Save Our Public Lands - Take Action Now

Update as of 6.24.2025:

Senate parliamentarian ruling: Elizabeth MacDonough determined the provision violates budget reconciliation rules (Byrd Rule) and must be removed or require 60 votes to stay. Senator Lee has adjusted his proposal to remove Forest Service lands and narrowed it to BLM parcels within five miles of population centers—but the parliamentarian still flagged and removed it. Senator Lee may attempt to reintroduce a revised version. The current fate of the amendment is uncertain—it appears removed for now, but it could return in a slimmed-down or restructured form.

That it has been removed by the Parliamentarian is great news for our public lands. However, this fight is not yet over. They are likely to try again in some form. Please continue to speak up - Our public lands must stay in public hands.

6/23/25:

Millions of acres of National Forest (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands are threatened with immediate sale in the current federal budget proposal. In Skagit County that includes large swaths of the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest- from Sauk Mountain and Iron Mountain into the heart of the Cascade Mountains.

Call or email Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Representative Rick Larson NOW and tell them to say ABSOUTELY NO to the sales and accelerated logging of public land as proposed in the reconciliation bill currently being discussed in the US Senate.

senator_murray@murray.senate.gov or this online form; WA DC (202) 224-2621; Everett 425-259-6515

maria@cantwell.senate.gov or this online form; WA DC (202) 224-3441; Everett 425-303-8351

Rick.Larsen@mail.house.gov or this online form; Bellingham 360-733-4500; Everett 425-252-3188

What’s it all about?

On May 22nd, the US House of Representatives passed its version of a reconciliation bill that mandates the accelerated sale of millions of acres of public lands. Included for consideration are 5.4 million acres in Washington State alone. That’s 12.6% of our public lands, including national forests and BLM lands, now eligible for sale to “any interested buyer”.

The Senate is now working on its version. Senate Republicans have set a July 4th deadline for passage of the bill.

The reconciliation bill, as now written:

• Mandates the sale of 2-3 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land across 11 western states over 5 years, with an additional 250 million acres eligible for sale.
  
  
• Requires nominations of public lands to be sold within 30 days, then additional nominations and sales every 60 days until the multi-million acre goal is met.
  
  
• Provides no public hearings or input.
  
  
• Appoints the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to decide which land should be sold.
  
  
• Does not give Tribes priority to acquire lands within their traditional territory or that contain sacred sites; state and local governments have only a right of first refusal, likely unaffordable at mandated full market rates and a rapid sale process.
  
  
• Says the land must be used for "affordable housing or infrastructure to support local housing”. However there are no criteria or provisions for enforcement of those limitations and once the land is sold the US government loses control over any future uses of the land.
  
  
• Forces expanded timber sales on BLM and USFS lands, threatening wildlife, watersheds, and beloved outdoor recreation areas such as:

According to the Wilderness Society, “research suggests that very little of the land managed by the BLM and USFS is actually suitable for housing.” The claim that these public lands will be used for "affordable housing" is not viable. The vast majority cannot realistically support housing, and the bill includes no binding requirement or enforcement to ensure that housing is ever built. Yet our public lands would still be sold to the highest bidder despite these facts.

There would be no opportunity for hearings, debate or public input.

To learn more, click on this link for a detailed analysis by the Wilderness Society with an interactive map that shows you what is threatened:

https://www.wilderness.org/articles/media-resources/250-million-acres-public-lands-eligible-sale-senr-bill

Below are some thoughts for you to consider sharing with all you know, including Senators and Representatives

1. Public Lands Are Our Inheritance

Selling off public lands is selling out future generations. These lands belong to all Americans — they should not be auctioned off for short-term gain to wealthy speculators. Selling off large tracts of public lands in a hurried and unplanned process will not balance the budget. It’s false short-term math that ignores the true value of America’s public resources. It betrays our shared legacy and our duty to current and future generations. Our public lands are rare in the world- they are special and together we all own them.

2. Selling Public Lands Will Not Solve the Housing Crisis

A key reason given for the proposed sale of public lands is for housing development, especially affordable housing. While this is a real issue that needs attention, selling our public lands and forests is not the solution. These lands are not located where development belongs, nor where the average citizen could afford to live. They are far from commerce centers, and local taxes would have to pay for infrastructure costs, transportation and public services. Unplanned growth often pushes communities beyond their financial capacity to deliver services.

Most of these lands are remote, lack any infrastructure (roads, utilities, water), are on steep or forested terrain, are in natural hazard areas, are environmentally sensitive or are appropriately used for conservation and recreation, not urban growth.

History shows that lands sold for housing in remote areas usually become high-end homes and estates. The idea that this would solve the housing crisis is misleading. This appears to be land privatization – not a housing solution.

3. Public Lands Help Us Prepare for and Mitigate Climate Change

The Skagit and all of the West face growing risks from wildfires, flooding, and drought. Public forests and their wetlands and waterways are essential natural defenses. Selling them off increases our vulnerability. Promoting sprawl into our forests and natural areas is putting current and future communities at risk and creating huge expenses for both federal, state and local governments. Suppression of fires to protect structures already costs our governments billions of dollars annually and is growing.

4. Outdoor Recreation and Conservation Is a Cornerstone of Washington’s Economy

In Washington, outdoor recreation supports over 200,000 jobs and generates more than $26 billion each year. Nationwide, every dollar invested in conservation land returns an average of eight dollars to the local economy. Public lands, not fragmented private inholdings, are the foundation of this economic engine. It is intact public lands that will continue to generate revenue for the country in the future.

While national parks, monuments and designated wilderness areas are excluded, many lands contiguous to these areas that provide connected recreation and habitat- such as those in Skagit County-could be sold.

5. Selling Lands Threatens Salmon, Orcas, and Clean Water

Skagit’s public lands protect the headwaters of rivers that support salmon, orcas, and clean drinking water. Privatizing these areas would undermine the millions of public and private dollars invested in efforts to restore endangered species. Intact forests are essential to purifying and regulating Skagit’s water supply, ensuring that we have sufficient clean water year-round. With climate change, protecting these forests is essential to slowing snow melt in the mountains, and mitigating impacts to people and wildlife from increased annual temperatures, wildfire and flooding.

6. Washington Tribes Would Be Impacted

Many public lands in Washington overlap with treaty rights and culturally important areas for Tribal Nations. Has the administration consulted with sovereign Tribes to assess whether this imposes on their legal and cultural rights?

7. Rural Communities Depend on Public Access

From fishing and hiking in the Skagit, to hunting near Ellensburg, to hiking in the Olympics, our rural communities, nearby cities, and our tourist industry are built on public land access. Privatizing the public lands we all own would shut out us and local communities.

8. It Benefits Special Interests – Not the Public

In the end, the reconciliation bill’s proposal isn’t about budget savings — it’s about handing Washington’s public lands to special interests and highest bidders - - for what? To try to make a one-time budget pencil out? The heritage we hold in public lands should never be used for such a short-sighted purpose. There is already a process for federal land sales, that is stringent, transparent and allows wide input.

9. Washingtonians Strongly Oppose This

Across political lines, Washington residents support keeping public lands in public hands. Polls show that even in conservative areas, people want more access and protection of public lands — not less. And yet, this bill does not provide for any public process during the sales process; instead, it mandates liquidation of our natural heritage without any of us having a say in it – these are lands that have been open to all for generations, since the founding of the nation.

The 2025 Conservation in the West’s poll found that 72 percent of voters in eight Western states support public lands conservation over increased energy development — the highest level of support in the poll’s history; 65 percent oppose giving states control over federal public lands, up from 56 percent in 2017; and 89 percent oppose shrinking or removing protections for national monuments, up from 80 percent in 2017.

10. The math is all wrong

Interior Secretary Burgum has repeatedly described federal lands as “America’s balance sheet” — “assets” that he estimates could be worth $100 trillion but that he argues Americans are getting a “low return” on. “On the world’s largest balance sheet last year, the revenue that we pulled in was about $18 billion,” he said at the staff-wide meeting, referring to money the government brings in from lease fees and royalties from grazing, drilling, and logging on federal lands, as well as national park entrance fees. “Eighteen billion might seem like a big number. It’s not a big number if we’re managing $100 trillion in assets.”

In focusing solely on revenues generated from energy and other resource extraction, Burgum disregards that public lands are the foundation of $1 trillion annually generated in the outdoor recreation economy, never mind the numerous climate, environmental, cultural, and public health benefits that save local communities and the entire US trillions every year. Once our public lands are sold, we will never get them back. They will be in a private owner’s hands with a strong likelihood of not benefiting the public overall.

Thank you for sharing this information widely with your network and taking action to save our public lands before it is too late!