June 12, 2025 - Friends of Nevada Wilderness is calling Utah Senator Mike Lee’s latest proposal to mandate the sale of 2.2 to 3.2 million acres of BLM and National Forest lands “outrageous” and urges Nevadans and Westerners to contact their Senators and demand they oppose it.
The bill language released last night from the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, which Lee chairs, says a minimum of .5% up to .75% percent of public lands must be sold for housing within the next five years. The result, according to Friends, could be “urban sprawl on steroids.”
Those percentages applied in Nevada would mandate the BLM to sell a minimum of 240,000 acres and up to 360,000 acres of public land for housing and associated community needs. The Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest would need to sell a minimum of 29,500 and up to 44,250 acres for housing.
While no specific lands were identified, sales could occur in places where Nevadans regularly recreate like Peavine Mountain or lands in the National Forest outside of the Mt. Rose Wilderness in Northern Nevada, the foothills of the Ruby Mountains in Eastern Nevada or the Spring Mountains in the south.
“Make no mistake, this is a direct order to sell these lands whether local communities want them sold to private developers or not,” said Friends Executive Director Shaaron Netherton.
While priority is given to local governments, and the federal agencies are required to “consult” with the Governor, local governments, and Tribes, those entities can’t prevent sales and there are no guidelines or restrictions on who can purchase the land.
“Anyone, including developers of starter castles and exclusive high-end neighborhoods, can ask the agencies to sell them parcels of our public lands” Netherton added. “This proposal is outrageous. We don’t know who Senator Lee is listening to, but it certainly isn’t the millions of Americans who love their public lands and don’t want them sold to the highest bidder.”
In a public statement, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto said, “Shoving land sales in a reconciliation bill in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires is not the way forward, and I’ll continue to fight against this misguided proposal.” Friends echoes that statement.
To further encourage sale of the public’s land, 5% of the sale price would go to the local government to build infrastructure and 5% to the agencies to use within the state for “deferred maintenance backlog”. The remaining 90% of sale revenue would go into the Federal Treasury to help support tax cuts and other administrative priorities. And while funding for land management agencies has decreased over the last several years while public use of the land has skyrocketed, Lee now wants to give BLM and the Forest Service $10 million to facilitate the sales and maximize the number of acres sold.
Within 30 days of the bill being enacted, the agencies must solicit nominations of tracts for sale and every two months the cabinet secretaries must publish a list of parcels of land for sale until all the land is sold.
The only lands not up for grabs in the bill are most of the Congressionally-protected areas like Wilderness and National Conservation Areas. Wilderness Study Areas, Roadless Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and other administratively-protected areas would be up for sale.
The level of environmental review is unclear, as is how much public involvement, if any, would occur as these lands are offered up for sale. “It’s unconscionable that Senator Lee is pushing the sale of our precious public lands in this budget reconciliation bill, with absolutely no public input at all. We and millions of Americans will fight this outrageous plan,” Netherton concluded.
