The Feds Own Half the Western U.S.—and Can't Take Care of It

The federal government owns about a third of America.

Since we’re on a path to bankruptcy, it would be smart to sell some unused property.

President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary says it may be worth as much as $200 trillion. Selling just a fraction of it would reduce our enormous debt.

Not just that—since government doesn’t manage things well, selling or leasing some would leave it in better condition.

Federal bureaucrats have been slow to do controlled burns and remove deadwood that becomes fuel for fires.

“Fires on federal lands accounted for more than half of the acres burned,” says the Congressional Budget Office.

But whenever a politician suggests selling any land, environmental activists freak out.

Jennifer Mamola of The John Muir Project says the government must hold on to every bit of land it owns “to solve our biodiversity crisis.”

“What is a biodiversity crisis?” I ask her in my new video.

“Human fingerprints are on the scale, and we are out-tipping it!”

Like many activists, she’s not knowledgeable about science.

“We are in very tumultuous weather times,” she tells me. “The fact that Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina is just unprecedented!”

No, it’s not. Hurricanes hit North Carolina all the time.

“I guess I mean the travel trajectory, right?…[Helene] started in the Gulf and then it went all the way up. Seems pretty unprecedented—going inland.”

Actually, lots of hurricanes go inland. Floyd caused catastrophic flooding; almost every river basin in eastern North Carolina surpassed 500-year flood levels. Matthew brought record flooding. Florence caused about $17 billion in damages.

Still, Mamola sees weather changes. “It’s really not that predictable anymore because we have our thumb on the scale….In the nearly 40 years I’ve been alive, we’re definitely seeing a shift!…D.C., I’ve lived there 10 years. We had a drought last summer!”

But drought isn’t more common. The Environmental Protection Agency says the last 50 years have actually been wetter than average.

If government sells any land, Mamola says, loggers and mining companies will destroy it.

Climate media company The YEARS Project peddles a deceitful video that says, “Imagine the Grand Canyon filled with oil rigs. That’s the world Pendley wants to live in.”

“Pendley” is William Pendley, who ran the government’s Bureau of Land Management during Trump’s first term.

I confront him with what the activists say:

“Picture Yellowstone being strip mined for coal. These are the kinds of policies he advocates for.”

“Absolutely not!” he replies. “We’re not going to do parks. They made it up!”

He wants to sell, as Congress has done for decades, “multiple-use” land: “It’s supposed to be used [for] oil and gas, mining, grazing.”

He says private lease holders would manage it better.

Also, says Pendley, “The best forest managers are tribes and states because they’ve got skin in the game.”

The governors of Utah and Nevada agree. They, too, want the feds to release some land.

Most of Utah is federally owned. Utah sued the feds for the right to buy some of it. But so far, no success.

In Nevada, 80 percent of land is federally owned and controlled. Gov. Joe Lombardo wants “immediate and systematic release of federal land.”

“Why should it be controlled by the federal government?” I ask Mamola. “What if Utah or Nevada say they can do it better?”

Mamola replies, “They’re not going to be able to maintain it.”

But the feds don’t maintain it! The Park Service is $23 billion behind on repairs.

Despite the incompetence of federal management, Mamola wants the feds to buy even more land.

“They own 50 percent of the West. Isn’t that enough?” I ask. “What would be enough?”

“I’m happy to give up some of the East Coast,” she replies.

Yikes.

But the silly people win. They’ve convinced voters that no land should ever be sold. Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah) saw which way the political winds were blowing. He withdrew his proposal to sell public lands.

Too bad. We’re deep in debt. The feds should at least lease unused land.

Washington bureaucrats don’t need to control half the West.

COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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Source: https://reason.com/2025/09/10/the-feds-own-half-the-western-u-s-and-it-cant-take-care-of-it/