Public Lands For Sale: Outdoor Alliance Map Shows the Extent of Land on the Auction Block

Image: Alex Moliski

Last week, the Senate released text of a major spending package, which included a proposal to sell off about 3 million acres of public land. Today, Outdoor Alliance released a map showing that nearly 300 million acres of public lands could be open for these proposed sales, an area that includes nearly 100,000 miles of trails, 8,232 climbing areas, and 3,405 river miles across the West.

As written, the Senate’s bill would require the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell off at least 0.5%—and up to 0.75%—of all National Forest and BLM lands, totaling up to 3.3 million acres. And unlike past proposals, which largely limited sales to lands already identified for disposal, the Senate’s bill puts virtually any multiple-use Forest Service or BLM land on the table, including places vital for outdoor recreation. While Wilderness, National Parks, and other protective designations (as well as areas with existing rights like mining claims) are excluded from potential sales, there are virtually no other safeguards on what land can be sold or for what purpose.

Outdoor Alliance’s GIS Lab produced a map that shows the area that could be opened up for sale. Because of recent updates to the bill text, this map area shows a larger area of BLM land available for sale than an earlier map from The Wilderness Society, and we are grateful to their team for conferring with us on the data.  

The map shows recreation assets at risk all across the West, including much of the Teton National Forest and the Absaroka range in Wyoming; Mount Hood’s 44 Trails network; the headwaters of the Little White Salmon; the Sandy Ridge trail system; the South Fork Payette River; the South Salmon and huge swaths of the Sawtooths in Idaho; the Trinity Alps and the Stanislaus National Forest in California; the Juniper Mountains in Arizona; Lunch Loops outside Grand Junction, Colorado; and Hartman Rocks outside Gunnison, Colorado; as well as many more.

The bill is moving quickly through Congress and it is vital that the outdoor recreation community speaks up now to stop public lands sales from being included. Save Public Lands: