Interior Department plan okays sale of federal lands
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) With two years remaining in the Trump presidency, the Department of the Interior has published a four-year plan that prioritizes fossil-fuel energy production, expansion of critical-mineral mining, and the elimination of federal public land, all in the name of efficiency.
The Department of the Interior this week released a strategic plan for 2026 through 2030 outlining the goals and strategies that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum intends to employ. The four goals don’t seem to depart too much from what the Interior has done in the past, such as promoting the enjoyment and conservation of public lands or collaborating with states, tribes and communities. But the associated objectives contain a few statements that have public land advocates fuming.
Under the goal of collaboration, the plan reveals that Burgum intends to “decrease the size of the federal estate by offering to states, localities and Tribes the opportunity to purchase federal lands.” These sales will allow the department to “consolidate its workforce” and decrease the “taxpayers’ financial responsibility.”
Little of this comes as a surprise. Since the beginning of 2025, the Trump administration has been trying to cut the federal workforce through a variety of efforts, from DOGE to ordering buyouts and early retirements. There have also been a few efforts to give away federal land, such as the swaps being considered on the edge of Yosemite National Park in California and Prince William Forest Park in Virginia.
In early October, the Center for American Progress concluded that “the Trump administration’s recent and pending actions in Yosemite, the Lower Rio Grande, Prince William Forest Park, and the Tonto National Forest suggest a concerning pattern of land swaps that trade valuable public lands for private enrichment.”
Now, the Interior Department plan has turned that pattern into policy for the land agencies it oversees, including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and others. But the 28-page plan includes few specifics about how the Interior will carry out its objectives across 750,000 square miles managed by the various agencies.
In his opening letter, Burgum justified the plan, saying the nation is “at an important inflection point.” While saying our public lands and resources are for the benefit and use of the American people, Burgum emphasizes development and extraction.
“Our team is actively expanding domestic energy production and securing our critical minerals supply chain—reducing reliance on foreign adversaries, accelerating innovation and protecting the global environment,” Burgum said in his letter.
Burgum quoted President Theodore Roosevelt, saying “Conservation means development as much as it does protection.” However, Roosevelt followed that by saying, “I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.”
Public land watchdogs are saying that’s what Burgum’s plan will do: rob future generations.
“If there was any doubt the Trump administration is waging war on public lands, water and wildlife, this tone-deaf plan should make it crystal effing clear: Data Center Doug just shouted the quiet part out loud by calling for mass selloffs of our public lands, decapitating the public servants who manage them, and prioritizing data centers over conservation, clean water, healthy wildlife and access to the wild places that make America great,” said Land Tawney of American Hunters and Anglers.
Three members of Montana’s Congressional delegation have already indicated that they wouldn’t support federal land sales. Rep. Troy Downing has yet to comment. Congressman-elect Sam Forstag said he reached out to Rep. Ryan Zinke to ask him to vote against any plan to sell land. But state governors probably have a greater say in whether any sale would move forward.
“They’re trying to swindle in this private equity approach to governance on our public lands while they’re in the lame-duck (session). We’re not going to let them get away with it,” Forstag said Thursday in a social media post. “‘Decreasing the size of the federal estate’ is code for selling off what belongs to all of us to get just a few people rich off our backs.”
In addition to approving the sale of federal land, the plan outlines three objectives to “expand American prosperity.” It would accelerate energy production from sources such as coal, oil, gas, hydroelectric, geothermal and nuclear by streamlining environmental reviews and expediting leasing. It would pursue the direct transfer of public land where it would support energy production and transport. It would also accelerate leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf to mine underwater critical minerals, which could devastate marine ecosystems that are already threatened by warming oceans.
“Secretary Burgum’s plan goes well beyond the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 by recommending public land selloffs, which is shocking, given how incredibly unpopular this idea is,” said Kate Groetzinger, Center for Western Priorities communications director. “At every turn, the plan prioritizes extraction over conservation, emphasizing the need to pillage our public lands in order to power AI data centers. Of course, that’s no surprise given Burgum’s financial ties to the AI industry. But it flies in the face of the American public, who have made their feelings about data centers abundantly clear.”
Under the recreation and conservation goal, Burgum highlights the continued “beautification” of Washington, D.C., which has syphoned millions from the National Park Service budget. For example, more than $16 million from the NPS budget was spent on the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Burgum would also use Land and Water Conservation Funds to procure conservation and recreation access easements on privately owned lands, in an effort to “ensure that the federal estate does not continue to grow while at the same time increasing recreation access for the American public.”
Finally, the plan offers little as far as having the Fish and Wildlife Service preserve or protect wildlife or habitat. It says only that the agencies will “remove harmful invasive species, delist threatened and endangered species once recovered and involve local communities in decisions about managing nature and wildlife.” Regarding threatened or endangered species, the department will use “an approach that appropriately balances conservation within the Interior mission and the Administration’s other priorities.”
Most of the administration’s priorities are outlined in executive orders that involve enabling industry and resource extraction while reducing regulations. Already, the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed changes to its rules that would gut the Endangered Species Act, including allowing people to kill or harass threatened species and allowing the destruction of habitat critical to a species’ survival. Burgum is also supporting letting the states have more control over how and when grizzly bears can be killed.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.