One of the reasons you always want to keep an eye on public land issues is because the people who want to sell it off, put a fence around it, exclude you and your kids from it, and pontificate about how this somehow makes you richer and freer are always working overtime to sell or privatize this land. They have fleets of lawyers, PR firms paid with taxpayer dollars, lobbyists, and so on to try and pry public land out of public hands.
Take an example of a 2024 lawsuit where Utah sued the Feds for 18.5m acres of BLM land. People working hard on this lawsuit knew, evidenced in state filings and later courtroom discussion, that Utah getting ahold of that land would have led to a “disposal” (sale) process for significant parts of that land. The title wouldn’t have gone to Utah with a permanent ban on sale.
Now, because public land sales are an 80-20 issue among the American electorate, individuals in Utah’s Public Land Coordinating Office (PLPCO) hired SLC firm Penna Powers to support this lawsuit (they’re currently paying them with your taxpayer money even today, about $2 million).
Penna Powers was hired make Utahns more likely to support transferring the BLM land to the state and to cover up or counteract true information about how this land can absolutely be sold (and it will). Internal emails from state employees and Penna Powers showed their main priority is to minimize conservative voices like the TRCP who advocate against public land sales and to cover up or confuse people who point out that this land can and will be sold once it’s titled to Utah. Internal emails say that uncovering what conservative leaning conservation groups or hunter groups will say and then neutralizing those talking points is the highest priority to get this land sale through.
The PR firm was directed by state employees to make any ads feature landscapes that “aren’t too pretty,” because the public might decide against state management/possible sales after seeing what exactly was on the table.