federal lands

Senate Republicans would have mandated the sale of over a million acres of BLM lands across the West, but that proposal was axed late Saturday night. Conservation advocates are celebrating, but say the fight isn’t over yet.

There’s a lot in flux with the public land sale proposal. Reporters debrief the latest updates, context and responses from Wyomingites.

Plus there’s no guarantee the public would maintain access.

Some local officials in the Mountain West say federal land could be used in certain cases to ease the region's housing crisis. But they view a plan from Senate Republicans as going much farther than the solutions that have worked in their areas.

Amid a Republican-led push to sell millions of acres of public lands to alleviate the housing affordability crisis, some governors in the Mountain West are pushing back.

The new opinion states that presidents may remove or reduce protections for monuments that “never were or no longer are deserving” of such status.

Proponents say the land would be used for much-needed housing, but environmental groups say eligible areas could include those treasured by communities in the Mountain West.

State conservatives say the U.S. Constitution mandates Congress to ‘dispose’ of this land.

An amendment introduced late in the evening includes over 10,000 acres in Utah and identifies nearly 450,000 acres in four Nevada counties for sale or exchange.

The announcement comes as many cities and rural communities across the Mountain West struggle with housing affordability. About half the land in the West is owned by the federal government.