Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard that on June 14, 2025 Senator Mike Lee (R, Utah) added a draft verbiage to the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that that requires the federal government sell between 2.1 and 3.2 million acres of public land in the West (including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona) The supposed intention is to provide the land for “housing”; however, there is no requirement in the language that the housing is affordable, and with nearly all the eligible land located in mountainous or desert regions that are far away from population centers (i.e., where people work), you can imagine who would buy most of this land and what it would be used for, specifically second or third homes for rich assholes (warning, I’ll be coming out swinging in this blog and a reminder that my views do not necessarily reflect those of the DRC board or membership). Before those luxury homes are built, the lands will likely be purchased by investors that will sit on them hoping for a good return on their investment and lock us out in the meantime.
What Local Lands Are Eligible for Sale?
There is a great interactive map of lands eligible for sale here: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=821970f0212d46d7aa854718aac42310. Many of the places that DRC does group runs on a regular basis would be eligible for sale. This includes Animas City Mountain, Junction Creek/Colorado Trail, the Log Chutes system, Dry Fork loop, Falls Creek, Hermosa and Jones Creek, and Missionary Ridge (Haflin, Baldy, Shearer Creek). You can imagine how lame these runs would be if passing through high-end neighborhoods instead of beautiful forests, assuming the new owners don’t lock us out entirely.
DRC at Gudy’s Rest on our last run up the Junction Creek Trail, a location eligible for sale in the current draft of the bill. Photo courtesy of Katie Seiverman
Other local favorites include the spectacular mountain ridge between Silverton and Telluride, which is home to the many brilliant blue and turquoise lakes such as Ice, Island, Fuller, Clear, Hope, Crystal, and Columbine. Much of the high country between Silverton and Lake City, including 14ers such as Handies, Sunshine and Redcloud Peaks would also be eligible for sale. Our nearby desert trails are also under threat, including Phil’s World, and many great areas around Moab such as Grandstaff Canyon, Prichett Canyon and the Poison Spider Mesa. As a National Monument, lands in Bears Ears are currently excluded, but that could change if (more likely when) President Trump shrinks the monument again.
Crystal Lake at the top of Ophir Pass is eligible for sale and located less than 0.5 mile from existing plowed and maintained county roads.
A Threat to Our Commons
I don’t think it’s a coincidence in this age of modern-day robber barons that our common areas are being targeted to pay for the “Big Beautiful Bill” provisions that benefit the rich. Our common areas are how someone like me, a public servant that lives in a trailer park, can legitimately believe that he has a better life than Elon Musk. Why do I feel that way? One reason is because, along with all of you, I’m a co-owner of the over a million acres of public land in La Plata County. And with an average value of over $10,000 per acre, this asset that we all co-own and enjoy is worth over $10 billion dollars.
Not only do we have full access to enjoy this $10B asset whenever we want, it is managed for us basically for free by the San Juan National Forest and Bureau of Land Management, other than the less than 1% of our federal tax dollars that goes to that purpose. Although we may not all agree with every management decision these agencies make, on the whole there’s no denying that we benefit greatly from what they do. A couple of years ago the BLM conducted a prescribed burn on Animas City Mountain, which reduced fire risk for all Durango residents. As soon as that land is privatized, we lose control over the management.
What Can We Do?
Fortunately, for those of us living here in La Plata County, both of our U.S. senators, our governor, and all three county commissioners are opposed to this action. Therefore, I recommend contacting our Republican congressman, Jeff Hurd, whose vote could be critical to the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill when it returns to the U.S. House for a vote. To contact Congressman Hurd, follow this link: https://hurd.house.gov/contact
I also recommend supporting many of the great local non-profit organizations working to protect public lands in our area. We were fortunate to have the San Juan Citizen’s Alliance attend our last run at Hermosa Creek. Although the entirety of the Hermosa Creek trail is eligible to be sold, none of the western half of the Hermosa watershed is eligible for sale thanks to the work they were involved with in getting it designated wilderness protections. There are several other great regional non-profits working tirelessly to protect our public lands, these include Great Old Broads for Wilderness and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Rane Dickerson and Brian Rogers of the San Juan Citizens Alliance with your club president. Rane, Brian, and John Rader (not pictured) spoke before the DRC run up Hermosa Creek and all joined the run afterwards. Photo courtesy of Bill Benac.
Trail Runners Don’t Let Other Trail Runners Vote Republican
The single most powerful action any of us can take is to vote against the Republican party until it changes it views on public lands. It pains me to make that statement, as Republican president Teddy Roosevelt is the architect of our modern public lands system, having established approximately 230 million acres of public lands, including 150 national forests, five national parks, and the first 18 national monuments. Republican president Richard Nixon signed into law some of our most significant environmental protections including the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act. Even as recently as 1989, Republican president George H.W. Bush strengthened federal wetlands conservation.
But in 2025, it was Republican Mike Lee who introduced this subject provision. It was Republican representatives Mark Amodei (R, NV) and Celeste Maloy (R, UT) that introduced a similar provision in the House to sell public lands in their states. It was Republican president Donald Trump that greatly reduced the size of the Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monuments in his last term, and a Republican-appointed justice department that recently stated that a president can revoke national monument status, paving the way for these monuments to be reduced again, and subsequently eligible for sale.
DRC has always strived to be as inclusive as possible, which includes differing political opinions. I realize there are several reasons why people vote, but if being a co-owner of the places we trail run is as important to you as it is to me, then there is only one logical way to vote.