Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you - I never expected to wake up to a thousand notes.
I made this through tears last night in desperation, and I do want to shoutout to some EXCELLENT tags that I wish I'd had the bandwidth to add in the moment
@pinyonrice and @namira - you're absolutely right. The ENTIRETY of this land won't get sold, it's the fear that any of it could.
BLM manages 245 million acres of land. The forest service manages 193 million acres of land, for a total of 438 acres. The map shown is 300 million of that - 62% of the total area. The bill is only asking for 0.75% to actually be sold off, a FRACTIONAL value of the actual amount.
This is something that kept me awake wanting to understand better, to have some peace that maybe, some aspect of this would be okay.
I agree that this is the precedent, and that *which* lands they choose can have devastating repercussions for drilling, logging, etc. The fight for Bears Ear National Monument has told us this story again and again.
I definitely don't want to come across as fearmongering - there's just. No reason to be selling these lands, and most fundamentally the bill should have restrictions for the use cases, purposes, and actual locations rather than this blanket "free for all".
@fruity-basket-case also really put it well. In reality, individuals probably aren't getting more homes. Oil interests, resorts, mega-leases, the "highest bidder" is who is prioritized here.
So again, THANK YOU. Thank you all for caring. Thank you for taking the time to call, and to read this post. You may be strangers, but to everyone who reblogged, please know I genuinely consider you a friend today <3
