Our public lands are what makes Idaho, Idaho. We owe it to our grandchildren to protect them.

Last week the Andrus Center at Boise State University and the McClure Center at the University of Idaho held a conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. The conference focused on the legislative miracle that led to the preservation of the deepest canyon in North America.

This stunning canyon, used by jet boaters, rafters, hikers, hunters and many more, could not have been saved from the construction of a large dam if it weren’t for many persistent Idahoans who opposed the dam.

But it also took the strong bipartisan and visionary leadership of political leaders who came together to pass the legislation that became the Hells Canyon Recreation Area – namely Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Church and Republican U.S. Sen. Jim McClure of Idaho and Oregon Republican U.S. Sens. Bob Packwood and Mark Hatfield.

It also could not have been protected without the leadership of Idaho’s Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus, and Oregon’s Republican Gov. Tom McCall, and Washington’s Republican Gov. Dan Evans. Their personal relationship and political collaboration on Hells Canyon and other issues led the press to dub them the “three Musketeers.”

Collaboration by Oregon, Idaho and Washington’s ‘Three Musketeers’ led to golden age of governors

Many of the conference speakers, including me, concluded that if another major, regional issue like Hells Canyon arose today there is not the bipartisan and deep personal relationships that could resolve it like the ones 50 years ago.  

But in retrospect, there is one thing that could potentially create the kind of leadership these amazing leaders provided in the early 1970s – saving our public lands from being auctioned off to the highest bidder. But, even then, it would require a change of heart from most of our current lawmakers or the election of more pro-public land political leaders.

Public lands facing greater threat than any other time in U.S. history

Today we are facing the greatest threat to our public lands than at any time in history. The feeling of dread was demonstrated a few weeks ago when an estimated 2,000 Idahoans rallied at the Statehouse demanding that the Trump administration and Congress keep their hands off our public lands.

Their concern is real.

Politico recently reported that Congressional Republicans are looking at selling off public lands around the national parks to help finance President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, including a $5 billion income tax cut. 

On April 3, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced that the Trump administration plans to make 16 sites on federal lands available to private companies to build artificial intelligence data centers. One of those sites is the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls. 

Last Sunday an opinion writer for The New York Times suggested that federal lands near cities could be used to expand badly needed housing. He cited “Boise” as one of those cities. Of course, he wrote there should be sideboards to prevent this land from just being used to build the kind of McMansions we see cropping up across the West. 

Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo recently voted against an amendment that would prevent the selling of public land. It failed on a 48-51 vote, meaning Risch and Crapo’s votes sank it. Meanwhile, Congressman Mike Simpson split from the rest of the Idaho delegation supporting the bipartisan Keep Public Lands in Public Hands legislation.

Utah last year sued the federal Bureau of Land Management to force the agency to turn over 18 million acres of so-called “unappropriated” lands to the state. The word “unappropriated” is the kind of misleading buzzword privatizers have used to advance other efforts such as privatizing public schools.

In this case, “unappropriated” implies that these lands are not being used, and the state should take them back. The truth is that these lands are used for grazing, mining, wildlife habitat, recreation, and many other uses. 

The U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected the Utah case. But Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is on a mission to make the transfer happen, even threatening to file a lawsuit in federal district court. 

Cox has also launched a $1 million public relations campaign called “Stand for Our Land,” implying that somehow these lands owned by all Americans are under threat. His message has appeared on billboards, in TV commercials and in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, hoping to build public support for the idea. 

And if you think this is just a threat from Utah, consider that Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined Cox last year by filing a brief to get these “unappropriated” lands transferred to the states.

Plans to gut federal agencies like BLM, Forest Service under Trump administration

Meanwhile, President Trump and Elon Musk are gutting the federal agencies responsible for managing the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, and national park lands. Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins was quoted in Government Executive News recently as saying department employees, including those in the U.S. Forest Service, should expect significant layoffs in the coming weeks. She said the layoffs will make the Forest Service “more efficient.”

Plans include reducing the regional Forest Service offices from 10 to as few as three. It also includes laying off workers in the Forest Service’s research division, including employees conducting fire suppression, reforestation, and water research. And it includes reducing the number of national forests by consolidating them. 

President Trump has already issued an executive order declaring an “emergency situation” on national forests. The plan is to bypass environmental laws and cut 25 percent more timber. If you look at a map of the land mass that will be impacted by this executive order, it covers Idaho like a blanket from north of Boise to the Canadian border.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little calls for increase in federal forests management to reduce wildfire risk

These expected layoffs in the Forest Service will make it more difficult for the remaining employees to manage the extensive public lands in the West. No doubt the so-called “emergency” will lead to a denigration of the land and a reduction in service to the millions of Americans who hike, fish, hunt, snowmobile, and graze livestock on these lands. 

This denigration of the lands and the negative service citizens experience from these staffing cuts will set the table for the privatizers to come in with the “solution” to the very problem they created. That “solution” will be turning our public lands over to the states or selling them outright to wealthy elites who can afford them. 

This playbook is the same one that has been used to privatize public education in our country. For years billionaires and their mis-named front organizations like Besty DeVos’ American Federation for Children and Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity have declared that our public schools are “failing” our children. Then they come in with the “solution” – privatize education by providing vouchers to private and religious schools.

Here’s how Christopher Rufo, a far-right thought leader, explained the playbook to an audience at Hillsdale College: First “attack the credibility of the institutions.” Then create the “conditions for fundamental, structural change.” For example, he said, “to get universal school choice, you really need to operate from a position of universal public-school distrust.”  

In other words, if Cox and Labrador and congressional Republicans are going to get the public lands transferred to the states, they must convince the public that the lands are under threat. That explains Cox’s expensive “Stand for Our Land” propaganda campaign. 

The truth is that the states cannot afford to manage our public lands. The Legislature would have to appropriate millions more to expand the state Lands Department. A major fire alone would cost millions of dollars, stressing the state general fund budget.

Under state management and privatization, the most beautiful, valuable parts of Idaho will be auctioned off

Furthermore, the Idaho Constitution mandates that state lands be managed for maximum economic gain, not for multiple uses like outdoor recreation. That’s why state-owned home sites around Payette Lake and Priest Lake have been auctioned off to the highest bidder in recent years. 

If the state gets its hands on BLM and Forest Service land, it will have to sell some of it off to cover the cost of management and fire suppression. And you can bet that it will be the most beautiful and valuable parts of Idaho that will be auctioned off. And you can also bet your last dollar that it won’t be average Idahoans who can afford to bid – it will be billionaires from Texas, California, and hedge funds back East that will gobble up our land. 

And, if you think that is far-fetched, remember the billionaire Wilks brothers from Texas who bought hundreds of square miles of Idaho from private interests and soon closed it to the public which previously had access to the land. One of those brothers, Farris Wilks, knows how the privatization game works. Last year Wilks teamed up with another Texas billionaire, Tim Dunn, to defeat anti-private school voucher Republican legislators in Texas, according to ProPublica and other news outlets.  

Recent Idaho political history shows that out-of-state billionaires like DeVos have outsized power and bottomless bank accounts to change our Legislature and advance their school privatization agenda. They could use the same strategy and bank accounts to advance the privatization of our public lands.

We cannot let the wealthy privatizers, or their complicit politicians do that. We need visionary leaders like Idaho’s Sens. Frank Church and Jim McClure and governors like Andrus, McCall, and Evans more now than ever. 

Our public lands are what makes Idaho special and different from states like Kansas where there is no public land or wild and scenic rivers. Or Texas where one must pay to play. Or some eastern states where there are more concrete slabs than wild forests and valleys.

Our public lands are what makes Idaho, Idaho. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to protect our public lands and give them and their children the same opportunities to renew their spirits under the bluebird skies of our great state.