Update 6/24/25: Widespread public outrage has persuaded Sen. Mike Lee to retract his original bill to sell over 3 million acres of our public lands. On Twitter (X), Lee posted that he will remove all Forest Service land from the sale areas, as well as any BLM land more than five miles from "population centers". Meanwhile, Trump's USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced yesterday that the Trump Forest Service will repeal the Roadless Rule, a critical safeguard protecting some of our most intact and valuable landscapes. You can view my new map of our threatened Inventoried Roadless Areas here. Don't stop fighting.
Within the domain of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, a variety of special landscape designations exist to preserve distinct ecological, cultural, and recreational areas for public use and benefit. These include the vulnerable ecosystems protected by Wilderness Study Areas and Inventoried Roadless Areas; treasured cultural and recreational resources in National Scenic and Botanical Areas, Historical Areas, and Recreation Management Areas; critical tools for ecological study in Research Natural Areas and Experimental Forests; and many more.
The recent Republican effort to offer over 250 million acres of our public lands for potential sale, while exempting National Parks, National Monuments, and Wilderness Areas, ignores many of these equally valuable protected area units. This map shows the extent of proposed land eligible for sale in the bill and its overlap with these less well-known, but no less important, designations.
Zoom in and click on the special designated areas to see which of these irreplaceable landscapes are at risk. Then write, call, or knock on the door of your federal representative and demand they preserve our public lands.
- Jamie Tommins