NPS Retirees: Our Public Lands Are Not For Sale
Reconciliation Package Includes the Potential Sale of Public Lands
Washington, D.C. — In the middle of the night, Republicans in the House Committee on Natural Resources introduced a last-minute amendment to the budget reconciliation package allowing for land sell-offs in Nevada and Utah. This comes right on the heels of the Administration’s budget proposal, released last week, that proposes to cut more than a billion dollars from the National Park Service’s budget, transfer some national park sites to states, and dismantle national monuments.
If passed, the package would open up lands near national parks and monuments like Zion National Park, and Avi Kwa Ame and Gold Butte National Monuments, for development, compromising public access, wildlife habitat, migration corridors, and dark skies.
Emily Thompson, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, issued the following statement:
“Our national parks and public lands are the best of what this country has to offer. It’s unfathomable that some in Congress – right as the Trump Administration is pushing unprecedented cuts to the budget and staff of the National Park Service – would propose to sell to private landholders the areas around some of these irreplaceable spaces.
Rather than try to sell off our national public lands, Congress should instead be working to reverse the harm the Administration has already done to parks and public lands throughout the United States.
“We urge Congress to make clear that our public lands are not for sale and reject this short-sighted proposal.”
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