The country’s top land managers testified before U.S. senators last week to defend sweeping budget cuts for the nation’s public lands and a plan to sell 3.3 million acres managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management so communities can build housing.
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee published a provision for the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill requiring the Forest Service to sell between 965,000 and 1.45 million of its 193 million acres and the Bureau of Land Management to sell between 1.23 million and 1.84 million of its 245 million acres to encourage development of housing.
The House last month stripped a plan to sell public lands in Nevada from its version of the budget bill.
“This is not about our most sacred and beautiful places,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the committee. “This is often about barren land next to highways with existing billboards that have no recreational value.”
