Earlier this year, members of Congress proposed the wholesale selloff of tracts of public land, the first serious proposal of its kind in more than four decades. The Mannix family, who run cattle on federal land as part of their ranching operation, bridled. “Whether or not should we have these lands as public lands to me is just a no-brainer,” says rancher Bryan Mannix. The federal government owns about 640 million acres of American land, most of it in the West and Alaska. The Trump administration believes federal lands could generate more value if there were better management, fewer regulations, and more vigorous extraction. Some Republicans have gone further, arguing that selling land would address America’s housing shortage and could also help pay down the nation’s debt. #publicland #federalland #landmanagement #americanwest #ranching