public lands.

Rather than investing in an industry that out-earns all of the biggest corporations in the world, public lands are deliberately starved of funding—because a well-funded park system is harder to sell off.

Public lands are making billions. But the government still calls them a drain.

Let’s talk facts.

The Public Lands Economy

So if a single industry generated over a trillion dollars a year, fueled millions of jobs, and was infinitely renewable, you’d think the government would protect and invest in it, right?

Instead, we’re told public lands are a drain. That they need oil, gas, and logging to “pay their way.” Meanwhile, the facts tell a different story:

• Outdoor recreation generates $1.1 trillion per year — 4.1% of U.S. GDP.

• Tourism supports 7.6 million jobs — 12 times more than coal, oil, gas, and logging combined.

• National parks alone contribute $55.6 billion annually — supporting 415,000 jobs in surrounding communities.

• Every $1 invested in public lands returns $10 in economic benefits.

Versus the Extraction Economy

• Logging on national forests loses $1 billion per year, while recreation in those same forests contributes $111 billion.

• Oil companies lease public land for as little as $1.50 per acre, pocketing billions while taxpayers cover cleanup costs.

• At $620 billion annually, oil, gas, and mining combine to bring in about half that of the outdoor industry.

So why does extraction keep winning out over recreation?

Because the profits don’t go to the small-town businesses, outdoor guides, and local restaurants that actually rely on public lands. When a trail gets shut down, they lose customers. When access is cut, they close. Oil rigs don’t bring foot traffic to gear shops. Coal mines don’t fill up hotels.

Meanwhile, outdoor recreation keeps entire communities alive. Trails, campgrounds, and visitor centers generate far more economic activity than oil leases ever will.

But the money from extraction? That goes straight to a handful of corporate giants—the same ones pouring millions into convincing politicians (and the public) that drilling, logging, and mining are the only way forward.

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Tourism Fuels Local Economies—Extraction Just Leaves Ghost Towns

When it comes to managing public lands, we have two choices.

1. We can open them up for drilling or logging, extracting short-term profits while leaving behind waste pits, abandoned wells, and polluted landscapes that taxpayers must clean up.

2. We can invest in tourism infrastructure—trails, campgrounds, visitor centers—ensuring a steady stream of revenue for generations.

One of these choices makes sense. The other is what we continue to do.

Case Study: Moab, Utah

In the 1950s, Moab thrived on uranium mining—until the industry collapsed, leaving behind contaminated land, economic instability, and widespread unemployment.

Decades later, Moab reinvented itself as an outdoor recreation hub. Today:

• Over 70% of local jobs are tied to tourism.

• Oil and gas? Just 2%.

Had Moab stuck with extraction, it wouldn’t be the world-class adventure destination it is today—it would be an environmental disaster zone, struggling to recover from another boom-bust cycle.

Case Study: Yellowstone

In the 1990s, a mining company proposed a $9 million gold mine just outside Yellowstone National Park.

Meanwhile, Yellowstone’s tourism economy was generating hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Even a pro-extraction administration saw the math: the long-term value of protecting Yellowstone far outweighed the short-term profits of mining. The federal government stepped in, shut the project down, and reaffirmed a simple truth—some places are worth more intact than exploited.

The Bottom Line

When preserved, public lands fuel local economies, create jobs, and keep America’s wild places intact.

But they only stay that way if we stop selling them off.

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The $22.3 Billion Land Grab: How Underfunding Public Lands Leads to Privatization

There’s a reason national park roads have more craters than the moon, visitor centers are stuck in the Carter administration, and trail signs look like they just limped off the beaches of Normandy.

It’s called deferred maintenance—a $22.3 billion backlog of necessary repairs that keeps growing because Congress refuses to fully fund public lands.

Right now, that backlog includes (among other things):

• 5,500 miles of failing roads

• 1,700 bridges in need of repair

• 17,000 miles of deteriorating trails

• Thousands of outdated visitor centers, bathrooms, and campgrounds

And the price tag isn’t just some abstract number—it affects every person who visits public lands.

Deferred Maintenance is Just a Fancy Word for “Pay More Later”

Some people argue that since the government is in debt, cuts have to be made somewhere—including public lands. But that argument falls apart the second you look at the numbers.

Ignoring infrastructure problems doesn’t save money—it creates bigger expenses. It’s like refusing to fix a leak in your roof because you’re trying to save cash, only to end up paying ten times more when the ceiling collapses.

That’s exactly what’s happening to public lands. Instead of investing in basic maintenance now, the government lets problems pile up until they become catastrophically expensive—then uses the inflated price tag as an excuse to privatize.

And if this were really about cutting costs, we wouldn’t be handing out billions in subsidies to oil companies while starving national parks of basic funding. We wouldn’t be approving massive budget increases for everything except the places that actually generate revenue. The truth is, public lands aren’t underfunded because the government is broke—they’re underfunded because neglect makes privatization easier to sell.

This isn’t fiscal responsibility. It’s a deliberate strategy to shift public lands into private hands.

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The Slow-Motion Theft of America’s Public Lands

And as I mentioned last week, that’s the plan. Let public lands decay, let the costs spiral, and then claim the only solution is to hand them over to private interests.

This isn’t budget mismanagement. It’s a land grab.

Public lands are being gutted, piece by piece, until only those who can pay will have access.

First, they cut funding. Then, they let things fall apart. Then, they sell it off to the highest bidder.

It’s happening right now, one policy at a time:

• Campgrounds are being outsourced to private operators. Prices go up, access goes down.

• Reservation systems are shifting to corporate control. Want to book a national park campsite? Be ready to pay extra fees.

• Conservation land is being quietly handed to extractive industries. The public loses while corporations profit.

This isn’t just bad policy—it’s a calculated strategy to turn public lands into private playgrounds.

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This Is Happening Right Now. Here’s How to Stop It.

Your public lands are being stolen in plain sight. Fight back.

• Call your representatives. Demand full funding for national parks and public lands.

• Push back against privatization. If you see a campground going corporate, make noise.

• Support groups fighting for public lands. NPCA, Outdoor Alliance, and local conservation groups need resources.

• Share this post. The only way they get away with this is if people don’t pay attention.

Every time another oil lease is approved, every time public land is sold off for pennies, we lose more than revenue. We lose what makes these places irreplaceable.

And once they’re gone, they’re not coming back. If that makes you mad, do something about it.