Header image by Hari Nandakumar
This August, I’ll join a group of public lands advocates on a 4-day raft trip down the Green River through Lodore Canyon and Dinosaur National Monument in northwestern Colorado’s Moffat County. This region is known for its healthy big game populations, wild backcountry habitat, and a rich hunting and fishing tradition.
“There is a reason that Moffat County is called the Elk Hunting Capital of the World. Two of North America’s largest migratory elk herds are found here, along with mule deer and pronghorn populations that offer many harvesting opportunities,” the Visit Moffat County website emphasizes. “Moffat County also provides an abundance of small game, giving young hunters a wonderful way to experience this heritage.”
This month, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will lease thousands of acres in northwestern Colorado to oil and gas companies in the state’s biggest such sale in modern history. More than 100 parcels included in the June 16 sale encompass elk, pronghorn, and mule deer migration corridors. About two-thirds of the 156,000-acre sale is just south of Dinosaur National Monument.
Under the new H.R. 1 legislation rammed through Congress last year, these leases lock up the land for a full decade. That means for the next 10 years 156,000 acres of your public land cannot be managed for conservation, outdoor recreation, or wildlife protection. Even if the fossil fuel executives never drill a single well, they get to hold the land hostage. Here’s what they’re taking:
- The Elk Capital: They are leasing out the critical migration corridors and winter habitat for the nation’s largest elk herd in Moffat County.
- The Dark Skies: They are surrounding Dinosaur National Monument with industrial truck traffic and 24/7 rig lighting, permanently jeopardizing its status as an International Dark Sky Place.
- Your Money: Because H.R. 1 deliberately slashed royalty rates, multi-billion-dollar energy conglomerates get these assets on the cheap (i.e., corporate/billionaire buzzard welfare). The estimated cost to taxpayers? $148 million in lost revenue in Colorado alone.
Unfortunately, this is only one example of an all-out assault on public lands being facilitated by the Trump administration. Late last month, Trump signed an executive order directing public lands agencies to rescind or rewrite policy that has regulated off-road vehicle (ORV) use on public lands for the past 50 years.
“We … already know the implications,” Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) stated in a June 1 Instagram post. “Unchecked motorized travel on public lands can harm access for everyone in the long run. It changes wildlife behavior, fragments habitat, and trades the quiet for the noise.”
“On June 23, 2025, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins rescinded the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, lifting restrictions on roadbuilding and logging across nearly 59 million acres of National Forest lands,” Devin O’Dea, BHA’s Western policy and conservation manager, explained.
“The Forest Service already manages 370,000 miles of roads and can’t keep up with the maintenance backlog,” BHA added in a May 19 Instagram post. “We don’t have a shortage of road access on public lands. We have a shortage of intact habitat.”
“What’s next?” American Hunters & Anglers co-chair Land Tawney asked. “You should take that question seriously, whether you live in Utah, Minnesota, Montana, Michigan, Wisconsin, or New York, because once politicians start treating public lands protections as temporary and disposable, no place is safe.”
Then there’s the reconciliation bill (H.R. 1) signed by President Trump in July 2025, which was a public lands giveaway in disguise. It “gutted” public lands habitat protections in favor of resource extraction (e.g., the lease sale in Moffat County), I explained in a July 2025 Colorado Newsline opinion piece.
And as hunter Randy Newberg, host of the podcasts “Fresh Tracks,” “On Your Own Adventures,” and “Hunt Talk Radio,” said on a July 2025 Fresh Tracks episode, “The considerations previously given to wildlife and important habitat like wintering range, migration corridors, summer range in a lot of places … those protections just [lessened].” In Colorado we have 24 million acres of public lands, including 4.2 million roadless acres encompassing some of the best elk habitat on the continent.
However, since the days of Theodore Roosevelt people driven by myopic greed have endeavored to remove public lands from public hands. Regardless, I haven’t spent a lifetime outdoors hunting, hiking, climbing, camping, and canoeing, plus 15 years of military training and service, just to let a bunch of “Epstein class” billionaire buzzards waltz in and liquidate our democracy and public lands without a fight. We’re not backing down. Join us!
David A. Lien of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a former Air Force missile launch officer and author. In 2014, he was recognized by Field & Stream as a “Hero of Conservation” and urges action at backcountryhunters.org/get-involved/take-action. This is his personal opinion and not that of any other group/organization.
