The Senate is still grinding away on provisions of the “BBB”, but sale of 1 million acres of western public land was removed by popular demand.(Wikimedia)
It was one of the rare things that conservatives and liberals could agree on now days.
Utah Senator Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) provision for the Big Beautiful Bill that included selling off a million acres (originally up to 3 million acres) of wild lands to cut the national debt was not a good idea.
Fortunately, it’s not going to happen—but only because the unified voices of many outdoors-oriented constituents—hunters, anglers, hikers, conservationists and more—made their voices heard in Washington.
The program was withdrawn from the package over the weekend, clearing one of multiple sticking points in passage of the massive bill. President Trump has called for the bill to be on his desk by July 4, though as the Donald frequently says “We’ll see what happens”. The sausage is still in the meat grinder as this is written.
Opposition to the public lands sale was pretty much universal throughout both the sporting, conservationist and environmentalist organizations—which are sometimes diametrically opposed.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers members alone on a “day of action” June 25 delivered more than 33,148 messages to Congress. The group reportedly tallied some 137,000 opposition messages since May when the proposal first became public knowledge.
Also, probably not coincidentally, just prior to the provision being dropped, Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops (BPS) and a strong supporter of conservative politicians including Donald Trump, joined with Colin O’Mara, head of the 7-million member National Wildlife Federation in an open letter calling for the provision to be eliminated.
Johnny Morris (R), founder of Bass Pro Shops, joined millions of other voices, in opposing sale of 1 million acres of public lands to lower the budget deficit. (Bass Pro Shops)
Morris is a well-known supporter of conservative politics, reportedly donating $200,000 to the Trump campaign in 2020.
His companies have also donated millions to conservation since founding in 1972. Just last month, BPS donated 40,000 rod and reel combo’s to non-profits to help kids get started fishing—making the total some 500,000 since the program started!
But he along with many others came out strongly against the sell-off of public lands as part of cutting the federal deficit.
The Morris/O’Mara letter said this one aspect of the BBB “targeted the lands of the Bureau of Land Management where tens of millions of Americans hunt, fish and hike. Importantly, these same public lands proposed for sale also provide vital public access to adjoining public lands. This is a bad deal for taxpayers and a threat to our way of life!”
The missive also said the sale was based on bad economics, thus:
“It just doesn’t make fiscal sense to liquidate capital assets that generate a compounding $1.1 trillion return annually for a one-time payment of what is, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively small amount of money. That’s not just selling the family farm; it's selling it for a fraction of a single year’s harvest,” the letter says.
The BLM manages millions of acres of public lands, with most of it open to hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and other outdoors pursuits. (Wikimedia)
Most outdoors-oriented families in America will agree.
There are a lot of good things in the BBB, from the conservative standpoint—and some features that hopefully all can agree on as good for the nation, Republican, Democrat or Independent.
But we’re not sorry to see the potential sale of all that hunting and fishing country removed from the agenda.
— Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com
