The Public Lands Cash Grab Will Affect All Of Us

There’s all sorts of turmoil to worry about in the world today and most of the time, we can just kind of bury our heads in the sand and not talk about it here. We’re just a ski blog, right? Whether we put ourselves in the blue column or red column doesn’t always matter, because all of us like to go skiing and riding. Most of the time we can share the slopes, the lodge and locker rooms and even a chairlift with someone whose ballot was the opposite of your own in the last election. It all works out because of our love of snow.

The photo above jokingly suggests that Alpine Meadows will soon be up for sale. There’s been times where we have suggested that as a great idea, where someone that really loves this mountain could buy it and disconnect us from our neighbors on the other side. That’s not what is going on here, although portions of Alpine Meadows on US Forest Service land could end up being sold to the highest bidder. It extends far beyond Alpine Meadows though. Over two million acres of US Forest Service land and Bureau of Land Management Land would be fast tracked for sale if the GOP is successful in passing the current version of what one person calls the “big beautiful bill.”

The problem is that the “big beautiful bill” guarantees tax cuts for billionaires, leading to potentially massive cuts in public services. More importantly, it would also lead to a huge increase in the United States’ national deficit – to the tune of trillions of dollars. A similar plan to sell public lands was removed from the budget bill last May. But it has now been quietly slipped back in as legislators understand that a huge deficit increase is not a legacy that they want.

This time the language for the public land sell off is very aggressive. It’s not a case of “We might sell it if we get really desperate.” If the current bill passes, they will be desperate. Here’s a quote from Wilderness.org that should scare you:

The bill’s process for selling off lands runs at breakneck speed, demanding the nomination of tracts within 30 days, then every 60 days until the arbitrary multi-million-acre goal is met, all without hearings, debate or public input.

The Wilderness Society

This is potentially a problem that will affect all of us that enjoy having access to public lands. Let’s start on the small scale just looking at the Alpine Meadows area:

For those not in the know, only a small part of the land we ski and ride at Alpine Meadows is privately owned. The portion shown in green above is US Forest Service land, under lease to the ski area. Most of the terrain at Sherwood and High Traverse is on land owned by the Tahoe Conservancy, under lease to the ski area. It’s the USFS land at Alpine Meadows that has somewhat protected it from large scale real estate development like the condo complexes and faux alpine village over the hill.

In the back of my mind, I had always considered that a Forest Service land swap would be the thing that opened up land for development. Thats a case where a developer buys a piece of property that the Forest Service wants to own and then trades it for the one they really want to develop. I never considered the thought that the US Government would make a wholesale decision that public lands were no longer a thing.

Theoretically there are a couple of good things that could happen if Alterra Mountain Co were to purchase some of that USFS land. It could lead to a reasonable expansion of the Alpine Meadows base area and lodge to provide a better experience for skiers and riders. It might encourage them to expand into summer operations with fun things like mountain biking or outdoor music. Then again, they could decide that they need another village on this side of the shiny boxes.

Worse yet, without any real oversight on these sales, somebody else could purchase portions of the land at Alpine Meadows. That could be someone that wants to privatize the ski area, or just wants to build a dozen slope side ski mansions for their billionaire friends. That would not be ideal, at least for 99.9% of us.

Stepping Out Just A Bit Further

Here’s a slightly wider view of land that could be become private land much sooner than we like:

So what should we notice first in this map of tracts northward of Alpine Meadows? Right off the bat, we see that big green block at the northwest end of Olympic Valley. That would be Shirley Canyon, described in Andy’s last report. That is going to be very attractive for some global elite to add to their real estate portfolio – “a cute little valley for my 24th home.” Then there’s the whole Highway 89 corridor or the Sawtooth Ridge area just east of the highway, home to some fantastic mountain bike and motorcycle riding….or a subdivision. It doesn’t take long to see this is possibly going to be a very bad thing.

Here’s the wider scale map of the western United States showing the public lands that are at risk. I cut Alaska off the map but just imagine it looking a lot like Nevada. If you would like to look at the actual map and scroll around yourself, here’s the link to the Wilderness.org article.

What Can We Do?

We are on the edge of a precipice here and how we got here is not totally clear. Why did people vote for politicians promising tax cuts for billionaires, knowing that it was going to end poorly for most of us? We already learned at least 20 years ago that “trickle down economics” is not really a thing. Yet here we are. Fortunately it seems like people are starting to see the realities that we are faced with.

Last Saturday, a reported 15 million people took part in “No Kings” demonstrations and rallies across the country and around the world. While some would assume that those events were only targeted at the person currently living at the “southern White House” at Mar-a-Lago, they would be wrong. It probably had more to do with a number of oligarchs that have used their wealth to assume control over the all branches of the government and of the media, which used to be the “watchdog.” Most of the major news outlets agreed it was the biggest one day demonstration in US history.

• You can call or write to your leaders in Congress. People do it all of the time and I should probably do more of it. If you have a chance to speak to them personally in their office, a town hall or other public event – always do so.

• The people that have the power now are the people that have money, lots of it. Silly little small scale boycotts don’t do much. But large scale, long term boycotts have shown that they are meaningful. Both Tesla and Target have learned that lesson the hard way this year. The list of places I won’t spend my money continues to grow each month.

• Protest is patriotic. It’s how the United States became a country, rebelling against tyranny and taxation. Protest can be perfectly peaceful and still be effective. Don’t let the media fool you into thinking you need to burn a Waymo car to protest what’s happening in our world. Get involved and speak up locally. If you speak up, you give your friends, family and neighbors permission to speak up too. Pretty soon we have a movement going. We need this to happen now.

So there we have it, making a loud political statement about something that we should all agree on, the protection of our public lands. Please let’s not make this article any more than that, even if we don’t agree on all of our political views. We reserve the right to moderate comments with a heavy hand on this post, and all posts.

The Summer Solstice is already approaching and the days will soon be getting shorter…making me think about skiing again….already.