Call Your Senators!
No To Public Lands Sell-Off Amendment
June 17, 2025 - We've been watching social media blow up as people from all sides of the political aisle decry the language in the Senate reconciliation bill that would authorize the sell-off of millions of acres of beloved public lands. Memes are being made by both liberals and conservatives--a rare time of voiced unity about a subject, that of the wild and beautiful American landscapes, that language in the Big Beautiful Bill seems to offer up as mostly elidgible for a process of disposal to private bidders up to about 3 million acres.
Tens of millions of acres outside of national parks, monuments, and other special designations, could be chosen in this sell-off process of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service in the Western states and Alaska--suspposedly for "affordable housing."
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources wrote up an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill that would sell off between 2.2 and 3.3 million acres of from these eligible public lands to private commercial interests.
Tell your Senators NO! Our public lands are one of the best ideas of this country, loved by millions of Americans for recreation, solitude, camping, exploration, hunting and fishing, and enjoyment.
The map below shows eligible public lands that may be included in the sell-off amendment to the Big Beautiful Bill.
Detail from a map from The Wilderness Society showing all eligible public lands--in this case managed by Bureau of Land Management--that could be sold off. This seems to include most of Pahrump Valley, NV, including tortoise translocation sites and nominated Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The mapped lands ignores recreational routes, Tribal trust lands, the Old Spanish Trail, and even the existing designated Ivanpah ACEC. From https://www.wilderness.org/articles/media-resources/120-million-acres-public-lands-eligible-sale-senr-budget-reconciliation-package
Seen on X.
The three map details above show areas that are absolutely not ever going to be affordable housing: left, the Toiyabe, Toquima and Monitor Range in remote central Nevada; center, the extremely steep and rugged Inyo Mountains and southern White Mountains in eastern California near Bishop, CA; and right, high-value US Forest Service Lands mapped around the edges of Yosemite National Park—which would be resort and luxury home territory if sold off. (Green = US Forest Service, and yellow = lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management).
Meme captured from social media.
Grazing allotments and Wilderness Study Areas are mapped as eligible. This is almost laughable as "affordable housing" - the very steep and rugged Inyo Mountains and southern White Mountains near Bishop, CA. Is this for mining companies to bid on?
Call your Senators and tell them NO! Do not agree to this amendment to the reconciliation bill. Keep our public lands for the people! You can call the U. S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to connect with your Senators in Washington DC.
Find your Senators here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?lang=en
Sarcobatus Flat, Nevada, Joshua Tree, and limestone ridge in the Mojave Desert of Southern Nevada — all public lands.
We have seldom seen such bipartisan push-back on social media towards such language in a Congressional bill, which is too broad and sweeping.
