06.24.25

Cantwell, Outdoor Rec Reps All Say America’s Public Lands Are Not For Sale

Senate could vote later this week on proposal to force sale of millions of federally-owned acres across Western states, including iconic hiking, climbing, hunting spots

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, joined the mayor of Boise, professional climbers, a leader from outdoor gear retailer REI, and a spokesperson for a hunting and angling advocacy group for a virtual press conference to push back on the GOP’s plans to force the sale of millions of acres of public lands as part of a budget bill likely to be voted on by the full Senate later this week.

“The proposal we see so far would mandate a sale of 2 to 3 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land all across the West, and it would make up to 250 million acres of public lands eligible to be sold. Every Western state, that is, except for Montana -- because … somehow there's a ‘Big Sky Swindle’ in the deal,” Sen. Cantwell said. “We're here to say that we want our public lands protected. We want to be able to continue to hike, fish, hunt and do as much as we can. We don't want hunters to face a ‘no trespassing’ sign on lands that they've hunted on for generations. We don't want anglers to be blocked from world-class fishing grounds. We don't want places that climbers and hikers and outdoor recreationists have gone to for years, all of a sudden, to be turned into luxury resorts or golf courses. They are at their highest and best use, and they are beautiful places that have been preserved for all of the American people to enjoy.”

“The representatives voting for this are in deeply red -- oftentimes -- places, because that's where BLM and national forest land is, and that's where I spend the majority of my time,” said professional climber Tommy Caldwell. “They're going to change the character of the places they care the most about, and it's really their constituency that's going to suffer the most.”

“I'm looking out of my office right now at two distinct areas that are put at risk with this proposal to sell off public lands,” said Boise Mayor Lauren McLean. “And for over 20 years, we have a legacy of putting forward ballot measures to protect these lands, so that they're saved in perpetuity for generations after us. But the system that our residents have created that's right up against our downtown core is at risk.”


The Senate Republican proposal comes as part of a larger Trump Administration push to privatize public lands. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has stated on multiple occasions that public lands should be recognized as valuable assets on the nation’s balance sheet and potentially used to generate revenue. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order that described the nation’s natural resources and public lands as a “sum of asset value,” in the context of establishing a “Sovereign Wealth Fund.”  Subsequently, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, proposed greenlighting the sale of over 250 millions of acres of public lands, which could constitute the “largest single sale of national public land in modern history.”  While last night the Senate Parliamentarian rejected Lee’s opening gambit, deeming the proposal ineligible under budget reconciliation process rules, Lee responded, “I’m doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward.” He promised, “We’re just getting started.”

The original version of the bill would have required the federal government to sell or transfer at least 0.5% and up to 0.75% of land owned by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, or between 2.1 million and 3.2 million acres. The proposal would have also established a process for potential purchasers, states, and local governments to nominate federal land to be sold, endangering more than 250 million acres across 11 states, with public lands in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming eligible for sale. A political side deal exempted any sales of federal land in Montana. Senator Lee has indicated he has submitted a revised proposal to the parliamentarian, which may exclude Forest Service lands and modify the eligibility of Bureau of Reclamation parcels, but the legislative text detailing the size and scope of any proposed land sales will remain fluid and is unlikely to be finalized or available for public review until shortly before the Senate votes on the measure.

Sen. Cantwell is strongly opposed to selling off federal lands. In a committee hearing on June 10, she took U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to task over the administration’s alarming budget proposal for the Department of the Interior: “We're all amazed that you seem to be putting forth a budget that is basically saying, ‘I don't want to acquire. I want to actually sell public lands,’” she said.

Sen. Cantwell was joined at today’s virtual press conference by:

  • Lauren McLean, Mayor of Boise
  • Susan Viscon, REI-Co-op Executive & Outdoor Industry Association Board Member 
  • Kaden McArthur, Director of Policy, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Video of today’s virtual press conference is available HERE; a transcript is HERE.

###