Millions Of Acres Of Public Land In California, West, Could Be At Risk Of Being Sold
Public-land sales are being pushed by Republicans in the United States Senate, which would affect areas of California and most other Western states. Here’s more from the Washington Post:
According to a budget blueprint released Wednesday evening by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the federal government would be required to sell off between 2.2 and 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service over the next five years.
The proposal stipulates that the sold land will have to be used to develop housing or “community development needs,” which it said could be defined by the secretaries of the Interior or Agriculture departments. The 11 states that would be affected by the proposal are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that the draft legislative text would turn “federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families.”
As expected, conservation and outdoor sporting groups have condemned Congress and the White House for pushing this latest legislation to potentially jettison public land. From a Backcountry Hunters and Anglers statement:
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) is rebuking a sweeping new proposal released by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that would force the sale of up to 3 million acres of public lands under the guise of a solution to the housing crisis. This proposal—led by committee chair Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)—would apply to public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service across: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
“This isn’t about budget reconciliation or affordable housing. This is a fraudulent scheme to swindle American citizens out of our shared legacy,” said Patrick Berry, President and CEO for BHA. “Our public lands are not disposable assets and the gaslighting campaign claiming this is somehow a solution to a housing crisis is an insult to all of us. Our lands are the physical inheritance of generations of Americans who fought to keep public lands in public hands. We owe it to those who had the vision to create this irreplaceable American ideal—and to those who stand to benefit from our stewardship—to tell our elected officials: united we stand for public lands.”
Similar to the House of Representative’s now defunct proposal, the Senate’s language sidesteps 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.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership also blasted the plan:
“Hunters and anglers have made it clear that reconciliation is not the appropriate vehicle for public land sales,” said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The Senate proposal sets an arbitrary acreage target and calls for the disposal of up to six times more land than was proposed in early versions of the House budget reconciliation bill. If passed, sportsmen and women would lose access to large tracts of public land.”
While the House version put forward land sales to approximately 500,000 acres in Utah and Nevada, the Senate proposal would accelerate land disposals across 11 western states, mandating that not less than 2 million acres and not more than 3 million acres be sold. There have been no public processes that led to the conclusion that this acreage of land sales is needed to support affordable housing. Late last week, 44 hunting, fishing, and conservation organizations sent a letter to Senate leadership urging them to keep public lands sales out of the reconciliation bill.
“TRCP stands ready to work with lawmakers to address the needs of local communities to create affordable housing, but reconciliation is not the process for that kind of deliberative, transparent decision-making,” said Pedersen. “Once public lands are sold, they are gone for good. We urge the Senate to remove this provision from the bill.”
