Over the last few weeks, Utah Senator Mike Lee tried multiple times to rewrite legislative text to mandate the sale of federal public lands in the western United States. His goal was to get the language into the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to ensure that it would pass.
People across the spectrum from Joe Rogan to the Sierra Club opposed every version of the proposal. Westerners of all stripes flooded their Senators’ phone lines. Ranchers, hunters, anglers, climbers, backpackers and thousands of people who believe that public lands should be accessible to and managed for the American public sent emails, made phone calls and recruited their friends and families to do the same. The result was Republican Senators Sheehy and Daines (MT) and Senators Crapo and Risch (ID) publicly committing that they would vote no on any bill that contains public lands sales. Five Republican Representatives made the same commitment – Reps Zinke, Simpson, Newhouse, Bentz and Valadao.
Without the votes to pass the bill, Senator Lee was forced to withdraw his proposal to sell off up to 1.2 million acres of national public lands.
It’s not surprising that so many people stood up for public lands. As Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke eloquently said in an opinion piece published in the Washington Times:
“Public lands are our birthright. A conservation legacy passed down from generation to generation. We hunt, fish, hike, fall in love, and heal on our lands and waters. We use them to make a living or escape from the grind. That’s not just in Montana — it’s for everyone. Every single person enjoys the same rights to public lands, whether you’re from New Mexico or New York, Mississippi, or Montana.”
Americans will continue to disagree with each other about how much and where to mine, drill, log and build roads on our national public lands. But we can all agree that these lands belong to all of us. In a time of deep partisan polarization, that agreement is something to celebrate.
