IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 23, 2025
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A sweeping Senate budget proposal threatens to force the sale of millions of acres of public land throughout the western United States, including more than 875,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest, according to an analysis by Santa Barbara-based conservation organization Los Padres ForestWatch.

Buried in the Senate’s current budget reconciliation package—formally titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—is a provision that mandates that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management identify and sell off between 0.5% and 0.75% of all National Forest and BLM lands in eleven western states over the next five years.

Supporters claim the measure is aimed at addressing the housing crisis. But according to conservation groups, that’s a smokescreen for what amounts to a sweeping public land giveaway that will do nothing to provide safe or affordable housing—and will instead create new dangers for people and wildlife alike.
“Aside from our view that selling federal public land is a terrible idea in and of itself, most of the targeted land in Los Padres National Forest is extremely rugged and fire-prone,” said Bryant Baker, Director of Conservation and Research at ForestWatch. “Housing development in these areas would not only be enormously expensive but would also cause irreparable damage to open spaces, impede wildlife movement across an already fragmented landscape, and put more people and homes at risk of damage from inevitable wildfires.”

An analysis by ForestWatch reveals that much of the land at risk is steep, remote, and lacks basic infrastructure like roads or water. These parcels lie in some of California’s highest wildfire hazard zones, where development would not only expose new residents to danger, but also increase the likelihood of human-caused ignitions that could threaten existing nearby communities.

The bill casts an alarmingly wide net in determining which public lands can be sold. Even iconic places like Pine Mountain could be up for grabs. ForestWatch warns, however, that parcels closest to existing communities—such as the Santa Barbara front-country, the foothills of the Santa Ynez Valley, West Cuesta Ridge near San Luis Obispo, portions of the Big Sur coastline, and areas around Frazier Park and Pine Mountain Club—are the most likely targets, putting treasured open spaces and nearby residents at immediate risk. A little over 105,000 acres of land eligible for sale in the Los Padres National Forest is within one mile of populated areas according to ForestWatch’s analysis.

The bill also jeopardizes essential wildlife corridors. The Los Padres National Forest serves as one of the last remaining linkages for species like mountain lions, black bears, and other wildlife to move across an increasingly fragmented landscape. Selling off these public lands for private development would sever those connections and accelerate biodiversity loss.

“This proposal is not about housing—it’s about privatizing public lands for short-term gain,” said Baker.
ForestWatch is urging the Senate to reject public land sale provisions in the federal budget. Community members can speak out and contact their senators through ForestWatch’s campaign page at: https://forestwatch.org/get-involved/

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Update to June 23rd press release regarding the forced land sale of public lands:
IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 24, 2025

Last night, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a provision mandating that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management sell 0.5 – 0.75% of their federal land estate across 11 western states cannot move forward as part of the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill being finalized this week. The provision—developed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah—would have resulted in the sale of millions of acres of national forest and other federal lands to ostensibly facilitate housing development in California and elsewhere.
ForestWatch’s Director of Conservation & Research, Bryant Baker, released the following statement in response to the news:
“We’re glad to see the Senate parliamentarian reject Senator Lee’s proposal to sell off millions of acres of America’s public lands. These wild places are an integral part of our region and should never be placed on the chopping block. While our public lands face a variety of other threats from the Trump administration, this most recent threat seems to have dissipated for now.”

While it is unlikely that a land sale provision will be included in the final version of the Senate’s megabill, Senator Lee vowed to revise the language of his proposal to exclude national forest land and to limit the sale of lands under the Bureau of Land Management’s jurisdiction to those within five miles of a population center.

These changes are likely due to immense public pressure and backlash from both sides of the political aisle over the initial proposal. It is unclear whether a revised proposal will be its own legislation or part of another bill that is not subject to the same rules that prevented it from being incorporated into the budget reconciliation process.

According to a ForestWatch analysis of public land data, some 281,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Kern, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties would still meet the new criteria Senator Lee suggested in a social media post earlier today. ForestWatch will continue to monitor proposed legislation that may involve federal public land sales.