For outdoor enthusiasts like Kera Erickson, Utah’s public trails are a way of life.
“Almost every day, I'm using the trails around here and then just enjoying being outdoors,” the Eden resident said after a morning mountain bike ride in Ogden Valley.
Outdoor groups and conservationists are readying for a fight over the latest draft of Sen. Mike Lee’s plan to sell public lands. The updated provision in the Senate version of the ‘big beautiful bill’ could open up 18.7 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service land in Utah. Across the West, it could be more than 250 million acres according to The Wilderness Society, a public lands advocacy nonprofit.
A map produced by the society shows parcels that overlap with popular trails along the Wasatch Front. For Erickson, losing access to some of the nearby trails, like Hidden Valley in the mountains east of Ogden, would be sad.
“You can see, like, being on any trailhead around here, that our trails are super used all the time,” she said. “So it would impact, like, a lot of people.”
The bill states the land would be used “solely for the development of housing or to address associated infrastructure to support local housing needs.” This isn’t the Utah senator’s first attempt to sell public lands for housing. Text in the proposal says designated lands, such as national parks and national monuments, would not be affected.
Bob Keiter, who specializes in public lands at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, said it’s still possible that wealthy people would take advantage of the opportunity to buy scenic land for weekend getaways.
“The bill is fairly clear that the sale should be for housing-related needs,” he said. “It's much less clear that this addresses affordable housing concerns.”
There are already ways for cities to propose buying public lands to build housing, Keiter said, citing the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act around Las Vegas. But this bill would make that easier.
It’s also unusual for several reasons, Keiter said, including the requirement that land be sold within five years, the lack of room for public input in the sale process, the broad discretion given to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, and the deadlines for requesting nominations of land to be sold.
Like Keiter, The Wilderness Society pointed to existing ways public lands can be converted to housing.
“That all happened through FLPMA [Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976],” said Lydia Weiss, the nonprofit’s senior director of government relations. “So if that was really what this was about, why not just use the existing tools and laws already on the books?”
Instead, they see the plan to sell off public lands as a way for Republicans to finance the reconciliation bill. Figures cited by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee say sales at fair market value could generate $5 to $10 billion.
“We just think that this is like an absolutely crazy way to pay for tax cuts for the rich,” Weiss said.
The Wilderness Society’s map shows parcels that could be eligible for sale, but there’s no way of knowing which would be sold. Priority would be given to land that is nominated by governments, that’s located next to developed areas, is suitable for housing or has existing infrastructure.
Land in the middle of undeveloped areas, like plots that overlap with popular hiking and biking trails, may be less popular, Keiter said.
“Parcels that are difficult to access, most of those probably would not end up being nominated for sale, but there's no assurance that that would not happen.”
Once land is in private hands, it would be up to the owner whether to allow the public continued access.
A public lands sale amendment backed by Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy failed in the House last month because of pushback from Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke. The Senate version excludes Montana, applying instead to Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
“I assume that Sen. Lee is hoping that that might avoid Rep. Zinke’s opposition in the House,” Keiter said.
Senate Republicans hope to pass their version of the reconciliation bill by July 4. If it passes, it would then head back to the House so that any differences between the two chambers could be ironed out in a conference committee.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
