Public Lands in Danger as Govt Proposes the Sale of MILLIONS of Acres
A SLIPPERY SLOPE. Cloud navigates down a slippery, snow-covered slope heading to water in the Pryor Mountains. Selling off large quantities of our public lands... could prove an even more dangerous descent.
Photo © The Cloud Foundation (2009)
Selling Off Millions of Acres of Our
(and Our Wildlife's) Public Lands...
Is the DEFINITION of a "Slippery Slope"
America’s wild horses and burros live on public lands in the West—lands that belong to all of us. But a new legislative proposal could change everything, and that is not a slippery slope we want to go down if we want to protect our wild horses and burros!
This dangerous bill could result in the sale of millions of acres of public land to private entities, threatening wildlife—including wild horses and burros—who call these lands home.
We need your voice now.
Please CALL your two Senators and your Congressional Representative with a clear and powerful message:
👉Give your name, phone #, and city where you live. It’s ok to leave a voicemail. They have to log every message.
👉 Do not allow our public lands to be sold to the highest bidder.
👉 Protect ALL the wildlife - including our wild horses and burros that roam free as determined in the 1971 Wild Horses and Burros Act.
👉 Keep public lands in public hands. Our public lands—and the wild lives they protect—are not for sale.
Thank you for speaking up for ALL wildlife,
~ The Cloud Team
The sun sets on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range.
📌 Public Land Sale Proposal: Fast Facts
⚠️ What’s Happening:
A new proposal in Congress (currently sitting in the Senate) would allow the federal government to sell off up to 3.3 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service.
🧭 Where:
The proposal targets so-called "isolated" or "low-value" parcels in 11 Western states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.
✅ Who Owns This Land Now:
These lands are currently owned by all Americans and managed by federal agencies for multiple uses—such as grazing, recreation, wildlife habitat, and conservation.
❗️Why It Matters
Some of the lands under consideration are in checkerboard regions—areas where public and private lands are intermingled like a patchwork. These fragmented public parcels often fall within or adjacent to wild horse and burro Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and are essential for herd movement, grazing, and genetic diversity.
If sold, these lands could be fenced, developed, or otherwise cut off from wild equine use, threatening herd survival.
Particularly at risk are HMAs in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, where checkerboard land ownership is common and many wild horses and burros currently roam.
The bill allows land exchanges to consolidate fragmented federal parcels—but these are geared toward development efficiency, not habitat protection. There is no guarantee that lands important to wild horses and burros will be retained or preserved.
Once sold, these lands could be closed to the public or developed by private owners.
🏛️ What's Not Affected:
The bill does not include National Parks, National Monuments, or designated Wilderness Areas.
📉 Does the Government Regularly Sell Public Lands?
Yes—but rarely and typically in small amounts.
Since 1976, federal law has prioritized keeping public lands in public hands. Only a few hundred to a few thousand acres are sold each year, usually small, isolated parcels near growing cities.
This new Congressional proposal would dramatically expand that, authorizing the sale of millions of acres over five years—including lands used by the public, and those that wildlife, like wild horses & burros, call home. 🐴
WHAT DO WE KNOW & WHERE ARE WE NOW?
As of June 20, 2025
🕒 House Night-Time Maneuver
On May 6, during a midnight House Natural Resources Committee meeting, Representatives Mark Amodei (NV) and Celeste Maloy (UT) inserted an amendment to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands—introduced and approved with virtually no debate sfgate.com
This “midnight insertion” sparked major backlash, leading to the provision’s removal in the House version of the budget reconciliation bill around May 21 washingtonpost.com
🏛️ Senate Version
In June 2025, the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee released its version of the reconciliation package, which includes a land-sale provision authorizing up to 3.3 million acres wilderness.org, washingtonpost.com
This Senate version was released during a regular committee session—not at night or in secret—though many lawmakers and stakeholders say they had little advanced notice .