A Call To Action
Dear friends and readers,
It’s been a while! Tyler and I are tumbling downstream on the rising waters of an Alaskan arctic summer. I have much to share about this, and hopefully will find time to do so soon. I am going to skip the flowery post for now though, in the interest of time, because this week we are all called to action.
I know there are many demands on our time and attention these days, but here is something I feel so strongly deserves a long hard minute: the current budget reconciliation bill that is wending it’s way through Congress is sitting for approval in the Senate right now. In its current form, it includes a provision to sell off 2 million acres of land in western states, out of a swath of 250 million acres of public lands which have been deemed eligible for the sale.1 If that sounds like a high number, that’s because it is: take a look at the interactive map that The Wilderness Society created to identify these swaths of land for the public and really soak in the spread of those green and brown checks. Most of the identified parcels are land currently under the control of the US Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.
I spent some time examining the footprint of the land proposed for sale, and zoomed in to find spots that Tyler and I camped during 2024. To my distress, there are many places I fell in love with that are included in this planned sale. I am rushing in order to compose this quickly, so forgive me that this is incomplete and hasty. But here are some examples:
Hart’s Pass Campground and Slate Peak in the Okanagan National Forest in Washington:
You can see the forest service road in the first photo on the lower right corner of the screenshot from the interactive map. All the green land south of Slate Peak, which is the land extending down this valley in this photo, is including in the proposed sale. The campground we were at is the northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, a hugely popular recreational pilgrimage for outdoor enthusiasts from around the world.
The Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona:
You can see more National Forest land proposed for sale in the area we camped around Portal and over the pass. The Chiricahuas, like the other southerly mountain ranges in the Arizona desert, are known as sky islands, because their alpine environments provide small pockets of cooler environments above the hot desert floor. Each sky island is as unique from another as an island in the ocean.
The Medicine Bow Mountains in southeastern WY, along America’s First National Scenic Byway
This zoomed in screenshot shows you that even the most beautiful public campgrounds on the road that is proudly labeled as the scenic byway are included in this proposed sale. These are frequented, well-loved places, not remote or inaccessible tracts.
I have more examples from southern Utah in the area around Bear’s Ears National Monument and Mokey Dugway, from the Cleveland National Forest in California, from the last home of the Cassia Crossbill in Idaho where we spied Flammulated Owls and watched the aurora borealis erase the stars with it’s brilliance… but I scramble to publish this note quickly because there’s not a lot of time for action here.
They also included a provision to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling, which, do I even need to say it? Is a really disastrous idea. One more reason to mention: there are birds who migrate to the Arctic Refuge to breed that travel through all fifty states on their migratory routes, so there is a local bird from your home that relies on the breeding grounds of the Arctic Refuge.
What I’ve read indicates that they hope to pass this bill by July 4. So please, please: call your senators! Write them now! Here’s one convenient link, also through the Wilderness Society, to a scripted note if you haven’t got the time for anything else. But if you can pick up the phone, I hear that’s even more effective.
Thanks for your help protecting these lands I’ve learned to love so much. Hopefully, I’ll be back soon with news of the arctic flowering!
Edited on July 1 to clarify details that the bill would force the sale of 2 million acres out of the 250 million identified, not the whole package. But who can say what will come of these first moves, if those in charge feel that any of those 250 million acres are equally worth disposing of?
Hi Kittens!
I signed & wrote a note 🎵
Sooo Disturbing this information! I can imagine how distressing after just visiting, ugh! Your pictures are so wonderful, it’s important for me to see and feel & share the beauty! Thank you for sharing the information & link! Love to yous 💗🦋🐈⬛
Rachel and Tyler,
Your essay stayed with me. Not just the places—those sky islands, blooming alpine trails, the quiet arcs of migrating wings—but the way you carried them. You didn’t just pass through. You witnessed. You loved. You named.
And I read all of it knowing this won’t be stopped. That ship sailed with T2.0’s election. What’s underway now is extraction on a scale designed to erase what cannot be replaced. These lands will be sold. The question now is how much remains when the selling ends.
I’ve seen this playbook before—our Tafelsilber gone, our commons stripped, the price passed to those who already carry more than enough. And still, I believe in telling the truth of what’s being taken. I believe in memory as resistance.
You’ve done that here—offered the names, the birds, the blooms, the coordinates of care. I’m reading from across the ocean, and I’m with you. Because even when we can’t hold the line, we can hold each other. And we can hold the stories that make clear what was sacred.
May enough rise to end this regime before even more is lost.