Conservatives Turn On GOP Senator Over Plan To Sell Off Millions Of Acres Of Public Land

People across the political spectrum hope Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) makes like a tree and leaves national forests — and other federally owned land — alone.

Last week, the Lee-led Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee released a draft proposal, intended for inclusion in the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” that would mandate the sale of between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of public land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service in the American West.

Lee has framed the proposal as a means to increase affordable housing, and emphasized that it excludes national parks, national monuments, and designated wilderness areas from being sold.

Critics have expressed skepticism that the bill would do much to mitigate the housing crisis, contending that it would only result in the public being barred from land they now enjoy.

“I don’t think it’s clear that we would even get substantial housing as a result of this,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (N.M.), the energy committee’s ranking Democrat, told the Associated Press. “What I know would happen is people would lose access to places they know and care about and that drive our Western economies.”

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke (Mont.) has also spoken out against the plan.

“I have said from day one I would not support a bill that sells public lands,” he wrote Wednesday on X. “I am still a no on the senate reconciliation bill that sells public lands.”

Public backlash really began to grow this week, after The Wilderness Society, a conservation organization, published a map it said showed the areas that could potentially be up for grabs.

The proposal only allows for the sale of 3.3 million acres, but it’s not clear exactly where that land will come from. The nonprofit identified more than 250 million acres of land it said make up the pool from which the land to be sold could be drawn.

The group said it used public data to determine which federal lands would be susceptible to sale, based on the legislation’s text as of Monday.

Lee called the map “misleading” and said it included some areas that would be excluded from his bill. Julia Stuble, Wilderness Society Wyoming state director, has defended the map’s accuracy, telling Cowboy State Daily that the provision’s wording indeed left everything on the group’s map open to potential sale.

The proposal has drawn condemnation from lawmakers, environmental groups and outdoor enthusiasts of a range of political stripes.

Lee drew strong condemnation from many of his fellow conservatives in particular, who have slammed the proposed sell-off as a betrayal of the American people.

Lee defended himself in a Saturday episode of Glenn Beck’s podcast, blaming the backlash on “falsehoods being circulated by the left.”