More than 250 million public land acres in the West proposed for sale

Yellow are BLM lands, green are Forest Service lands eligible for sale

June 20 2025

The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Utah Senator Mike Lee, has proposed selling off more than 250 million acres of public lands across the West.

Millions of acres of forest service and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, are eligible under the Lee-Daines amendment to the “Big Beautiful Bill”.

The proposed land sales were scrubbed from the House version of the bill, but once it went to the Senate, this much more drastic version was slipped into the budget proposal late on the night of June 11.

Lee has said, “We’re opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development and get Washington, D.C., out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow,” though the “housing” accessibility and affordability will likely be limited. The administration has also hinted at greatly increasing mineral production.

Once the land is sold to private interests, accessibility to potentially millions of acres by the public will be eliminated, affecting recreation, hiking, hunting, fishing, OHV, riding, camping, ranching, grazing, and more.

As to where or to whom the money from the public land sales will go, that has not been fully addressed.

Follow this link to the map of Public lands eligible for sale in the Senate Reconciliation Bill

https://wilderness.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=821970f0212d46d7aa854718aac42310 

The Lee-Daines amendment will be voted on by the full Senate sometime between now and the July 4 deadline they’ve arbitrarily set for completing the budget. If you’re concerned with this potential loss of public land, contact your representatives NOW, or use this link: https://www.outdooralliance.org/blog/2025/6/16/33millionacres-publicland-selloffs-map