Think back to last week, which in today's society feels like ages ago. But at the time, I told you that your representatives had voted, in secret, to sell off your public lands. At the time, it was 11,000 acres in Nevada and Utah which, in itself, would be cause for alarm, as this administration and its administrators have been hell-bent on selling off whatever they could, or at least laying the groundwork to do just that.
But that's all changed as, in a last-second change, the original 11,000 acres has jumped to a staggering 500,000 acres of public lands that we all use to recreate on.
This isn't cause for concern, it's cause for outrage. It's also cause for everyone to fill your representative's email inboxes, mailboxes, fax machines, and however else you can reach them to demand they halt these actions. Because if we don't, they're bound to not just go through with this sell-off to the highest bidder, they'll do it again and again in states across the country.
So it won't just be Utahn and Nevadan residents paying the price, it'll be everyone.
While the original text that the House Natural Resources Committee submitted mentioned only 11,000 acres being up for sale, when you dove into it, both Democrats and Republicans alike, along with folks who understand how these things all work, found that the actual acreage the committee was proposing to sell was closer or above 500,000 acres.
When Poltico asked the committee about the sale, "A spokesperson for the Natural Resources Committee said they did not have exact figures." However, when the outlet pressed one of Representative Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) staffers, one of the sponsors of this amendment, they replied "that the amendment involved 449,174 acres but that actions involving 356,100 acres would not amount to a net change in federal ownership." That's just not true, as many have pointed out.
According to our friends at Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, "Introduced without public input, conservation safeguards, or reinvestment in access or habitat, the amendment represents a sweeping assault on the future of America’s public lands – and BHA aims to ensure the voices of public land owners nationwide aren’t just heard but heeded."
The amendment basically allows the federal government to sell off your public lands to extractive industries without real oversight, without land exchanges, and without regard to how people use these lands. It is an assault on the one issue that unites almost every American in a time when nothing else can. And, given the track record of the federal government with these land sales (both Democrat and Republican), it likely wouldn't even be a good return on investment, as most of these sales happen under the cloak of backroom deals that shortchange the American people and only benefit a few rich individuals.
But we shouldn't be selling off land to begin with.
Patrick Berry, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers' president and CEO, stated, "There was some optimism that our elected officials understood the value of our public lands as an irreplaceable American ideal when language to fast-track selling resources owned by us all was excluded from the initial budget proposal. But what we’re seeing now is a full-scale breach of the public trust. This isn’t just a policy disagreement; it’s a deliberate move to hide from public accountability and scrutiny by ignoring the process that includes input from the public – who overwhelmingly oppose the sale of public land."
And Berry is correct in that assertion of a public who oppose these sales, as I've mentioned earlier, as well as in other stories about public land sales, there's no other issue in American politics that unites the whole country like public lands. They enjoy near-universal approval among the American electorate, and across genders and ideologies, across stated political parties and all recreational groups. Everyone loves and wants to conserve public lands. It's the one thing we can all agree on, which is so so rare.
Yet, despite that, there are those within the halls of Congress and the House who would do away with it. And that's why we need to fight for our rights and our public land. We need to keep the pressure on our elected representatives and their ilk. We need to call, fax, email, and tell them directly how we feel, how we'll vote them out of office, and how we'll continue fighting these actions.
I know that's a tall order, and I know it's an uphill fight. But what's the alternative? Do you want to lose your dirt biking trails? Do you want to lose where you camp or fish or hunt? Do you want to lose your pristine natural wildernesses? I don't. I don't want my kids to live in a world without public lands. So call, write, text, hell, try carrier pigeoning them.
So here's how you can contact your representatives. We can call (link to the Congressional switchboard here), we can write (link to Congressional emails here), and we can fax (link to how to fax your representatives here). We need to keep fighting. There's no other option.
