The Clarkdale Town Council adopted a resolution at its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 24, opposing the sale of Bureau of Land Management and National Forest System Lands included in the proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which is being debated in Congress.
The OBBBA was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in May and is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Senate. A vote on its passage is expected in July. Senate Republicans, led by U.S. Mike Lee [R-Utah], were seeking to require between 0.5 and 0.75% of BLM and USFS land holdings in 11 western states to be eligible for sale.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had added a provision that would require the sale of up to 3.3 million acres of federal public land within five years, primarily managed by the BLM and the USFS, but Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough determined that the land divestment proposal violated the Senate’s Byrd Rule on the evening of Monday, May 23.
Local Opposition
Mayor Robyn Prud’homme-Bauer noted that while the provision was no longer allowed, the Clarkdale council would still like to move forward with the resolution to put it on record. The resolution states that the sale of these lands would have a detrimental impact on the town of Clarkdale and its residents and to communicate this position to federal representatives.
According to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee FAQ, the provision would have prioritized “lands that are nominated by states or units of local governments; are adjacent to existing developed areas; have access to existing infrastructure; are suitable for residential housing; reduce checkerboard land patterns; or are isolated tracts that are inefficient to manage.” The sale would exclude any federally protected land, such as national parks and monuments.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that same day, Lee stated that no USFS land would be sold, and that the amount of BLM land for sale would be significantly reduced and eligible for sale only if within five miles of population centers.
“Most residents of Clarkdale I think would be really concerned about it,” Clarkdale Town Manager Susan Guthrie said. “It concerns much of Mingus Mountain that would be sold off for future development and includes Sycamore Canyon areas. It includes huge swaths of land between here and Flagstaff.”
No official map has been released but maps based on the language have been created by conservation nonprofits.
“I feel like it’s a huge part of our identity, and our draw for our community and our way of life, that we have these lands available to our community,” Guthrie continued. “We really want to put on record the council’s sentiments about doing away with these public lands.”
She added that she had previously lived in another state with very little public land and noticed a huge difference in the way of life.
“It is truly about our way of life,” Councilwoman Marney Babbitt-Pierce said. “It is about our community. It is about continuing to thrive and being able to have tourism and all of these things that are so important to us.”
Guthrie mentioned of the lack of water and sewer infrastructure if the lands were sold. The town would be obligated to provide the water, or more wells would need to be drilled into the aquifer that the town draws from.
“We already don’t have enough water,” Guthrie added. “If people are developing within municipal areas those plans are already in place to have water to service those properties.”
Councilwoman Laura Jones discussed the town’s goal area concerning the conservation of water and protection of the Verde River.
“Opening these lands up to development certainly would threaten the river in a way that we haven’t seen yet,” said Jones.
The Sedona City Council had also passed a resolution opposing the bill.
The resolution was approved unanimously. The mayor will write a letter as an introduction and attach the resolution to send to federal representatives.
