Utah News Dispatch
Mike Lee backs off change that advocates called a ‘green light’ to sell national parks
A trail in Bryce Canyon National Park is pictured in May 2024. (Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)
Saying that “selling national parks was never on the table,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee is no longer proposing a change to federal legislation that drew heavy criticism from conservation groups, his office said Friday.
Lee, A Republican, had proposed removing part of a spending bill requiring that national park lands be maintained as federal lands. The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks shot back, saying the move could “green-light the selling off, transferring and giving away of national parks.”
Over the summer, Lee attempted to add a mandate for the sale of some public lands, excluding national parks and national monuments, to Republicans’ megabill. He backed down after outcry from hunting and recreation advocates.
On Friday, Lee spokesperson Jordan Roberts said the senator filed a new amendment late Thursday that would keep intact the section he previously sought to remove.
“I categorically oppose selling national parks,” Lee, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement to Utah News Dispatch.
Lee said the U.S. Department of the Interior had called his attention to the section at issue, saying it “would permanently freeze Park Service boundaries, blocking routine land exchanges Congress has long approved, such as past legislation returning sacred lands near Denali to the Doyon Alaska Native Corporation.”
Lee continued: “That was the concern. Selling national parks was never on the table.”
Some advocates see it as a repeat of recent history.
“Once again, Mike Lee is retreating with his tail between his legs after trying to make it easier to sell off and dispose of our public lands,” said Kate Groetzinger with the nonprofit Center for Western Priorities. “But given that the appropriations bill is not signed yet, we’re going to be keeping a close eye on it.”
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chimed in to defend Lee Thursday on the social media site X, saying Lee sought to take out a provision “that would have unintended consequences for routine Park Service actions.”
“Senator Mike Lee is not trying to sell Park Service lands or ‘end the Park Service as we know it,’” the post reads. “Those who are claiming that should know better and need to knock it off.”
Linda Mazzu, a retired superintendent at Bryce Canyon National Park, joined conservation groups in voicing concern Thursday.
Mazzu said after layoffs and buyouts earlier this year, staffing at the park service is down 25%. The agency is also staring down $1.2 billion in cuts under the White House’s proposed 2026 budget.
Bigger shifts may follow. In May, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told a House budget panel that there is no plan to remove any of 64 “crown jewel” national parks. But he said some of the more than 400 other park service sites could be managed by state or local authorities.
A draft of the Interior Department’s strategic five-year plan listed the return of “heritage lands and sites to the states” and efforts to “assess and right-size monuments” among five “key strategies” for the agency.
Mazzu said she’s concerned about the future of smaller sites like Utah’s Golden Spike National Historic Park, that are managed by the park service and less visited than Utah’s “Mighty 5” national parks.
“There are so many small places that might just be a historic house,” Mazzu said. “But it captures a huge part of the history of our country.”
