Prior to the second Trump administration, I'd tell you that there were a lot of problems with how our public lands were managed by the federal government. And I'd tell you, they did a lot right. What I wouldn't tell you is that because of those issues I saw, we should just do away with them. That the bad outweighs the good. That we should give them to the states or sell them off to extractive industries or oligarchs.
But that's how folks like Utah Senator Mike Lee, Utah State Representative Celeste Maloy, Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and next likely head of the Bureau of Land Management, Steve Pearce, see our public lands. They despise that we have free access to them, and desperately want to see them all sold off.
It's been a near-constant fight since the Trump administration took office in terms of keeping our public lands in the public's hands. We saw the proposed massive sell-off in the One Big Beautiful Bill, the opening of the Ambler Road after years of litigation, the near seizure of the Johnson Valley, the fight to close Bears Ear and Grand-Staircase Escalante (which I just visited over my children's spring break), state AGs arguing that they have the right to seize federal land, and oh so much more, I honestly can't keep up with all the threats.
