{"id":42132,"date":"2025-06-23T12:27:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T19:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42132"},"modified":"2025-06-23T12:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T19:27:19","slug":"from-yosemite-to-big-sur-millions-of-acres-eligible-for-sale-under-senates-proposed-big-beautiful-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/23\/from-yosemite-to-big-sur-millions-of-acres-eligible-for-sale-under-senates-proposed-big-beautiful-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"From Yosemite to Big Sur, Millions of Acres Eligible for Sale Under Senate’s Proposed \u2018Big Beautiful Bill\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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22 JUNE 2025\/POLITICS<\/a>\/LEANNE MAXWELL<\/a> (SFist.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate is expected to vote by July 4 on the \u201cBig Beautiful\u201d bill, which could allow the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land across 11 western states. In California, 16 million acres are eligible, including land near Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Hill reports<\/a>, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) \u2014 who\u2019s Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources \u2014 added a provision to the bill that directs the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to sell between 0.5% and 0.75% of their holdings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The targeted land excludes national parks and wilderness areas but includes National Forest and BLM-controlled land. The Chronicle has a map from the Wilderness Society<\/a> showing affected parcels scattered throughout California<\/a>, from Sierra wilderness zones to rural Central Valley foothills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee argues the sale could promote housing development, energy production, and generate up to $10 billion for the federal government. \u201cWashington has proven time and again it can\u2019t manage this land. This bill puts it in better hands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But conservationists and community groups see it as a major threat to public access, environmental protections, and wildfire management. \u201cOnce the land is sold, we will never get it back,\u201d warned Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana), who helped remove the land sale provision from the House version of the bill before it resurfaced in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Fresno\u2019s KSFN reports<\/a>, environmental groups like Unite 4 Parks have raised alarms about the speed and scope of the sales. \u201cAll of us are going to lose if we lose access to this landscape that we’re used to camping in and so forth,\u201d said Deanna Wulff. She added that three million acres isn\u2019t a small number: \u201cIf you took Yosemite, and the Sierra National Forest, and then the Sequoia\/Kings Canyon range\u2026 that whole stretch, that\u2019s 3 million acres. That is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill allows \u201cany interested party\u201d to purchase land, which critics say opens the door to wealthy individuals and corporations outbidding state and local governments that lack the budget to compete. As Michael Carroll of the Wilderness Society told SFGate<\/a>, \u201cThey capped it at 3 million acres, but 258 million acres is on the menu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) said he will fight the bill “tooth and nail.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA – JUNE 18:  The Merced River flows through  the center of the Valley as viewed on June 18, 2024, at Yosemite  National Park, California.  (Photo by  George Rose\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22 JUNE 2025\/POLITICS\/LEANNE MAXWELL (SFist.com) The Senate is expected to vote by July 4 on the \u201cBig Beautiful\u201d bill, which could allow the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land across 11 western states. In California, 16 million acres are eligible, including land near Yosemite and Lake… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42134,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42132\/revisions\/42134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}