We knew the war wasn't over when the outdoor community railed together and killed the public land sales in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" last month. We knew that was just one battle of many, as those on both the left and the right have a habit of sneaking in land sales, land leases with insane terms, and land swaps that do nothing for the public at large.
We knew more fights were coming.
But I don't think we thought, or rather understood, the amount of remaining language within that disastrous bill regarding public land and its continued federal management was the amount of wording regarding public land leasing still within its nearly 1,000-page heft. Indeed, not only did the bill still include lease language, but the way lawmakers on Capitol Hill wrote it made it so that the only beneficiaries of said leasing would be the extractive industries, i.e. oil, mineral, and gas, that would take our public lands and strip-mine them into nonexistence.
As such, our friends at The Wilderness Society put together an interactive map of all the possible tracks of land encompassing 200 million acres that are now up for lease from the federal government. And the deals forthcoming are beyond sweetheart, they're practically fire sale prices at the expense of the American people who love off-roading, hunting, camping, climbing, kayaking, and more.
Folks, it's time to call your representatives again. Here's the map.
"When the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' passed, Congress, under the influence of Trump’s energy dominance agenda, fundamentally tipped the scales of public lands policy in favor of fossil fuels. Even without the public lands sell-off provision, the legislation is one of the biggest public lands giveaways to the fossil fuel industry in history. Put simply, President Trump got his wish: whatever the fossil fuel industry wants, they get," states the organization.
And they aren't wrong.
The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" opens up around 200 million acres of public land to oil and gas leases, and makes our public lands both cheaper to lease and easier to do so through those extractive companies. Included in the legislation, which is now law, quarterly leases are now required in all Western states. Likewise, those who pushed this legislation through "resurrected" old pricing structures for said public land leases, which are just sales by another name if we're honest with ourselves, "which allows industry to lease lands for $1.50/acre when parcels don’t receive competitive bids and have virtually no oil and gas potential."
Imagine if you or I could get land for $1.50 an acre. We can't, though, because we're not oil or gas companies who paid a lot of money into people's campaign contribution coffers.
Likewise, while hunters, anglers, off-roaders, and other recreators were allowed at the table before this legislation passed, we aren't any longer. No longer will the BLM be allowed to take the temperature of such leases with the locals and those invested parties who utilize our public lands, i.e. you or I can't say anything to the BLM or any other federal agency if we don't like our hunting grounds taken away.
Per The Wilderness Society, "The legislation strips BLM’s ability to say “no” to making acreage available for leasing, including in response to local concerns. Without this discretion, it doesn’t matter if local communities, counties, states, hunters, anglers, recreationists or ranchers have concerns about drilling. BLM must make available for lease any eligible parcel of public land nominated by industry. This includes lands next to more than 60 national parks, scores of state parks, campgrounds, recreation areas – and even local schools and medical centers."
And that 200+ million acres can be seen through this interactive map. You might want to take a scroll and see if your favorite spot is included, as I know a few of mine are.
So, as with all my public land scribes, I'm asking you to call your elected representatives, call your congressional delegation, call your senators and governors, and anyone who supposedly represents you. Because we've shown how the American people absolutely do not want this. We do not want our lands sold or leased to the highest (or lowest) bidder. We want what is rightfully ours, and for Congress, the President, and everyone else just to do their jobs and leave these lands alone.
We've fought this before and we can fight it again. Let's get to work.
