No Sale: Public Lands Are Critical to Wild Steelhead Recovery

The Wild Steelhead Coalition exists to protect and restore wild steelhead across their native range. We oppose, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to sell off millions of acres of public lands. These places aren’t just scenic backdrops, they are critical spawning and rearing grounds, migration corridors, and the last refuges for struggling wild steelhead populations.

Public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service hold some of the most important watersheds in steelhead country. Rivers like the John Day, the Grande Ronde, the Clearwater, and countless unnamed tributaries rely on intact, undeveloped public lands to maintain water quality, temperature stability, and ecosystem function. Under Senator Mike Lee’s proposal, up to 3 million acres could be auctioned off over the next five years, effectively opening the door for habitat fragmentation, pollution, and loss of access in watersheds that are already under immense pressure.

Wild steelhead are in crisis. Habitat loss is one of the primary drivers of their decline, and selling off the public lands that support the rivers they need is exactly the opposite of what recovery requires. These sales don’t just threaten fish; they threaten the entire conservation infrastructure built over decades. Public lands provide the foundation for science based recovery strategies, tribal restoration work, and angler-supported monitoring efforts like eDNA sampling and redd counts.

And let’s be clear: privatization often means gates, posted signs, and the end of public accountability. What once was managed with the public interest in mind becomes a blank check for development. Watersheds can’t be subdivided without consequence. Road building, deforestation, and water withdrawals don’t stay neatly within property lines, they bleed into rivers and into the lives of every fish that depends on them.

Proponents claim these sales would ease housing shortages. But the bill offers no requirement for affordable housing, no safeguards against foreign investors or land speculators, and no binding environmental review. It’s a land grab disguised as a budget fix, and wild steelhead can’t afford the price.

Wild steelhead need cold, clean, connected water. That means fighting to keep our public lands intact, accessible, and protected from short-term politics and long-term damage. Once these places are gone, we don’t get them back.

The Wild Steelhead Coalition joins conservation groups and hundreds of outdoor businesses in urging lawmakers to keep these wild places wild, for fish, families, and future generations.

Keep these lands wild. Keep them public. And keep them for the fish that can’t speak for themselves.