The Cost of Selling Public Land

Author: Natalie Bello, PhD

February 3, 2026

[Image credit: Richard Thompson]

Over the course of 2025, the Trump Administration indicated its desire to sell off public land and reduce protections for these areas. One of the most controversial pieces of legislation that President Trump and the Republican Party were going to use to sell off the land was the Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The OBBBA frequently made headlines throughout the summer before ultimately being signed into law on July 4, 2025. A Republican Senator from Utah, Mike Lee, originally proposed a provision within the legislation to sell off millions of acres of public land in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires (McConville, Lutz, and Rowland-Shea, 2025). However, due to pressure from both political sides of the spectrum, Lee was forced to remove the provision from the OBBBA. According to Lee, there were “strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process,” and he was unable to guarantee that the land would not be sold to foreign businesses (CBS News, 2025). 

Despite Lee's removal of this provision, the Trump Administration has collectively found ways to weaken protections from more than “175 million acres of US lands,” which is “larger than California, Florida, and Georgia combined” (McConville, Lutz, and Rowland-Shea, 2025). The table below demonstrates the significance of the Trump Administration's efforts to target large areas of public land, primarily in Western states. 

Currently identified U.S. lands targeted for removed or weakened protections 

(McConville, Lutz, and Rowland-Shea, 2025)

The Trump Administration’s actions are expected to eliminate or weaken protections for more than 175 million acres of U.S. lands, including approximately 88 million acres targeted by public land rollbacks.

Lands	Acres
National forest “roadless areas”	39,372,100
Western Arctic*	13,440,100
Alaska “D1” public lands	27,734,100
Boundary Waters (Minnesota)	225,500
Greater Chaco region (New Mexico)	336,400
Upper Pecos watershed (New Mexico)	164,800
Ruby Mountains (Nevada)	264,000
Central Yukon RMP (Alaska)*	3,716,300
Miles City RMP (Montana)*	1,214,400
North Dakota RMP*	23,600
Buffalo RMP (Wyoming)*	356,300
Rock Springs RMP (Wyoming)*	1,098,000
Total public lands targeted for removed protections**	87,904,000
U.S. lands most affected by weakened habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act	87,451,900
Total U.S. lands targeted for removed or weakened protections**	175,210,300

* Areas include lands targeted for removed conservation status (i.e., “special areas,” “areas of critical environmental concern”) and/or to be newly opened for oil and gas or coal leasing (i.e., “previously closed”).

** Totals remove overlapping acreage to avoid double-counting.

Note: Values are rounded to the hundreds.

Source: “Methodology and Data Sources.” Table: Center for American Progress, 2025

Along with targeting acres of land for sale, President Trump has also appointed politicians who support his agenda to land management positions. For example, he appointed Doug Burgum to be the Secretary of the Interior, who oversees the majority of public land in the United States. Burgum has described private companies in the drilling, mining, and logging businesses as “the customers”(McConville, Lutz, and Rowland-Shea, 2025). In addition, former Republican Representative of New Mexico, Steve Pearce, has been selected to assume the role of Director of the Bureau of Land Management. While in government, Pearce co-sponsored bills aimed at reducing public land and promoting the sale of land for oil and gas drilling. Unsurprisingly, Pearce has ties to the oil industry. Prior to his political career, he owned an oilfield services company, and while serving in Congress, Pearce continued to own companies that rented drilling equipment (Mauhay-Moore, 2025). 

The Trump Administration has also sought to roll back the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to “uphold their multiple-use mission as required by the Public Lands Rule” (Feinberg, 2025). The rule was finalized in 2024 after public and Tribal input, and its emphasis is that “access to nature, cultural resource protection, wildlife habitat, and climate action” is essential. It also acknowledges “Indigenous Tribes as the original stewards of the land” and prioritizes protecting areas with “historical, cultural, scenic, and wildlife value” (Feinberg, 2025). Alongside efforts to repeal the Public Lands Rule, the Trump Administration intends to remove conservation as an option for how the Bureau of Land Management can utilize public land. 

How Does this Impact People

It is evident that weakened environmental protections and the selling of public land to the oil, gas, and logging industries negatively affect the ecosystem and wildlife within those areas, but it is also harmful to people. Much of the land is used for outdoor recreation, which drives tourism and supports the local economies of neighboring communities. The sale of public land poses an economic risk to these areas. Selling the land to major polluters such as oil, gas, and logging companies will continue to pollute our air and water, while the burning of fossil fuels makes climate change worse. 

One of the most significant concerns is USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which would lift restrictions on “roadbuilding and logging across nearly 59 million acres of National Forest lands” (Lien, 2025). The impact would be widespread across 36 states and Puerto Rico. It is estimated that 48 million people, including residents in “major cities in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City source their drinking water from watersheds that are located in roadless areas” (McConville, Lutz, and Rowland-Shea, 2025). Allowing commercial use of these non-threatened forests could pollute clean drinking water for millions of Americans across the country.

Most importantly, Tribal communities have not been consulted on the selling of public land. All of our national parks in the United States are on Native land. The only reason national parks exist is that the land was either stolen from indigenous communities or Tribes granted rights to the US government “in exchange for the continued recognition of the rights they reserved for themselves to the land, water, and resources of a geographical space” (Shea, 2025). There are existing constitutional rights and treaties, along with recent court decisions, that affirm that Tribal nations have “rights to access federally managed lands” (Smith, 2025). Some Tribes still hold “treaty rights of land within a park’s jurisdiction, allowing them to use the land for traditional hunting, fishing, and ceremonial practices” (Shea, 2025). The lack of consultation with Native communities and the federal government’s failure to uphold “the right of first refusal to bid on these lands” for Tribal nations violates constitutional agreements and treaties (Le Blanc, 2025).

An Alternative

A potential alternative to selling public land is to return it to Tribal nations. The Landback Movement has gained momentum in recent years, calling for territorial land to be returned to Indigenous communities. There is a strong legal argument that land return is a constitutional requirement for damages due to hundreds of treaty violations by the US government against Native people. Not only would the return of public lands to indigenous communities be a legally and ethically sound decision, but tribal land management is more ecologically successful than government or industry land management due to their practice of Natural Law and more regenerative farming practices. 

For example, public land makes up 20% of the U.S. annual carbon emissions due to oil and gas, and other industrial leases. If an estimated 1 billion hectares of land were returned to indigenous people, by 2050, “over 12 gigatons of carbon dioxide would be sequestered,” making the land a net carbon sink (Whittle, 2025). Not only would the environment and wildlife benefit, but all Americans would as well. Many Tribes already offer areas for public recreation, and there is a long-standing history of Native families leasing land to non-native families. The current leasing system is set up to benefit big corporations, while Tribal entities prefer smaller family operations seeking to provide for themselves (Whittle, 2025).

Our public land and the preservation of our national parks are among the most important assets of this country. They provide recreation and vital resources for millions of people and serve as a home to an incredible diversity of wildlife. Most importantly, the federal government was never the original steward of this land. Indigenous people were its first caretakers, and national parks exist today because of their practices and management of the land. Once this land is sold off, it is likely lost forever, along with the shared abundance it provides to us all. While the sale of public land may appear to be solely an environmental issue, it is a fundamental human rights issue that affects every American.

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Glossary

• Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) - The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a U.S. federal statute containing tax and spending policies that include the core plans of President Trump’s second-term agenda. The bill was signed into law on July 4, 2025. It has raised the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office and several think tanks have criticized the bill, arguing that it will create the largest disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor in American history. 

• Bureau of Land Management - The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. They are responsible for administering U.S. federal lands and overseeing more than 247.3 million acres of land. 

• Carbon Emissions - Carbon emissions are gases, primarily carbon dioxide, that are released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas). The trapped heat in the atmosphere directly causes global warming and climate change.  

• Ecosystems - An ecosystem is a community of living organisms and non-living organisms that interact with one another, transferring energy and nutrients. 

• The Landback Movement - The Landback Movement is an Indigenous-led campaign to reclaim stolen land and resources. The movement aims to restore Indigenous sovereignty and cultural revitalization, and fight against systemic injustice and environmental harm. 

• Natural Law - Natural Law, as defined by Indigenous peoples, refers to principles derived from the Creator and the Land. It is based on the belief that all life is interconnected and emphasizes balance, respect, and responsibility, guiding sustainable living and the practice of taking only what is needed.

• Provision - A provision in the Constitution is a clause, article, or section that defines government powers and protects citizens’ rights.

• Right of First Refusal - The right of first refusal is a contractual right that gives the holder the opportunity to buy an asset or enter a deal before the owner can sell to a third party. 

• Roadless Area Conservation Rule - The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was established in 2001. It prohibits road construction or reconstruction, and timber harvesting in nearly 60 million acres of roadless areas. 

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Sources

1. CBS News (2025) Sen. Mike Lee removes public lands provision from Trump's "big, beautiful bill". Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-mike-lee-removes-public-lands-provision-from-trumps-big-beautiful-bill/

2. Feinberg (2025) Trump is Attempting to Eliminate the ‘Public’ from Public Lands. Available at: https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2025/09/trump-attempting-eliminate-public-public-lands  

3. Le Blanc (2025) The Big Ugly Bill Attacks Tribes, Our Lands, and Our Rights. Available at: https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/the-big-ugly-bill-attacks-tribes-our-lands-and-our-rights

4. Mauhay-Moore (2025) Trump's pick to manage 245M acres notoriously hellbent on selling public lands. Available at: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/trump-steve-pearce-blm-nominee-21185400.php

5. McConville, Lutz, and Rowland-Shea (2025) The Trump Administration’s Expansive Push to Sell Out Public Lands to the Highest Bidder. Available at: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-expansive-push-to-sell-out-public-lands-to-the-highest-bidder/

6. Shea (2025) Public Lands Did Not Come Free: What Trump’s Actions May Cost Tribal Nations. Available at: https://www.npca.org/articles/7737-public-lands-did-not-come-free-what-trump-s-actions-may-cost-tribal-nations

7. Smith (2025) Public land sale a ‘frontal assault on tribal treaty rights’. Available at: https://www.hcn.org/articles/public-land-sale-a-frontal-assault-on-tribal-treaty-rights/ 

8.  Whittle (2025) The Case for Returning U.S. Public Lands to Indigenous People. Available at: https://time.com/7262838/us-public-lands-return-indigenous-people/