Sitka residents are mounting a strong response to a draft provision of the U.S. Senate Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill that would mandate the sale of roughly 2 to 3 million acres of federal public lands in 11 western states, including Alaska.
An article by The Wilderness Society elevated the issue this week, saying that the measure, released by Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah), could make 82.8 million acres of public land in Alaska, including much of the Tongass National Forest, “eligible for sale” to private interests.
The Wilderness Society’s analysis of the Senate bill was shared widely on social media this week, and features an interactive map visualizing the lands that could be eligible for sale under the bill. Lands around Sitka that may be considered “eligible for sale” include Kruzof Island, the northern and southern portions of Baranof Island, and eastern Chichagof Island, according to the map published by the conservation group.
But in Washington, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office says that the bill may not be as bad as The Wilderness Society makes it sound, and that Murkowski will be monitoring the bill and “relying on the legislative text” to understand it.
The bill would mandate both the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to sell between 0.5% and 0.75% of their holdings to “address local housing needs” or “any associated infrastructure.” Bill language would prohibit the sale of select protected wilderness areas.
It comes after the House version of the reconciliation bill last month proposed to sell about 500,000 acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada. That provision was stripped from the House bill following public outcry, and opposition from legislators including Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana).
After learning early Tuesday about the fresh Senate proposal to sell millions of acres of federal lands, and perusing the The Wilderness Society map, Sitka resident Jim Michener worked with friends to organize a local demonstration opposing the the notion of public land sales.
By Tuesday afternoon, he and his friends had applied for a permit to close Lincoln between Lake Street and St. Michael’s Cathedral, had hired a photographer, and arranged for a large banner to be made for an event this weekend.
The “rally for public lands” on Lincoln Street will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, Michener said today.
The rally is for people “who support recreation, hunting and fishing on public lands, not having lands be sold to private interests,” Michener said. “It’s about the provision in the bill that’s basically going to auction off public lands.”
He said he wants to keep partisan politics out of the rally for public lands, and advises participants not to bring political signs.
Michener, a 33-year resident of Sitka, said he envisions a large crowd on Lincoln Street standing behind the banner, with a view of the Three Sisters mountains in the background, as a visual representation of local opposition to sales of public lands.
He said he believes that if public lands near Sitka were sold, the land likely would be purchased by corporations for extractive activities, or be sold to ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
Tory O’Connell, a Sitka resident of more than 40 years, said today that “if these lands are sold, we’ll never get them back.”
“One of the best things about our country is all of these public lands,” she said.
She addressed how the bill would mandate that millions of acres of public lands be sold to support “local housing needs.”
“If this land sale is really about housing opportunity, then the bill should describe the lands that could be sold for this purpose, and not open up all federally-owned public land for privatization,” O’Connell said.
In a statement to the Sentinel this afternoon, Joseph Plesha, communications director for Sen. Murkowski, wrote that some interpretations of the Senate bill may be misleading.
“There is a large volume of misinformation about this provision,” Plesha wrote. “As written, it would be restricted to a small percentage of BLM and Forest Service lands across the nation.
“No specific lands are put up for sale; there are many categories of excluded lands and there is a public nomination process to identify parcels that could be put up for sale,” Plesha wrote. “Consultation would occur and local governments would have first right of refusal. The lands themselves must be adjacent to existing infrastructure and used to address housing shortages and related community needs.
“Going forward, we will continue to track this provision, but we will be relying on the legislative text to understand it, not highly misleading maps and arguments made by groups that reflexively oppose any sale of federal land,” Plesha wrote.
The Wilderness Society data appears to misrepresent land ownership in some small areas near Sitka. For instance, state-owned lands on Krestof Island, as well as Haida Corp. lands in the Siginaka Islands, are shown on the society’s map as “USFS lands eligible for sale.”
The Wilderness Society did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday about the data analysis that produced the map.
• This story was originally published by the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
A map shows areas that could be “eligible for sale” to private interests if new language in a draft Senate reconciliation bill were to pass. (Courtesy of The Wilderness Society)
