Last week, lawmakers introduced a new proposal to sell off roughly 3 million acres of public land in the Western U.S. as part of President Trump’s omnibus spending and tax bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” According to the Wilderness Society, more than 250 million acres of land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management could be up for grabs under a leaked June 14 version of the proposal. Though the plan focuses on land, its effects on water could be profound. The eligible land excludes national parks and a few other protected areas, but it leaves open massive amounts of acreage in each Western state. These eligible areas include land with wilderness characteristics, grazing lands, wildlife corridors for threatened and endangered species, recreation areas and popular camping sites. Its also land that buffers the headwaters of some of our most important rivers in the West.

Other public land sale news:

• San Francisco Chronicle: Map shows California public lands that could be sold off under Republican budget bill
• The Hill: Proposed sale of millions of acres of public land under GOP budget bill prompts backlash
• Arizona’s Family (Phoenix): Activists fight against sale of public lands in proposed budget bill
• ABC4 (Salt Lake City, Utah): Utah Public Lands Alliance speaks out about public land sale provision, seeks to offer ‘balanced look’
• Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado, Boulder: White paper: A rapid assessment of the Senate’s proposal to sell off public lands