Not Everybody Hates Sen. Mike Lee’s Idea Of Selling Off Federal Public Land

Despite a loud public outcry across Wyoming and the West over U.S. Sen. Mike Lee’s efforts to sell or transfer millions of acres of federal public land, not everyone opposes the idea.

Former Wyoming state Sen. Ray Peterson, R-Cowley, advocates for Lee’s proposal in a Friday letter to the editor to Cowboy State Daily. 

Lee, a Republican from Utah who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, proposed including language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act directing the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to dispose of 0.75% and 0.5% of the land — about 3.3 million acres — they own across 11 Western states, including Wyoming.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled Lee’s proposal violated the Byrd Rule and it has since been removed from the bill. However, Lee has said he’s developing a new plan to get his proposal to become law. 

“I called it probably 20 years ago,” Peterson said. “I said, ‘One day, the federal government's going to want to get rid of this responsibility. … They’re not going to have the money.’

“Well, here we are.”

The directive Lee proposed included offering the land to states and local governments first. 

“I don't have any concerns about the federal government approaching the state of Wyoming or other states … and saying, ‘Would you guys be interested in taking the management over from the Big Horn National Forest,’” Peterson said. “I’d take it in a minute.”

Northeast Wyoming outdoorsman Owen Miller said he believes Lee’s proposal to be part of a larger effort. 

“I think it’s opening to door to, ‘We got this (public land) and it went OK. So we’re just going to keep selling public land,’” Miller previously told Cowboy State Daily. “That’s what I’m afraid of. My theory is that if we give them an inch, they’ll take a foot. Or maybe a mile.”

There Are Pitfalls

Peterson said that while he supports selling federal land to states, he’s also concerned about potentially transferring public land into private hands. 

“Everybody likes public access and I'm no different,” he said. “I like that too. But I've seen the other side.” 

Peterson said his view is shaped by the eight years he spent on the Big Horn County Commission, during which time he interacted with the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and the Federal Aviation Administration. He also spent 13 years in the Wyoming Senate. 

“I'd much rather work with state agencies rather than federal agencies,” Peterson told Cowboy State Daily. “Anybody that's worked with the federal agency knows that it's an extra challenge to try to convince a senator or representative from New York or New Jersey what's good for Wyoming and what's not good for Wyoming.”

Lands Mismanaged Now

Wyoming’s blue skies become hazy each summer due to wildfires caused by federal mismanagement of the land, Peterson said. They let timber burn rather than harvesting it, reseeding and having a healthy forest, he added. 

“We don't have a healthy forest,” Peterson said. “We have 10 feet of fallen old-growth timber, and when it goes up like the Bighorn National Forest did last summer … there's no way that anybody could have put that fire out.” 

The federal government’s management of the land can be driven by political concerns as much as what’s best for the land, he added. 

Climate change-concerned elected officials aren’t going to be supportive of efforts to cut down trees that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And tree removal decisions are often challenged in court, resulting in lengthy delays (and large legal bills). 

“Why is it fair that we have to convince citizens in New York why wolves are not a good idea for Yellowstone Park?” Peterson asked. “Yet, we just take it. So now we've got wolves all over the Rocky Mountain region and then we have problems with ranchers’ cattle, calves and sheep being killed by wolves.”

No changes to BLM land are allowed, Peterson said. 

“That's the philosophy of putting us in a glass cage and then having us observed by out-of-staters,” He continued. “We're bigger than that. We were working on a project … to develop more acreage and get it irrigated.

“BLM just said ‘no’ — and it took us 15 years just to get them to tell us no.” 

Selling Off Some Land Could Solve Problems

The BLM often offers Wyoming residents three alternatives, Peterson said. 

“They all suck,” Peterson said. “And they all do harm to the economy in Wyoming. But yet those are the only three options they give us. So we take the lesser of the evils and it's just what they wanted.”

State control of the federal land would solve a lot of problems, he said.

“Montana's got state forests, they're healthy, they're thriving, they're being managed well,” Peterson said. “Let us prove ourselves. … It’s time we just put our big boy pants on and manage our own lands.” 

Wyoming resident and former Assistant Interior Secretary Rob Wallace said Lee’s proposal should have been discussed at committee hearings, during which the public would be able to comment. 

“This has to be done in the daylight, let the public speak to the merits of this,” Wallace told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. “Committee hearings are messy, they’re complicated, they’re frustrating. Some people use them for good outcomes, and some people are demagogues, but you have to do it.”

Peterson disagreed. 

“He [Lee] probably made the mistake of not having some public hearings about it, but at the same token, if Mike has the same experience as I have, why open yourself up to that?” Peterson said. “You know what the public comments are going to be: leave our public lands alone. But yet, the same people bitch and moan about the wolves in Yellowstone.”

Matthew Christian can be reached at matthew@cowboystatedaily.com.