All Americans are public land owners.
Here in Utah, that means we own about 37.4 million acres of the land in the state. Our public lands attract millions of visitors from all over the world, eager to explore our many unique wonders and beautiful landscapes.
Despite this, Utah is fast gaining a reputation nationally as the champion of the movement to sell our public lands. Our federally elected officials are pushing this as a solution for the country’s affordable housing and national debt issues. Representative Celeste Maloy proposed an amendment to a recent budget bill that could result in the sale of about 11,500 acres of BLM land in southwestern Utah. This follows Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis voting against a recent budget resolution amendment in April that would prevent the sale of public lands through the budget reconciliation process in an effort to leave this option on the table. Furthermore, Lee has long been pushing for the passage of his HOUSES Act at the federal level, which would allow parcels of federal land to be purchased by a state or unit of local government at a reduced price to give them flexibility to address housing constraints with few guardrails. These types of land sales/transfers strike me as more of a short-term cash grab rather than an actual long-term solution that will fix our housing or debt problems.
To complicate matters further, several federal land management agencies such as the USFS, NPS and BLM laid off thousands of employees as a result of DOGE mandates, despite the fact that these agencies have long been under-resourced. And while it’s uncertain whether these agencies will be able to backfill these positions, I know I’ll be impacted as a hunter and outdoor recreationist.
In the short-term, I expect some of the trails, campgrounds and trailhead restrooms won’t be maintained or even open for use. I also anticipate a more difficult summer wildfire season due to the layoffs, which further risks the closure of some of the areas I enjoy exploring most.
In the long run, fewer federal land management employees could lead to a long-term decline in the maintenance and upkeep of our public lands. This in turn will make it easier to persuade the public that these lands need to be privatized and sold off since the feds can no longer effectively manage them.
As a staunch public lands advocate, this greatly concerns me. However, it’s trivial when compared to the threat our wildlife faces if we begin selling public land. These lands provide summer range, winter range and migration corridors for several species across the state. Selling and developing public land will result in the loss of critical habitat and negatively impact the populations of countless species of wildlife here in Utah.
Our public lands are a uniquely American idea due to the “multiple use” mandates we have in place to manage them. This requires our federal land management agencies to consider the (often competing) demands of different constituencies when designing public land management plans. And while each constituent group never gets 100% of what they want, the compromises that result from this process allow us all to benefit from our public lands. But if our legislators begin to deviate from this process, they will establish a dangerous precedent that will make it much easier to sell our public lands.
The next time you’re hiking up Millcreek Canyon, scouting the Uintas for your upcoming fall elk hunt or setting up your tent while camping with the family on BLM land in southern Utah, I encourage you to look around and really take in the scenery. Ask yourself: does this place look like it could use a mountain resort? A housing development? Maybe a few oil rigs? Would that improve my experience? If you find yourself answering no, you should reach out to both your state and federal representatives to remind them you oppose the sale of our public lands.
If we don’t speak up in support for our public lands now, we risk losing access to these places as we know them permanently. Because once they leave the public domain, they aren’t coming back.