Fighting for Common Ground

A united fight for our nation's public lands

 

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing, nor a pollster to know this country is at odds with itself. But while TV talking heads take pleasure in telling us we’re a nation splintered and cracking at the seams, a house divided and ready to fall, those of us with mud on our boots know where to find common ground. It isn’t a theory: it’s a place, and we’ve got 640 million acres of it.

That common ground is our public land. It’s a uniquely American idea, forged in the belief that the wildest and most beautiful parts of our country belong to all of us, not just the wealthy or those with a key to a gate.

This isn’t just about pretty scenery. It’s about a responsibility to our children and grandchildren; we’ve been entrusted to care for these remaining wilds as temporary stewards of a legacy meant to be passed down whole.

 

Polls Reflect Our United Love for Public Lands

Americans LOVE their public lands. Don’t take my word for it. The numbers prove that this love for public lands is one of the things that still unite us. An April 2025 poll from the Trust for Public Land showed that a majority of Americans (74%), Republicans and Democrats alike, want our public lands to remain public.

What about out West, in the supposed hotbed of anti-government sentiment? The story is the same. A Colorado College poll released in January 2025 found that 72% of voters across eight states with vast public lands want those lands protected, including a majority of self-described “MAGA” voters. That’s a consensus you could build a mountain on.

But that consensus doesn’t always echo in the halls of power. Too many politicians either fail to grasp this widespread support for public lands or, once in office, simply choose to ignore it—listening instead to the whispers of special interests from developers and extractors looking to cash in on our public lands. This gap between the people’s will and political action is where our vigilance comes in.

The power of that vigilance was brought to bear during the recent attacks on our public lands that emerged from both the House and Senate, as each side pounced on the opportunity to circumvent standard procedures by leveraging the simple majority rule and other loopholes of the budget reconciliation process.

 

Public Lands Narrowly Survive Political Battle

The House proposal caught our attention first, with a last-minute proposal to sell off a half-million acres of our public land in Utah and Nevada. Though blindsided, once that backroom deal was exposed, the outcry from the general public and conservationists alike was immediate and fierce, effectively forcing its withdrawal.

But that sweet taste of victory would prove fleeting. No sooner had we celebrated the vanquished House threat than a new, more aggressive assault emerged in the Senate. Leading this charge was Utah Senator Mike Lee, who has seemingly spent his career attacking public lands. Emboldened by his powerful position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lee not only continued the attack but expanded the proposed sell-off to an audacious 11 states, encompassing millions of acres of our cherished National Forests and BLM lands.

Lee’s land sale scheme bent so many rules and was so over the top that the House Parliamentarian called him out, forcing him to withdraw his initial, bloated proposal. Though he was then forced to rewrite it as a narrower version targeting only BLM lands, a rising storm of opposition was already brewing across the country, and no rewrite was going to save him.

That storm, a diverse coalition, included mainstream conservation powerhouses such as the National Wildlife Federation and the Wilderness Society, alongside hunter-oriented groups like Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Boone and Crockett Club, and Ducks Unlimited, all rallying against the sale. Industry giants like REI and Patagonia also joined the fight, mobilizing their members and customers to unleash a firestorm of calls and emails on Capitol Hill. Heck, Lee even had members of his own party telling him he had to back off.

Under immense pressure, Lee relented just seventeen days after his initial proposal, pulling it from the Reconciliation bill.

 

Uncertain Future for Public Lands

So, is it over? Are our public lands finally safe? Not by a long shot. Yes, we won another battle, but the war against our public lands rages on. In Senator Lee’s statement on “X” announcing the withdrawal of his bill, he vowed to continue his assault on what he derisively calls “underutilized federal lands” and made it clear this was a tactical retreat, not a surrender.

The excuses for these land sales change with the political winds the national debt, a housing shortage—but the dangerous endgame is always the same: treat an enduring public trust like a disposable asset. It’s as shortsighted as a family burning priceless heirlooms for a single night’s warmth. The pittance gained would be a drop in the ocean of our national debt, but the loss of our American heritage and wildlife would be absolute and permanent.

The Boone and Crockett Club, Teddy Roosevelt’s own conservation group, said it best: “A cash sale produces one kind of return from an asset—the final one. Continuous returns from owning land come from its use and enjoyment.”

This isn’t to say all land transfers are bad. Smart, targeted sales and exchanges are tools of good stewardship. Just look at Arkansas, where a 1993 land swap championed by Senator Dale Bumpers traded scattered, U.S.-owned timber tracts in Idaho for 41,000 acres of Potlatch-owned bottomland, connecting the White River and Cache River National Wildlife Refuges.

What was targeted during the reconciliation bill was a world away from that. It was a wholesale liquidation designed to bypass the bedrock law of public lands, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. That law guarantees public input and sound management. Senator Lee’s scheme would have gutted it and, worse, would have diverted the funds away from conservation. It would turn our public lands into a one-time cash machine for politicians to barter away for backroom favors during their next election.

 

United We Stand

This is where we stand and fight. This is where we tell our politicians that no, you will not divide us on this. We stand united for our public lands. Some of us in the East may be quick to dismiss this as a Western issue or feel that we are powerless. Don’t. These lands belong to all of us, not to a single state or corporation, but to every American.

An attack on public lands anywhere is an attack on the entire system. We are all custodians of this legacy, and our job is simple: Pay attention. Make your support for public lands known to your elected officials and hold them accountable. Back the groups that fight for you on the front lines.

If the vast majority who cherish these lands—the common ground for a divided nation—remain silent, the handful who want to liquidate them will make the decisions for us. A silent majority holds no power.

We will be judged by our answer to a single question from our children: “Did you fight for this ground, or did you surrender it?”  

Jim Taylor

Originally published in the Arkansas Wildlife Federation's Arkansas Out of Doors Magazine and on the National Wildlife Federation Blog.

Jim Taylor is a past board member of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation. He continues to advocate for public land through his work as a board member of the Arkansas Chapter of BHA and as a volunteer with Friends of the Dale Bumpers White River NWR.