The Land Grab is Real. And The Media is Helping.
Witness the quiet normalization of a decades-old agenda to dismantle the public estate.
460,000 acres.
That’s how much public land House Republicans want to sell off under a last-minute amendment to the budget reconciliation bill, passed this week in a late night committee session without a hearing, without debate, without a word to the American people.
Nearly 450,000 acres in Nevada. Another 10,000+ acres in Utah. All authorized for disposal. All packaged as a budget offset so Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and corporations can squeak through reconciliation and the Senate Byrd Bath.
It’s the most dangerous assault on America’s public lands in modern history. And it’s a test.
Because this is more than just a land sale, it’s an attempt to open the door to large-scale public land liquidation in the United States. Something the extraction industry has wanted for decades, but has never had the votes to accomplish. The playbook is the same as it’s always been: move fast, bury the language, and pray the public isn’t paying attention.
More People With “Better Ideas” for Your Public Lands
And now, grotesquely, it’s being given intellectual cover by some in the news media. Take a recent piece in Bloomberg by columnist Erika D. Smith titled “Rethinking Public Lands Is a Conversation Worth Having”.
It’s the sort of column that might seem reasonable to people who don’t know what they’re reading (or writing, in the author’s case). To those of us who do, it’s revolting.
In it, Smith casually wonders if maybe the government owns too much land. Maybe some of it could be put to better use. Maybe it’s time to have a real discussion about what we’re doing with all this “excess” federal acreage.
Of course this is the same script industry front groups have been desperately trying to sneak into the public consciousness for half a century. The same lines used by the likes of Pendley, Bundy, and every industry-funded think tank that sees the public estate not as a legacy to protect, but as a reserve account to liquidate.
Just imagine their delight when Ms. Smith, an accomplished journalist on non-public lands matters, laundered their worn-out talking points in her column like it was a fresh idea.
She discusses the casual firesale of America’s best idea as if she’s onto something bold. As if the notion that we should sell off public land to somehow better manage wildfires or build more houses is new, or clever, or anything other than disastrous.
These Aren’t Weed-Ridden Parking Lots
America’s public lands are the envy of the world. No other country has anything like it. Hundreds of millions of acres held in public trust, for hiking, hunting, reflection, beauty, life itself. It’s our birthright. Our inheritance. Our hedge against greed.
Public land is what keeps our most incredible landscapes from being divvied up by hedge funds and strip-mined into oblivion. It’s what prevents the entire West from being paved over and sold off, one tract at a time. It’s the only thing standing between what we have, and what can never be replaced.
And now we’re being told, in the soft language of op-eds, that maybe it’s time to open the door. That maybe some of this land isn’t pulling its weight. That maybe we should consider “better uses.” Housing, she suggests. Or wildfire prevention. As if either of those are solved by handing land over to cash-strapped states or private developers. Because privatization always makes things more equitable and resilient…
This is not a debate. It’s a con. And it appears to be working.
When you can convince a seemingly normal journalist that there’s an argument to be made about liquidating the American public estate, I begin to wonder: who can’t you fool?
Sure, Ms. Smith reveals a clear lack of knowledge about public lands throughout her piece, like when she cites America’s “59 national parks,” a figure that hasn’t been accurate for more than 15 years. But the truth is most Americans probably have as much knowledge about our public lands as she does. And that’s the real danger.
This is how the door gets opened. First, we “rethink.” Then we “rebalance.” Then we sell. Then it’s gone. It doesn’t matter how high-minded or low-minded your goals are, whether you’re trying to solve the housing crisis or line your pockets with oil money by polluting. The result is the same: the natural heritage that belongs to all Americans is sold, spoiled, and lost forever.
The truth is, we don’t need a conversation about whether America has too much public land. We need to confront the people trying to take it.
Because this isn’t about fire, or housing, or balance. It’s about greed.
And if we let these narratives take root, if we let journalists frame the looting of the public estate as a “conversation worth having”, then we’ve already started losing.
Keep up the fight. There’s too much at stake not to.
Don’t miss our live discussion with
on all things public lands this Thursday!
It's not about "just" the land. It's the species of wildlife within it. We saw this coming when our forestry stewards were thrown out of jobs. This is greed of the very worst kind, and it will destroy our planet. This is one of many short-sighted, dangerous, deadly plots of those who think they are elite, and the common folk and their planet are here for their disposal.
Yes, it's always about greed! And the greed only benefits the robber baron rich guys; it always takes something away from ordinary Americans. Our public lands belong to all Americans! That is OUR heritage.