Our public lands are invaluable and irreplaceable. A national treasure and a source of local pride. Yet, when the opportunity arose for Wyoming’s senators to protect our public lands from being sold off and privatized, they voted no.
Opinion
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, voted against preserving our public lands because she didn’t want to “obstruct President Trump’s agenda,” according to an April 10 statement from her spokesperson Joe Jackson. Both Lummis and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, have suggested that some of our public lands should be sold to develop more affordable housing.
In the fall, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon and 26 members of the Wyoming State Legislature joined legal briefs to support Utah’s lawsuit demanding a transfer of millions of acres of public land from federal management and public ownership to state management and, later, private ownership. And, in the span of just five days, Hageman and every Republican on the House Committee on Natural Resources — except for Rep. Jeff Hurd of Colorado, — went from backing away from selling our public lands to advancing a midnight amendment that could authorize the sale of nearly a half million acres of public land across the West. The late-night move allowed no time for reflection, discussion or public input. As Devin O’Dea of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers put it: “This amendment isn’t just a backdoor land sale — it’s a deliberate effort to circumvent a process that was thoughtfully designed to protect and improve our nation’s public lands.”
Is this plan to sell our public lands really what the Wyoming people want?
In January, the State of the Rockies Project from Colorado College released its 2025 Conservation in the West Poll. The poll surveyed 3,316 registered voters from eight western states, including 402 registered voters from Wyoming. Across the entire set of respondents, 37% identified as “MAGA supporters” and 24% identified as “MAGA Republicans.” From the Wyoming group, 53% identified as “MAGA supporters” and 74% identified as “Republicans.”
Some 65% of all respondents and 58% of Wyoming respondents opposed transferring control over our national public lands from the federal government and its agencies — including the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management — to the states. Only 11% of Wyoming respondents supported selling these public lands to create space for affordable housing. By contrast, 86% of Wyoming respondents supported building more housing in existing communities near jobs, roads and transit.
Preserving public ownership of these lands produces immense economic value for outdoor recreation, energy development and agriculture alike.
Last November, the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable announced new economic data showing that outdoor recreation across the United States generated $1.2 trillion in economic output in 2023 or 2.3% of the country’s gross domestic product. That is a 36% increase in real terms from 2012.
BLM-managed public lands situated in Wyoming produced $24.9 billion in economic output and supported 73,000 jobs in 2023, according to the agency. That economic output included $211.8 million from recreation, $238.9 million from grazing, and $24.2 billion from oil, gas, coal, and mineral development. From this output, BLM-managed public lands produced $970.9 million in payments to Wyoming and its counties to help fund our schools, road improvements, infrastructure and other public services.
So here’s my question for our senators and Wyoming voters: How does selling our public lands promote the Wyoming people’s agenda?
Do our senators believe that we want to give away our cherished public lands? The lands we hunt, fish and hike. The lands we inherited from our parents and grandparents, and that we hope to leave for our children and grandchildren. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember voting for Lummis, Barrasso or Trump so they could strip us of that great legacy — our public lands.
We live our lives and make our homes in Wyoming, that great plain sweeping across the American West, because we love the land. We respect it. We honor it.
And we raise our families on public lands. We teach our children the great lessons of life on these lands. We graze our stock on these lands. We marvel at their rugged splendor. We are the undeserved but grateful beneficiaries of the colossal bounty and beauty of these lands.
The people of Wyoming — contrary to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s belief — have never treated our public lands as just “national assets” on a balance sheet. We have never wanted these lands to be liquidated to pay for some short-term project like a temporary tax cut or to be transformed into a tiny pyrrhic band-aid on the societal wound that is a lack of housing supply.
These lands are part of the fabric of our Wyoming souls. They are in our blood.
By state law, W.S. § 8-3-123, Wyoming follows the “Code of the West.” I have the code framed on the wall of my office. Among other things, the code reminds us to “Remember that some things are not for sale.”
Our elected officials would do well to remember the code. Cause some things truly are not for sale. Otherwise, us Wyoming folk may have to find and vote for real leaders who represent our interests rather than followers who would sooner sell us and our legacy out in service of someone else’s agenda.
We must remind ourselves—daily—in the next election we MUST get out the vote. In Sublette County our Primary turnout was 28%. And because of that, we lost two of the most qualified and knowledgeable legislative seats, Albert Sommers and Cat Urbigkit. And State wide, we must have the courage to stand up to the Freedom Caucus candidates and find OTHER candidates for our Congressional representatives.
The balling is rolling on this now; NV and UT will be the test cases and help identify obstacles and pain points to the sale of public lands. The GQP will then legally or illegally remove those and then it will be a fire sale of public lands across the West. Gone. Forever.
“In a late-night move that flew under the radar for most Americans, Representatives Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Celeste Maloy (R-UT) proposed an amendment to the House Natural Resources Committee’s Reconciliation Bill that aims to speed up the process of disposing of federal public lands in Utah and Nevada. The amendment passed largely along partisan lines, with Rep. Hurd (R-CO) serving as the one dissenting Republican vote.”
Thanks for this. I wish I knew how much of my life was spent on our public lands. It involved a huge part of my life and has affected most of how I view things. I have become more and more passionate and protective when it comes to these places and am not sure I could survive without them, or want to, for that matter. Perhaps there are those of you who own enough land to satisfy what you need, or know enough people who are willing to let you recreate on their private lands. Or perhaps you have never had the inclination to value and seek solace in wild places. That’s fine, we aren’t all made alike….yet, to put these lands in private hands? How could you even consider that? You must have little value over anything other than yourselves. Wyoming has so much going for it when it comes to its wild lands and, as this article illustrates, they are and will continue to maintain values that many understand, I truly hope that it’s enough.
Thank you for writing this article. Not enough is being said about this issue, and we need to do more.
I’m a Conservative long time American Republican voter, and I stand to this day and time and will alway believed in preserving our nation’s federal lands for our citizens to enjoy and future generations to come, these National treasures instead of loosing them to someone else or even foreign investors like China that uses these land to Spy on us. Which lawmakers allowed it,and why?,
China will not sell us Land and Chinese citizens don’t own Land.
Geraldo, we truly appreciate your support on this, but if you “believed in preserving our nation’s federal lands for our citizens to enjoy and future generations” then you are not a modern conservative or Republican. You stand distinctly at odds with the depravity of that party. Find the strength to walk away, they no longer represent you, or your values. You face losing your community, yes – but it’s a community of scoundrels. Be rid of them.
Montanan here, Great article. Most of us here in Montana feel the same way. Our billionaire governor is trying to do the same thing here as the MAGARATS, he thinks Montana is for sale. We have a tremendous amount of public land here also, and it needs to stay that way. I urge people to join Backcountry Hunters and Anglers or any other organizations that fight for our public property rights.
This vote shows that Wyoming’s Congressional Delegation doesn’t really represent Wyoming constituents. Apparently, they only thing they care about is supporting President Trump, even when his policies hurt the people of Wyoming. Wyoming’s largest employment sector is tourism and recreation and it is the 2nd largest economic sector in the State. Selling Federal lands to private entities will devastate Wyoming’s tourism/recreation economy. Many of our small businesses will fail, and many people will be put out of work. Additionally, Wyoming citizens have had access to Federal Lands since Statehood and have enjoyed their massive benefits. With the disposal of these Federal lands current and future generations of Wyoming will lose this access. Our way of life will be diminished and degraded. No matter what your politics are, you didn’t vote for this. Time for the torches and pitchforks!
Wyoming’s congressional delegation does not believe in the “Code of the West”. They only believe in MAGA, Freedom Caucus and what ever trump tells them to do.
They don’t even respect the judicial system anymore. I really don’t think they respect us.
Well stated and I agree completely. I am not a big protester, but I would drive the 6 hours to Cheyenne and camp on the capitol steps to fight for our public lands. One of the problems is that this issue may not resonate with many citizens in other states who don’t have good access to public lands. I wonder if there is outreach on the topic in those areas? I also wonder if we couldn’t rearrange the public lands map instead of selling in order to better utilize it. The corner crossing case being a prime example, if we could consolidate the checker board landscape and other similar areas, maybe through land swaps, we could have more accessible parcels which could even create opportunities for housing near population centers???
The idea that this plan will somehow solve the affordable housing crisis is a complete “red herring “.
There are three components that make up the cost of housing: land, infrastructure, and building. So in order to make housing affordable, these three areas have to be heavily subsidized or possibly the land could be provided free of charge; that’s not to say that subsidies are not still needed.
But given that Trump can’t give anything away and still give his tax cuts to the rich; it’s highly unlikely that any “low cost housing” will ever be built on these lands (high cost housing if the lands are pretty enough).
THANK YOU.
Great essay! The striking and sad fact is that, despite the overwhelming support of the general public of Wyoming (& other Western states) for keeping their public lands PUBLIC, politicians continue to be elected who don’t give a damn about retaining public lands. Something has got to give or these lands will be handed over to developers, energy industry, etc.–before we know it.
Ryan, Well said. We all know what the State Land Board would do with the public lands if they acquired them — they would sell to the highest bidder. (If you think they care, look at the Casper Mountain gravel mine they have imposed on us.) I am sure Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg will let us hunt and fish on their new purchases. I wrote to Representative Hageman expressing my concerns and received an 800-word response explaining how much she respects our recreational opportunities and bemoaning anything Bidenesque. So interesting to see what she actually does as opposed to what she says.
Thank you Ryan for stating it so well. I grew up where almost all land is private. When a job brought me here one of the reasons I stayed is our access to public land. Let’s not lose it now!
Ryan, thanks for a thoughtful and well-articulated piece. We need to thank our reps, like Jeff Hurd, for standing up for what their constituents actually want and remind the others that they should be representing their constituents and not Trump’s agenda.
So when they sell off the public trust, who gets the water rights? They belong to all of us now. But of course that’s socialism.
Let’s see, pay a Hedge Fund, some Billionaire , or maybe a foreign government Sovereign Wealth Fund to irrigate? Sounds like a great idea …
Great summary of the values and priorities of most Wyomingites. These actions were completely underhanded and had nothing to do with our values. Sold out again by our so called “representatives”!
Thank you for stating how a majority of Wyomingites, as well as Americans, feel about this topic. It shouldn’t have to be repeated, but it must.
Thanks, Ryan. I wish there were thousands more of you. Unfortunately, you are a rare breed along the Rockies today.
Trump is for sale. Donate enough crypto and he’ll dance for you. Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito are for sale. Offer some private yacht rides and an RV, and you get their support on cases before the SCOTUS. No reason in this administration WY public lands should not be for sale. Everything is transactional.
I guess elections have consequences after all . You get what you pay for Wyoming . Good job . Durp Durp
Our three goofball reps are traitors to their own constituents and the state of Wyoming. They are a disgusting cadre of imbeciles that will sell their soul to the devil for the orange narcissist, want to be authoritarian and overall loser. We’re stuck with Wyomings Doctor (how funny) but we can vote Lummis out of office.