Mission

Educate local leaders on the fight to protect our backyard public lands. Fly with Pitkin County, members of the media, Wilderness Workshop, the Environment Foundation, and others to learn about the current threats of public lands selloff.

This year, we have seen unprecedented and rapidly evolving threats to public lands. These threats have been a stark reminder that public lands - which are a backbone of local economies and quality of life - are not to be taken for granted. USFS and BLM lands such as some of our most popular recreation areas and sensitive backyard ecosystems, like the Thompson Divide, Red Hill, much of the Ashcroft Valley, parts of Independence Pass, much of Lenado, the Crown, much of the Fryingpan Valley forests, and more, are not protected and our future access to them is not guaranteed.

Our overflight focused on public lands that would have been made eligible for sale under a provision of the Budget Reconciliation Bill (also dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by Congressional Republicans). This provision sparked widespread public outcry from citizens, hunters, anglers, conservation groups, mountain bikers, and public land users from all backgrounds, and was consequently removed from the final Reconciliation Bill. This is a significant victory, and demonstrated that voters on both sides of the political aisle care deeply about public lands, however politicians intent on removing the public from public lands have begun crafting new strategies to achieve their goals:

Sen. Lee (R-UT) has committed to reintroducing the HOUSES Act, a federal bill to fast-track the sale of public lands to local governments for development under the guise of affordable housing. However, this bill has zero requirements to ensure that any housing built is actually affordable, and it allows below-market land sales, creating a windfall for developers and speculators. On top of that, there is little to suggest that public land sales are a viable way to improve affordable housing (with plentiful evidence including reports by CAP, Smart Growth America, and Headwaters Economics to the contrary), and the administration has undertaken deep cuts to HUD and existing programs related to affordable housing.

Other threats to public lands include ongoing land grab lawsuits. The Supreme Court may have tossed Utah’s lawsuit to force the disposal of over 200 million acres of public land, but state officials - from Utah to Idaho - have vowed to keep fighting. The State of Utah could refile their lawsuit at any time.

Finally, efforts to transfer public lands to state control provide another avenue for direct selloff. As recently as January 2025, states like Wyoming have passed resolutions demanding control of 30 million acres of public lands within state boundaries, including National Parks like the Grand Teton. However, states lack the resources to effectively manage public lands, especially when factoring in the soaring costs of wildfire prevention and response. Combine that with the fact that many Western state constitutions require a balanced budget and place no restrictions on land sales, and it creates a clear path for states to eventually sell off or privatize lands to cover financial shortfalls.

EcoFlight is part of a coalition of Colorado-based organizations standing up against threats to public land. Learn more at keepitpublic.co.

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