The American public fought tooth and nail over the summer to preserve public lands after Utah Senator Mike Lee included a sell-off in the proposed "Big, Beautiful" reconciliation bill. And we won. After weeks of public pressure, with folks calling and writing and showing up to their representatives' offices, the provisions were stripped from the proposal.
Everyone came together, all the granola-eating hippies, grungy off-roaders, and armed-to-the-teeth hunters, and we won. We did it by coming together, and we're going to have to do it again, as while those sales were removed, state and federal officials have devised a new tactic to ensure the endgame of public land sales is implemented no matter what: cutting the public out of the process.
And that's already occurring in Utah, which has become the epicenter of the public lands sell-off movement, something I just don't understand given how much the state makes off having it. It's almost like our politicians are bought and paid for and don't actually care about the revenue derived from those outdoor activities because it's not hitting their bank accounts as donor money does...
Whatever the case may be, we're going to have to fight again, as Utah and the U.S. Forest Service just inked a shady deal that gives the state far more control over federally managed public lands, and to the tune of 8 million acres.
According to the new 20-year cooperative agreement, the basic premise is to further an already-in-place agreement from three years ago, which saw the U.S. Forest Service work with Utah on a number of issues such as forest fire management, restoration services, clean water work, and more. And those are all things I'm absolutely for, as we need clean water to drink, reducing wildfire fuel is important work, and restoration work helps us all have clean air to breathe.
But as soon as you get into the actual agreement wording, you find there's more emphasis put on extractive resources, something the current presidential administration has been pushing for, and was the crux of the fight over public land sell-offs in the summer of last year.
"The purpose of this Cooperative Agreement is to build upon the successes of Utah's existing Agreement for Shared Stewardship and to expand sustainable timber production, wood utilization, accelerate landscape-scale restoration, and increase the pace and scale of forest fuel-reduction treatments on National Forest System lands and adjacent forestland and rangelands," the agreement states. But while it addresses public lands stewardship issues, as those mentioned above, the fact that you have the first priority being "sustainable timber production" and "wood utilization" gives up the game.
The agreement furthers, "Additionally, the Parties also agree to identify opportunities where they can be more closely coordinated in the cooperative management of other resources on National Forest Systems lands where there are mutual benefits and legal authority." What are some of those opportunities you ask? If you guessed minerals, you'd be correct, as under the Statement of Mutual Benefits and Commitments, you'll find a section devoted to mineral extraction.
"Minerals. The Parties agree to work together to increase permitting efficiencies, improve environmental stewardship, and ensure accountability. Specifically, the Parties will coordinate in areas where the State and Forest Service have shared permitting and or regulatory requirements or responsibilities," the handshake agreement states. All of which, however, cut out the public in the management of 8 million acres of our public lands. And for a wild 20 years.
Speaking out against this circumvention of the public's wants and wishes, the Center for Biological Diversity's Laiken Jordahl, stated, "Utah politicians have failed repeatedly to sell off public lands outright, so now they’re teaming up with their Trump cronies to push the same disgraceful agenda. This agreement strips federal protections, shuts the public out of decision-making and puts Utah’s old-growth forests directly on the chopping block. The American people will see this latest scheme for what it is, a backdoor push to privatize our public lands."
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance's Steve Bloch added, "Utahns love our national forests — from the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache to the Manti-La Sal to the Dixie — and the incredible opportunities they provide for recreating with family and friends, often right out our back doors. It’s essential that our national forests remain in public hands and are not handed over to the state of Utah for short-term gain or other forms of destructive mismanagement. We fear that the new Agreement unveiled today does exactly that: It sets the stage for Utah officials to have both a heavy hand and the loudest voice in how our national forests are managed, crowding out all other stakeholders. That’s not how this is supposed to work, and we’ll be watching closely to see how the agreement plays out on the ground."
I'm still flabbergasted by the boldness and brazen guile of these politicians on public lands issues. The collective people of America, in a time where seemingly nothing binds us together—which is a lie in itself, too—love and adore and support public lands. We may disagree on management, but we can all come together and state that public lands deserve to remain in public hands. And that their sell-off or transfer to state or private control is something we will not tolerate.
Yet, here we are, constantly fighting these ghouls.
So if you've read my previous public lands stories, you'll know this is the part of the story where I implore you to reach out to your representatives and tell them they have to halt these actions. That you don't support transfers or sales of public lands. And that the U.S. Forest Service, along with the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management, should quit firing or riffing their staff, stop funding freezes or cuts, and actually manage the land they've been tasked to manage for the American people. Become the long-term stewards we want and demand. You can reach out to your Senators here, your Representatives here, and you can call Utah's Governor Spencer Cox here to voice your opinion.
Do it, as it's pretty satisfying to participate in the political process. Plus, we already won once. We can absolutely do it again.
