Questions? let’s dig into it.

Our national public lands are areas of land and water that are owned collectively by all Americans and managed by the federal government. In Colorado, there are some 24 million acres of parks,  forests, preserves, and waters managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the American people. 

Advocates of public lands sell-off like to focus on “unappropriated” public lands, a term without a clear meaning but which seems to point to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. However, actions undertaken by Congress and the Trump administration indicate that this extends well beyond BLM lands. Public land sell-off proponents have opened the door to the sale of all federally-managed public lands — from national forests to national parks — with wide-ranging consequences for Coloradans.

When we say public lands “sell-off” we’re talking about the sale or transfer of America’s federally-managed public lands to private interests. 

There are a couple of paths this could take: the Trump administration could work with Congress to “liquidate” public lands by selling directly to the highest bidder or, alternatively, they could transfer large swaths of public lands to the states. Faced with the significant costs of managing millions of acres of public lands, Western states like Colorado would be forced to either raise taxes or sell off public lands to balance the state budget. 

Either way, you’re likely to see public lands end up in private hands. Once lands are privatized, they are nearly impossible to reclaim.

Colorado lacks the resources to effectively manage public lands, especially when factoring in the soaring costs of wildfire prevention and response. Given that our state constitution requires a balanced budget each year and mandates state-owned public lands be managed for profit, even well-meaning state officials would face significant pressure to charge for public access, develop, or privatize lands to address financial shortfalls. 

In fact, many of Colorado’s neighbors have a history of selling off public lands and restricting public access.

Lack of affordable housing is a serious problem in Colorado. To address the crisis, Trump administration officials have suggested that selling off “underutilized” public lands could be a ready solution to increase housing supply across the West. 

It sounds feasible, but there are a few reasons to be skeptical. First, the Bureau of Land Management already has the authority to sell or swap small parcels of public lands in coordination with local communities, including for affordable housing development. Selling off large swaths of public land to developers without guardrails will lower the quality of life in the West, while doing nothing to solve the affordable housing shortage. Second, this comes after DOGE dismantled the Department of Housing and Urban Development and cut affordable housing resources, undermining efforts to address the affordability crisis nationwide.

Colorado’s public lands belong to you and you have a say in what happens to them. Visit our action page to tell our elected leaders what you think, then sign up for emails to stay informed.