By David Lien
A mandate to sell millions of acres of public lands did not make it into President Trump’s mega tax bill signed during July, but Congress still passed a bill that ransacks public lands.
To use a hunting term, the Reconciliation bill passed by Congress “gutted” public lands habitat protections in favor of resource extraction.
Hunter Randy Newberg (host of “Fresh Tracks,” “On Your Own Adventures,” and “Hunt Talk Radio”) said on his July 18 Fresh Tracks Episode 106, “The considerations previously given to wildlife and important habitat like wintering range, migration corridors… those protections just went… it’s like, let’s turn this into an industrial landscape wherever we can … it really opens the gates …”
The Reconciliation bill was a public lands giveaway in disguise. The Trump administration has now implemented the statutory framework for their energy dominance agenda by directing that logging and mining along with oil, gas, and coal extraction Trump all other uses on our multiple-use public lands.
Although the deed to our public lands may not have been handed over directly to private industry, the Reconciliation bill ditched decades of balanced multiple-use public lands policy in favor of one group, billionaire buzzards.
For a summary of the Reconciliation bill’s public lands provisions see this July 11 post by Jim Pattiz (“They Gutted Public Lands in the Reconciliation Bill – and No One’s Talking About It”) on his More Than Just Parks substack. In Jim’s words, “Every single piece of this would be bad on its own. Together, it’s the most aggressive dismantling of public lands protection in American history.”
“Go read this bill, I think it’s a few hundred pages,” Randy Newberg said. “The summary … a complete giveaway!” It’s a sucker-punch to all Americans, but as military strategist Sun Tzu said, “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” As America’s first conservationists, hunters have a century-old tradition of protecting public lands habitat and fighting those driven by myopic greed. The billionaire buzzards have overreached badly and underestimate our resolve.
We will not give up or give in. Join us!
David Lien from Colorado Springs, CO, is a hunter, author, and former Air Force missile launch officer. In 2014 he was recognized by ‘Field & Stream’ as a ‘Hero of Conservation.’ This commentary is his personal opinion and not that of any other group or organization.