Utah Sen. Lee Proposes Bills to Take and Give Away All Public Lands

That’s right – all 640 million acres of your land!

Last week Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) unveiled his plans to steal your public hunting and fishing grounds for privatization. Included in his ridiculous plan would be the total takeover of public lands by the states, even though some state legislatures, like Idaho’s, propose bills annually to sell off state lands. Sen. Lee’s plans also allow for people, companies, corporations, and politicians to “petition” to “use” such lands for almost any purpose.

Sen. Lee’s hope, he says, is to make western states more like “Missouri and Illinois“. Well, for the last 25 years Missouri has been purchasing private lands with their tax dollars – turning them public – because of pressure and need for habitat and hunting acreage. Someone should tell this to the Senator.

Also, without any sense of irony or indication that he was joking, Lee compared public lands to “royal forests“, where only the king and elite royalty can hunt. This makes no sense considering: 1) his actions of land privatization create exclusivity and block people out, 2) public lands provide lesser-income folks (not elitists) the ability to hunt and fish, 3) public lands provide access for All Americans, the exact antithesis of a “royal forest” concept.

Take action by sending a letter to our Idaho Senators, telling them you don’t support Sen. Lee’s ideas. Senator Lee is also Cc’d, so he’ll see it too.