»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp¹ÙÍøƽ̨

Public Lands Sell Off is Dead…For Now

Which side did your politician choose?

• Aaron Kindle, Director of Sporting Advocacy at National Wildlife Federation
• Jul 10, 2025

Thousands of people rallied in support of public lands outside the Western Governors Meeting in Santa Fe in June.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know by now that attempts by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and others to sell public lands through the budget reconciliation bill recently failed. And good riddance! The large-scale sale or transfer of public lands to states has always been a bad idea and will remain a bad idea forever.

In one of the most roundly rejected proposals I have ever seen, the public came out en masse to protest, reject, and denounce public lands sell off after the Senator tried to ram it through several times, which all ultimately failed.

Despite overwhelming opposition to public land sales, Senator Lee and other aligned members of Congress seem committed to continuing to pursue this unpopular effort in the future.

Senator Lee’s legislation failed because public lands are wildly popular, are the backbone of Western communities, are a dear part of the »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp¹ÙÍøƽ̨n ethos, and because we defended them with all we had.

I have hunted, fished, hiked, and camped on public lands all my life and raised my kids to know these lands, and to love and protect them. Even the thought of a future without public lands, or a future where politicians think it’s okay to sell them for shortsighted and misguided reasons, literally brings tears to my eyes.

We won this time due to the amazing efforts of public lands defenders across the land. But as Senator Lee and others have said, they are not done trying to sell our birthright. They are also not done attempting to give away our public lands' future under the guise of “affordable housing”.

Of course, we all know this isn’t really about housing. There are already models for small-scale land transactions when necessary in places like Nevada. Disposing of public lands really only makes sense on a very small scale both fiscally and logistically - not by selling millions of acres across the West. This is really about finding any way to divest public lands from the »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp¹ÙÍøƽ̨n people.

Make no mistake, this is just the latest, but not the last assault on public lands. People like Senator Lee fundamentally object to federal ownership of public lands and are not done attacking them– and by extension all of us who hold these lands near and dear to our hearts. And let’s not forget, there are other members of Congress that share Senator Lee’s ethos that will be right there with him for the next go round.

So the next logical question is, which side of selling public lands did your members of Congress come down on? Did they unequivocally denounce public lands sales? If they didn’t quickly and publicly state that they will not vote for public lands sale, then you’ve still got work to do. And truthfully, we’ve all still got work to do. The threat of selling public lands or transferring them to states will likely never end. As our friend Randy Newberg has often stated, »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp¹ÙÍøƽ̨’s public lands are the largest concentration of unowned wealth on the planet. That means folks like Senator Lee will always be looking for creative ways to steal them from »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp¹ÙÍøƽ̨n people.

But we can’t let that happen. We were energized - let’s stay energized. We were engaged - let’s stay engaged. We were diligent - we must remain diligent. No longer can we take for granted the amazing gift of our public lands. So not just today, but every day and all the time, we must pay attention, we must defend and protect our public lands.

It’s our duty - a duty we need to take very seriously from here on out. It’s up to all of us to ensure that the greatest public lands legacy on earth remains strong and intact now and forever.