Public lands privatization – the worst attacks on public lands you’ve never heard of

A Privatization Primer

Public lands privatization schemes—efforts to capture a portion of the country’s natural wealth for private gain—are as old as the republic. The laws that arose to allocate public resources in the West reflect that exploitation mindset, with the prior appropriation doctrine (for surface waters), Homestead Act of 1862 (land), and Mining Law of 1872 (hard rock minerals) all granting exclusive ownership to the first party able to exploit the resource.

Outside of the most notorious plans to divest the country of its common wealth—such as the bill from then-U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) in 2017 to sell off more than three million acres of public land across eleven Western states—most Americans are unaware of today’s privatization endeavors. The proposals listed here illustrate these endeavors’ broad scope.

Why should you care about these privatization schemes? Privatization causes significant environmental harms, reduces land available for hunting, fishing and quiet recreation, and destroys lands sacred to Native Americans. Selling or trading public lands on the peripheries of metropolitan areas in the desert Southwest results in sprawl that expands the wildland-urban interface, strains limited water supplies, degrades air quality and contributes to climate change. Land trades are often employed to enable or expand mining projects, resulting in the loss of sacred lands and poisoning of wildlife, water quality, and fish. Ski area development and expansion displaces wildlife, damages fragile alpine ecosystems, and increases traffic and air pollution.

It’s no surprise the mining industry, which has been plundering public lands since before the California Gold Rush, is well-represented on this list. But today, city planning and even outdoor recreation are fostering privatization.

Proposals on the list range from exchanges and sales of public lands to more insidious efforts, such as President Trump’s slashing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to open more public lands for fossil fuels development. Some of the proposals were presented to the federal land management agencies. Others were presented to Congress. Still others were ordered by the president or the Interior Secretary. While the history and circumstances of each are different, collectively they indicate the privatization agenda is thriving, despite overwhelming support for public lands.

Where It’s Happening

Public Lands Privatization Schemes

Learn more about the public lands at risk across the United States.