The Senate has just reintroduced public land sales into Trump’s tax bill, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The new language added to the bill requires the US Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell off at least 0.5% — and up to 0.75% — of all USFS and BLM lands. This would total more than 3.3 million acres — roughly four times the size of Rhode Island.
“Unlike past proposals, which largely limited sales to lands already identified for disposal, the Senate’s bill puts any multiple-use Forest Service or BLM land on the table, including places vital for outdoor recreation,” wrote the Outdoor Alliance. “There are virtually no safeguards on what land can be sold or for what purpose.”
“This package is truly the gravest threat to public lands we have ever seen moving through Congress,” said Louis Geltman, VP of Policy and Government Affairs at Outdoor Alliance. “Beyond the flagrant assault on public lands, it would be hard to imagine a ‘process’ more ripe for abuse and cronyism than what is spec’d out here. The outdoor community is categorically opposed to wholesale land sales.”
Public land sales were removed from the bill by the House after public outcry
The bill, as it was written while passing through the House of Representatives, called for selling off 500,000 acres of public land in Nevada and Utah. According to experts at IMBA who reviewed the available documents, some of the most famous mountain bike trails in Hurricane, UT, were threatened.
The opposition to the proposed public land sales was widespread. Both IMBA and the Outdoor Alliance opposed the bill, along with many adventure athletes, such as mountain bikers. The Outdoor Alliance alone coordinated over 100,000 letters to lawmakers.
In addition, hunters and anglers on both sides of the aisle were widely opposed to the land sales, according to reports.
Despite this widespread opposition, the Senate has reintroduced land sales into the bill and has made the proposal radically more dire.
Why are land sales back on the table?
Senate Republicans claim that this sale of public land could raise as much as $10 billion over 10 years, according to an article in Bloomberg.
The bill goes further, though, by prioritizing “oil, gas, and timber development on public lands, with fewer protections for recreation, wildlife, and climate,” according to the Outdoor Alliance. In addition, it will weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) “and allows developers to pay to skip judicial review and public input.” It also “includes long-term timber contracts that amount to de facto privatization of public forests.”
According to Bloomberg, these efforts are intended to generate as much as $29 billion. As large as these numbers sound, according to the official Congressional Budget Office, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to increase the deficit by $3 trillion.
The astronomical increase in federal debt is 300 times larger than the relatively small amount of money earned by selling public lands. And, as has been shown time and time again, public lands generate substantial ongoing revenue through recreation, which can be more substantial than a one-time land sale.
What can you do?
If you care about mountain biking on public lands, it’s time to email — or better yet, call — your senator and tell them that you oppose public land sales. The Outdoor Alliance has created an action form that allows you to quickly email your legislators. Click here to access the form and make your voice heard.
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