Great news, folks. It’s federal public lands disposal season again. You know, that idea that raises its head every decade or so that calls for selling off our public lands or transferring them to state control. Proponents of this nonsense usually come out of the gate super hot, but are soon reminded that the majority of Americans—even people who live far away from where most public lands are located—love public lands and want them left alone. Reasons vary, but a few of the more obvious ones are that Americans want access to the outdoors for recreation, public lands support local economies, and the fact that public lands contain the headwaters of much of the western states’ urban water supplies.
The idea is doomed to fail. Everyone knows that public land sale or transfer would cost the many for the benefit of the few. Only someone like an urban real estate developer with little or no understanding of public lands could ever think such a move would benefit the country.
In other words, this time it’s serious. The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” calls for mandatory public land sales across 11 western states, including ours. Specifically, 2.2 to 3.2 million acres of BLM and Forest Service lands must be sold, ostensibly to address community development and housing issues.
If land transfer survives the legislative process and makes it to the President’s desk, New Mexico will witness a game of high stakes poker, in which few if any locals will be able to afford to come to the table. New owners of previously public land—say, petroleum and mining companies—would be relieved of nuisances like royalty payments and environmental regulations that help make New Mexico a great place to live.
I definitely have nothing against industry. I depend on my car, my smartphone, and my high-tech graphite fishing rods. Still, the system currently in place enables New Mexico to harvest royalty revenue from productive activity on public lands and reinvest it in things like conservation and restoration. Case in point is the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, passed in 2023 and funded in large part by oil and gas royalties. Of the many benefits the Legacy Fund provides, it helps maintain New Mexico’s River Stewardship program, which has funded restoration projects on the Red River in the past and, hopefully, the future.
I suppose ranchers would be eligible to buy land too, but it seems like a bum deal for someone with a small herd, which is the case for many New Mexican ranchers. A small logging outfit might find themselves in the same boat. How one would afford the land is one thing; how to pay the property taxes would be another.
But again, this land sell-off mandate isn’t for “small” people, those whom public lands so disproportionately benefit. The proponents of liquidating public lands aren’t worried about the hunter or hiker or mountain biker or fishermen. They don’t care about picking piñon, cutting firewood, or rural jobs. No one is dumb enough to believe the Forest Service land around Santa Fe—with its cool breezes, brilliant sunsets, and lovely views of Sandia Peak and the Jemez Mountains—would be sold to help solve the city’s housing shortage. But a mansion shortage? Now we’re talking.
