The Big “Beautiful” Bill threatens a massive three-million-acre sell-off of public lands

With every victory comes new challenges to public lands. After concerted pressure from conservation groups, the House of Representatives dropped any public land sales from President Trump’s budget reconciliation bill. But the Senate is trying to sneak it back in… in a big way.

On June 11, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee introduced their budget reconciliation bill language which mandates the sale of up to approximately 3 million acres of public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. This proposal—led by committee chair Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)—would apply to public lands across: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Check out this map of what public lands could be made private. (Note: it may take a minute or so for the map to properly load.) 

We’ve written about many of the areas that are on the chopping block, including: 

• Uncharted steelhead rivers in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest,
• Portions of Oregon’s North Umpqua, which is still recovering from several wildfires in the past decade
• Streamside parcels along California’s Trinity River
• Countless other watersheds we’ve intentionally not written about.

Alaska at its finest. For now.

These additions to the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” would force the sale of public lands under the guise of a solution to the housing crisis. If taken at face value, we are likely looking at the selloff of properties closest to cities.

“Not only are you looking to lose access to fishing, but you should be asking what the impacts are for all three million acres. What happens when the front country goes away?” points out Ryan Callaghan, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) Board Chair. “It is the easily accessible small parcels that will go first. Where you walk your dog, access the river or go for a mid-day hike.”

“It threatens our way of life,” adds outfitter, guide, conservationist, and BHA board member Hilary Hutcheson. “It not only impacts local economies, it hinders my job as a rafting guide, just like the people who came before me and fought these battles. We all need to stand up and show up for public lands the way they did.” The bill also intends to bypass the bipartisan Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act (FLTFA), a law designed to ensure that proceeds from public land sales are reinvested in conservation and public access. 

Other notable changes in what should be called the Big Backstabbing Bill are:

• Reverse prior decisions preventing the construction of the private 211-mile Ambler Road through Alaska’s Brooks Range, threatening the Western Arctic Caribou Herd and one of North America’s great wildlife migrations; 
• Require new oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; 
• Eliminate reforms that curtailed speculative, noncompetitive leasing of public lands for oil and gas development.

What can you do? “Flood your Senator’s inbox and phone lines to let them know that even if the proposed sell off is not in your state, that they represent the entire country,” says Callaghan. You can find your national representatives and their contact information here. Alternatively BHA has a “Take Action Page” on their website that makes it super easy to do so.

The next few weeks will be critical as the language in the bill is being finalized before it is approved and moved on to the President for sign off. 

“Call every day, two times a day. We have to win this fight,”  pleads Callaghan.