This map suggests forest surrounding Juneau may be put up for sale. How accurate and likely is the claim?

Provision in US Senate version of budget bill requires sale of up to 3.3M acres of public lands in 11 states including Alaska

A map shows public lands a conservation group claims will be eligible for sale under the current version of a budget bill being considered by the U.S. Senate. (U.S. Department of Commerce map)

Selling up to 3.3 million acres of public land in Alaska and 10 other states is in the U.S. Senate’s proposed federal budget for the coming year. That has resulted in a conservation group distributing a map suggesting the Mendenhall Glacier and virtually all the forest surrounding Juneau could be put on the market.

But lawmakers supporting the land sale provision say the group’s suggestion is wildly inaccurate — and among the Senate as a whole it’s questionable whether the passage as now written will end up in the final budget passed by Congress.

The Senate’s version of the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” being advanced by the Republican-led Congress to fund the U.S. government for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 mandates the sale of 2.2 million to 3.3 million acres of public land in 11 western states. The language states the land “shall be used solely for the development of housing or to address associated community needs,” and national parks and monuments would be off limits.

The land sales are intended to generate more than $15 billion in federal revenue, according to a June 11 statement by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

“This is President Trump’s agenda: cut the Green New Scam, reduce the deficit, and unleash American energy,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the committee’s chair, said in a prepared statement. “We’re cutting billions in unused Biden-era climate slush funds, opening up energy and resource development, turning federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families. This is how we make government smaller, freer, and work for Americans.”

A very different argument is being made by The Wilderness Society, which on June 16 published a blog post headlined "Congress is making more than 250 million acres of public lands available for sale." The post notes that while the Senate language mandates the sale of about three million acres of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, the key concern is which areas of land are eligible for sale.

"Alarmingly, the provision contains very limited exemptions — Wilderness Study Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, roadless areas and critical habitat are all considered eligible for sale," the blog post notes. "Based on those limited restrictions, more than 250 million acres of public lands will be eligible to be sold to "any interested party."

Lee, in a June 20 post on his official X social media page, responded to the group’s allegation by stating "I want to be COMPLETELY clear: My bill exempts ALL parks, monuments, wilderness areas, etc., from the federal land sale. We exempt 15 categories of land, including land where people have valid existing rights. And even then, it's less than ONE PERCENT of federal land."

Alaska’s two Republican senators are generally expressing support for the land sale provision.

“Alaskans are keenly aware of how the federal government’s ownership of 60 percent of Alaska’s lands can inhibit economic development and cause challenges for our communities, like exacerbating the severe shortage in affordable housing,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a prepared statement.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, offering more guarded support, told the Anchorage Daily News last week that fears the land could be sold for commercial purposes are unfounded.

“You’re not just going to be able to have a process that is going to allow for this land to be sold to somebody that wants to buy it up themselves just to have it for their own fishing lodge or something like that,” she told the newspaper. “It has to be specifically to support housing development.”

Whether the land sale provision will survive the budget process is an open question. The Utah-based newspaper Deseret News reported on June 20 "the proposal to sell off public lands is still an uphill battle in Congress, even with (President Donald) Trump’s support on the issue."

"While some conservatives are supportive of the effort to sell federally owned lands to pay for Trump’s signature tax cuts, other Republicans in Western states have come out against the proposal — particularly those in Montana," the newspaper reported.

The U.S. House version of the budget had a land sale provision for a smaller amount, but it was removed by Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana).

"I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands," he said in a prepared statement. "Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn’t creating more land.”

The public land sale debate in the budget is part of a broader dispute about natural areas in Alaska and other states since Trump returned to the White House for his second term as president in January. Among his actions are signing an executive order on his first day back in office mandating the elimination of all federal regulations inhibiting maximum utilization of Alaska’s natural resources.

Such actions have resulted in contentious debates that have reached the local level. The Juneau Assembly on May 19 unanimously passed a resolution stating it supports keeping the Mendenhall Glacier federally owned. City Tourism Manager Alix Pierce told Assembly members earlier that month rumors were circulating about private entities being interested in taking over the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area and that Murkowski was asking city leaders to support the resolution.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.