Act Now: 18 Million Acres Of Public Wilderness Could Vanish Forever

While millions of Americans plan their summer camping trips to national parks, the Trump administration has quietly set in motion plans that could wipe out up to 18 million acres of protected wilderness. That’s not a typo. Eighteen million acres of public land are sitting on the chopping block, waiting to be sold off, drilled, or mined into oblivion.

But there’s hope: A rapidly growing Change.org petition called “Stop the Sale of Millions of Acres of Protected Federal Land (Big Beautiful Bill)” is mobilizing Americans to fight back against this unprecedented land grab. The petition needs YOUR signature NOW to send a clear message to Congress and the administration that our public lands are NOT for sale.

The administration’s executive and secretarial orders have already kicked things into high gear. Interior Secretary wasted no time delegating marching orders to assistant secretaries, tasking them with identifying which protected lands could lose their status. Bears Ears National Monument, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed have all landed on the hit list. Apparently, ancient cultural sites and pristine wilderness make great drilling platforms.

Ancient cultural sites and pristine wilderness make great drilling platforms, apparently.

Here’s where it gets worse. The Senate recently voted 51-48 against an amendment that would have prohibited selling public lands to reduce the federal deficit. That’s right – Congress just left the door wide open for a massive public land fire sale. No legal safeguards. No protections. Nothing. The Senate spending package specifically proposes selling off 3 million acres of public land, requiring the Forest Service and BLM to offload at least 0.5% to 0.75% of their holdings.

The numbers tell a depressing story. These lands support 42 million birding visits, 2.6 million hunting expeditions, and 8.6 million fishing trips every single year. They’ve generated $5.1 billion for outdoor recreation and preservation efforts. But who needs sustainable tourism revenue when you can have a one-time payday from selling to the highest bidder?

Environmental consequences? Nobody in charge seems to care. Wildlife habitats, migration corridors, water resources – all expendable. The administration’s reprioritization toward fossil fuel extraction and mining makes their intentions crystal clear. Biodiversity can take a hike. Literally.

Rural communities that depend on outdoor recreation dollars should probably start updating their résumés. Once public lands become private property or extraction sites, those tourist dollars disappear faster than a politician’s campaign promises.

History shows this isn’t just fear-mongering. The U.S. has already disposed of 31 million acres of public land. That precedent makes current threats terrifyingly real. And with no environmental reviews or public transparency required, these decisions could happen behind closed doors before anyone notices what’s gone.