Trump nominee, letter from Idaho congressman revive worries of public land selloff

Public land advocates are closely watching new efforts they believe could undermine public ownership and access to federal forests and rangeland.

President Donald Trump has nominated former Republican congressman Steve Pearce to run the Bureau of Land Management. Pearce, of New Mexico, has pushed for the disposal of federal public lands and the shrinking of national monuments.

Congressman Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, wrote a letter to constituents last week in which he praised public lands as a “treasured part of our way of life,” but then went on to bemoan the size of the federal land footprint in Idaho and advocated for local control of that land.

Michael Carroll of the Wilderness Society said senators who, at the urging of grassroots public lobbying voted to spike a public land selloff amendment to the Big Beautiful Bill last summer, have a chance to prove their public land bonafides.

“You could see this as an initial test of those caucuses and whether or not they will stand up against nominees who have clear track records of support for public land selloffs and records of undermining public land writ large,” he said. “You can’t push legislation to sell off public land but you also can’t nominate people to run those agencies who have public records of selling public lands.”

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., has already said he will not vote for Pearce during confirmation proceedings.

“Americans deserve a BLM director who will be a true steward of the millions of acres under the agency’s care. Steve Pearce is NOT that person,” Hickenlooper said in a news release. “While in Congress, he attacked environmental protections and fought to sell off public land. His nomination is proof that the Trump administration still views our public lands as assets for sale.”

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, who serves on the Senate’s Natural Resource Committee, has not taken a public position on the nomination. Last summer, Risch’s rejection of the public land selloff proposal was seen as instrumental to killing the idea pushed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Risch and his seatmate Sen. Mike Crapo were both feted by public land supporters for rejecting Lee’s amendment.

Polling conducted by the Conservation Voters of Idaho showed Risch, a Republican who is running for another term in the Senate, enjoyed a 10-point bump in his approval rating following his opposition to Lee’s amendment.

Alexis Pickering, executive director of the group, said the organization plans to ask Risch to press Pearce on his public land positions during his confirmation hearings.

“His support for Pearce would be going back on that progress and be at odds with the electorate who, in part, are supporting him because of his defense of public land,” she said.

Fulcher, who represents Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, did not advocate for selling public land in his letter. Rather, he said the federal government has mismanaged its holdings and said state and local governments, frustrated with the growing threat of wildfire, should gain control of the land within its borders. He suggested an oxymoronic timeframe for that to happen.

“Eventually, a transition of land management responsibility to state and local entities is imminent due to the aforementioned growing frustration,” Fulcher wrote.

Fulcher was the only member of the Idaho congressional delegation who supported the idea of selling public land during the budget reconciliation process. Pickering sees his support for local control or transfer of lands from federal to state ownership as a fig leaf for eventual privatization.

“He is trying to do a bait and switch just with a word salad, but ultimately it tastes the same. He is pro transfer which is pro selloff,” she said.

She and others believe the state would not be able to afford to manage the millions of acres of federal land in the state and would be incentivized to sell it. As an example, she pointed to a 160-acre tract of state land near Driggs which the Idaho Land Board is selling after neighboring billionaire landowner Thomas Tull expressed interest in it.

The state land that is leased by a local ranching family brings about $960 a year to the Idaho Department of Lands, according to reporting by the Idaho Capital Sun. If sold at auction, as it is slated to be at an undetermined date, the land would fetch a much higher sum and fulfill the department’s mandate to maximize long-term financial returns.

Fulcher touched on that affordability argument in his letter.

“My response to that is long-term, we can’t afford not to,” Fulcher wrote. “Consider: In 2024, the total PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) received by Idahoans through federal channels (calculated by total receipts divided by total federal acres) came out to approximately $1.25 per acre. I am confident that, given the ability to make our own land management decisions, a far greater return would be realized. But, we need to be proactive, have a plan, and be the drivers of the process.”

He is holding stakeholder meetings to brainstorm “best land management practices.”

Nick Fasciano, executive director of the Idaho Wildlife Federation, which advocates for hunters and anglers, called transferring federal lands to the state a “one-way path to privatization.”

But he said the people he represents can support Pearce as BLM director and get behind Fulcher’s call for more local involvement in land management, as long as selling or transferring it is off the table.

“More local control and local input on land management decisions is something, by and large, our demographic would support, but that is fundamentally different from transfer,” Fasciano said.

Eric Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com.