Washington, D.C. — A new analysis from the Center for American Progress finds the Trump administration has taken actions that would eliminate existing protections from about 88 million acres of public lands. When including the removal of wildlife habitat protections—on public and private lands—the total impact of the rollbacks stretch across more than 175 million acres of U.S. land, an area larger than California, Florida, and Georgia combined.
Earlier this summer, public opposition forced Congress to remove language from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would have sold millions of acres of public lands. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s actions will directly affect far more states and regions of the country than Congress’ proposed sell-off, with more than 70 percent of U.S. states feeling the impact of these rollbacks.
At the same time, the Trump administration is also increasing sales that will hand corporations primary control of public lands, including those lands stripped of their conservation protections.
“Even after Americans loudly rejected attempts to sell off public lands, the Trump administration is rolling forward with actions to transfer control of massive amounts of public lands for corporate profits,” said Drew McConville, senior fellow for Conservation Policy at CAP and co-author of the report. “These efforts to unprotect and sell out public lands are wildly out of step with what the public wants.”
Trump administration actions to eliminate or weaken protections for public lands include:
- Removing protections for some of the most intact national forest lands
- Opening sensitive Arctic wildlife habitat for drilling
- Eliminating restrictions on mining for ecologically sensitive lands and waters
- Erasing conservation requirements and habitat protections
The new analysis represents a conservative estimate of affected lands and does not quantify the impacts from public lands attacks on the horizon—such as potential erasure of national monuments—or the widespread impacts of rewriting regulations and policy to favor oil and gas, mining, and timber extraction across publicly managed lands.
Read the report: “The Trump Administration’s Expansive Push to Sell Out Public Lands to the Highest Bidder” by Drew McConville, Mariel Lutz, and Jenny Rowland-Shea
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected].