If MAGA prevails, your favorite CA forest recreation area could be sold | Opinion
Your favorite campground, giant sequoia grove, mountain bike trail, four-wheel drive road and hot springs could soon be up for sale.
Rather than located on public lands managed by the federal government for everyone’s benefit and enjoyment, they become private property for the benefit of industry and the ultrawealthy.
This is not a dystopian nightmare scenario. It’s the newest threat in President Trump’s dark, twisted version of America.
Within the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s draft portion of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is a requirement to the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to auction off between 2.2 and 3.3 million acres across 11 Western states, including California, over the next five years. The legislation requires the two agencies to publish lists of tracts available for sale every 60 days and prioritizes parcels within five miles of existing population centers that could be used for housing.
More than 250 million acres of federally owned land are eligible to help meet that quota, according to The Wilderness Society. The bill exempts national parks, monuments and wilderness areas, and also excludes parcels that contain active leases for oil, gas, minerals and timber.
After the details were circulated, the Washington, D.C. nonprofit published a digital map of all the Forest Service and BLM lands that could potentially be sold.
Eligible acreage in Central California includes vast portions of the Sierra National Forest as well as parts of both the Sequoia National Forest and Los Padres National Forest. Plus parts of the BLM-managed San Joaquin River Gorge Management Area, Case Mountain Extensive Management Area and, in western Fresno County, the Panoche Hills and Tumey Hills recreation areas.
Forest land for sale near Yosemite, Bass Lake?
Where in the Sierra National Forest could be ripe for development and/or stripped for profit? (With extra emphasis on “could.”) While there are far too many to list, a few that jump out include Bass Lake (forest land borders development around the lake); forest areas bordering Yosemite National Park; China Peak Mountain Resort (excluding the base area); several popular OHV routes including Central Camp and Bald Mountain; Mono Hot Springs; and McKinley Grove, a secluded grove of giant sequoias outside Shaver Lake.
Even though the bill excludes national monuments, keep in mind Trump is currently seeking the legal authority to abolish them. Which may result in additional areas used for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting and off-roading going into private hands.
Bobby McEnaney of the San Francisco-based Natural Resources Defense Council called the proposed legislation “a fire sale of America’s public lands and waters.”
“This bill would lead to a wave of irreversible extraction that will rob future generations of public access to lands and waters that belong to all of us — just to bankroll tax cuts for the superrich,” added McEnaney, the organization’s land conservation director.
“As currently proposed, Americans will soon lose permanent access to the public lands close to home, their favorite trails, their parks, and their favorite recreation areas. Once these lands are sold, and the no-trespassing signs go up, there will be no going back.”
The plan to sell off 3 million acres of public property was introduced by Utah Senator Mike Lee, one month after House Republicans rejected a smaller quota in their version of the bill, under the pretense that “underused” federal property will be utilized to “expand housing, support local development and get Washington, D.C. out of the way.”
Senator’s ‘shameless’ housing ploy
The legislation envisions generating $10 billion off the land sales, which Lee said would convert “federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families.”
How opening up bidding on an enormous swath of recreation areas and sensitive wildlife habitat across the West accomplishes that goal is unclear, considering Lee’s proposal contains no actual housing plan or affordability mandates. That leaves ample room for profit-minded developers to build luxury ranch houses and cabins owned by wealthy urbanites and leased on AirBnb.
“This is a shameless ploy to sell off pristine public lands for trophy homes and gated communities that will do nothing to address the affordable housing shortage in the West,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy group.
A provision of Lee’s bill allows developers, corporations and wealthy private individuals to nominate lands they wish to be put up at auction. In many cases these “interested parties” would have the financial upper hand over state and local governments, nonprofits and Native American tribes in the bidding process.
Nominated tracts would be reviewed by the agencies to determine if the criteria is met before being auctioned. There is no provision for public hearings or comment.
Unless Trump’s MAGA minions are stopped, your favorite camping area or hunting zone could soon be under lock and key. Transformed into vacation homes for the 1% crowd or forever blighted for industry profit.
Combined with Trump’s drastic proposed cuts to the U.S. Forest Service’s budget — just in time for fire season and on top of the thousands of Forest Service and National Park Service employees who already lost their jobs — our public lands have never faced a greater menace.
I remember the days when Republican leaders used to be proud conservationists. What changed?
This story was originally published June 22, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
