The Senate is expected to vote by July 4 on the “Big Beautiful” bill, which could allow the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land across 11 western states. In California, 16 million acres are eligible, including land near Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.

As The Hill reports, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — who’s Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources — added a provision to the bill that directs the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to sell between 0.5% and 0.75% of their holdings.

The targeted land excludes national parks and wilderness areas but includes National Forest and BLM-controlled land. The Chronicle has a map from the Wilderness Society showing affected parcels scattered throughout California, from Sierra wilderness zones to rural Central Valley foothills.

Lee argues the sale could promote housing development, energy production, and generate up to $10 billion for the federal government. “Washington has proven time and again it can’t manage this land. This bill puts it in better hands,” he said.

But conservationists and community groups see it as a major threat to public access, environmental protections, and wildfire management. “Once the land is sold, we will never get it back,” warned Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana), who helped remove the land sale provision from the House version of the bill before it resurfaced in the Senate.

As Fresno’s KSFN reports, environmental groups like Unite 4 Parks have raised alarms about the speed and scope of the sales. “All of us are going to lose if we lose access to this landscape that we're used to camping in and so forth,” said Deanna Wulff. She added that three million acres isn’t a small number: “If you took Yosemite, and the Sierra National Forest, and then the Sequoia/Kings Canyon range… that whole stretch, that’s 3 million acres. That is huge.”

The bill allows “any interested party” to purchase land, which critics say opens the door to wealthy individuals and corporations outbidding state and local governments that lack the budget to compete. As Michael Carroll of the Wilderness Society told SFGate, “They capped it at 3 million acres, but 258 million acres is on the menu.”

U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) said he will fight the bill "tooth and nail."

Image: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA - JUNE 18:  The Merced River flows through  the center of the Valley as viewed on June 18, 2024, at Yosemite  National Park, California.  (Photo by  George Rose/Getty Images)