Federal land at Green River, Fremont and New Fork lakes could be nominated for sale, according to a map based on the bill’s language.
by Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile.com (June 16, 2025) — The Wilderness Society mapped potential sale propertybased on language being hammered out by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The panel revised the “mandatory disposal” measure Saturday, but has not itself mapped the estimated 258 million acres in 11 Western states that could be nominated for sale.
The Wilderness Society map, however, shows that in addition to the Pinedale-area lakes, many other National Forest and Bureau of Land Management properties could be nominated for sale and development. Some 15 million acres in Wyoming could be nominated for sale, according to calculations made by The Wilderness Society.
All told, an estimated 2-3 million acres across the West would be sold after nomination and secretarial approval, the National Wildlife Federation calculated.
The bill would “drive a dagger into the heart of our Wyoming way of life,” Casper resident Neil Short wrote to friends and colleagues, urging them to ask Wyoming’s senators to oppose the bill. “We hunt, fish, ride horseback, ride ATVs, mountain bike, hike, camp, run, climb, ski, snowmobile, roam and exercise our Second Amendment rights on these beautiful, sacred landscapes,” he wrote.
Click to see the Wilderness Society’s full interactive map.
The map of eligible land includes almost the entire Wyoming Range, the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, swaths of National Forest land surrounding Jackson Hole, Forest Service land on the west side of the Tetons and tracts bordering Star Valley.
West of Laramie, The Wilderness Society mapped large portions of the Medicine Bow National Forest, including Sheep Mountain and parts of Lookout Mountain, as available for sale. Land West of Cody also could be nominated, as well as Forest Service property on both sides of the Bighorn Mountains.
Scattered BLM lands around the state also qualify for sale, according to The Wilderness Society map.
Grazing permits in flux
The budget measure proposed by Utah’s U.S. Sen. Mike Lee requires the sales as part of the Republican plan to reduce the nation’s deficit. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the bill would not do that; critics say it provides tax breaks for the wealthy and would use land sales to offset them.
The “mandatory disposal” provision would require the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture departments — who oversee the Forest Service and BLM — to sell land owned by all Americans at fair market value. David Willms, associate vice president for the National Wildlife Federation, estimated the 2-3 million acres on the chopping block after studying the bill.
Interested parties could nominate a parcel for sale, and local governments, not including Native American tribes, would have a right to match the sale price. The land would be developed as housing and “affordability” would be among the criteria a secretary could consider in offering nominated parcels for sale, according to a draft of the measure obtained by WyoFile.
The Senate committee amended Lee’s “mandatory disposal” measure Saturday, adding federal grazing lands used by ranchers to the list of property subject to sale. Land used by ranchers under grazing permits had been exempted from nomination and sale before the revisions.
“Selling off 3 million acres of public lands without public input or consideration is bad for America and is bad for Wyoming’s way of life.” —Peter Linn
After news of those changes reached Western states, committee staffers in Washington, D.C., scrambled to protect ranchers, Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association said Monday.
“I have been told they have drafted new language that totally protects any land with grazing rights from being sold,” Magagna said. “They assured me anything they go forward with will absolutely protect grazing permits.
“That satisfies our concerns,” pending a reading of the final language, he said.
Along with the deficit-reduction goal, Lee characterized the effort to sell land owned by all Americans as a way to boost affordable housing in the West. He’s been a critic of federal land ownership, supporting the Beehive state’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to wrest 18.5 million acres of BLM land from federal control.
There’s no language in the budget measure, however, that requires any development to be or stay affordable.
Any nomination for sale “shall include a description of [how the sale] would address local housing needs including housing supply and affordability,” according to the latest language in the measure.
Willms agreed that the Lee provision now opens the door to the development of resorts and exclusive housing.
The Lee provision also would circumvent federal environmental laws aimed at analyzing and documenting the effects of a sale and requiring notice and comment. The measure would fast-track sales, requiring the two agencies to begin accepting nominations within 30 days of the bill’s passage.
Montana out, Wyoming in
The Lee measure excludes Montana, a concession to U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, who opposes any sales and will be a key vote in passing any bill in the House. The bill also excludes “federally protected lands” like national parks, wilderness areas, battlefields, wild and scenic rivers and other similar areas.
The bill would direct sale proceeds to the general treasury, a “huge shift” Willms said. Today, such funds must be used by the agencies themselves for things like landscape restoration.
Hunters and other outdoor recreationists see trouble in the bill.
Peter Linn, who operates Pendergraft Outfitters, urged Wyoming residents to speak out. “Contact Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and tell them selling off 3 million acres of public lands without public input or consideration is bad for America and is bad for Wyoming’s way of life,” he wrote in a post for the coalition Keep It Public Wyoming.
Staffers for Barrasso and Lummis did not respond to WyoFile last week when asked about the senators’ views on Lee’s proposal. In a separate statement, Lummis did express support for Lee’s general approach to public land sales.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council posted a “red alert” saying “selling public lands to the highest bidder to fund tax cuts flies in the face of our Wyoming values.”
Casper resident Short told his friends “if our precious landscape is sold, multi-billionaires would own our sacred lands and we would be peasants, locked out forever.”
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
