1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I’m a working parent and creative professional in rural Western North Carolina, still helping rebuild after Hurricane Helene. I care deeply about public land, our shared resource that fuels local economies, supports wildlife, and sustains families like mine. But right now, someone far from here is trying to put our lands up for sale. Senator Mike Lee’s amendment, buried in the Senate’s reconciliation bill, would force the sale of 2–3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land across 11 western states—including valuable, well‑loved areas near Yosemite, the Wasatch Front, Big Sur, Lake Tahoe, and more . The pitch is housing and infrastructure, but there are no guarantees—no affordable housing requirement, no environmental review, no transparency, and little real public input . Once public land is sold, it’s gone for good—parked in private hands, developed into high‑end homes or chain resorts, and fenced off from the people who built this country . This isn’t bold progress. It’s reckless resource stripping, hidden in budget jargon and sold as fiscal solutions. This plan hands America’s heritage to the highest bidder and erodes the very fabric that holds communities together. Congress must vote this down. End the land grab. Prioritize genuine solutions—including true affordable housing initiatives that protect land and people. Public land belongs to all of us—not to corporate developers or champagne‑drinking billionaires. We owe this to our children and the next generation.