As the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers aim to free up federal land for development, areas within the Los Padres National Forest are in their sights.
But local nonprofits and lawmakers are advocating to prevent major changes in the area.
The future of federal land once depended on the Trump administration’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” an ongoing effort that the White House said intends to create tax breaks throughout the country by investing in American infrastructure, lowering energy costs, and bringing jobs back to the U.S., among other things, according to the White House’s website.
Nestled within the bill, also known as a budget reconciliation bill, was Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s proposition to sell plots of federally owned land in 11 states, California included. After pushback, Lee eventually rescinded his proposition‚ first on Forest Service land, and then on Bureau of Land Management land.
Los Padres ForestWatch Director of Conservation and Research Bryant Baker told New Times that Lee’s BLM proposition could have affected 1.5 million acres of land in California, 128,000 of which are in Kern, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
Specific parcels included several hundred acres within San Luis Obispo County’s Irish Hills adjacent to Montaña de Oro State Park, a large parcel above Whale Rock Reservoir near Cayucos, and some scattered parcels along the Salinas River east of Santa Margarita, among others throughout the counties.
Baker said that Lee received resistance from Democrats, advocacy groups, and members of his own party.
“A lot of campaigns started to really push back on this, and there was a lot of intensive advocacy aimed at senators across the Western United States and there were a lot of news—big, high profile news stories—about the land sale provision, and I think Sen. Lee was definitely feeling a lot of pressure,” Baker said.
While Lee’s first version passed the House, it didn’t pass the Senate. On June 23, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough said that the bill, as is, would require a 60-vote threshold to pass, rather than a majority 50, so Lee said he would return with revisions.
On June 24, he removed national forest land sales from the bill and announced that BLM land would only be eligible if it was within 5 miles of inhabited areas and wasn’t being used for oil and gas and wasn’t a national monument.
“I’m still listening,” Lee posted on X that day. “I’m working closely with the Trump administration to ensure that any federal land sales serve the American people—not foreign governments, not the Chinese Communist Party, and not massive corporations looking to pad their portfolios. This land must go to American families. Period.”
Although Lee’s land sale proposals were removed from the Big, Beautiful Bill, he posted on Instagram that he still believes the federal government owns too much land.
“Under Democratic presidents, massive swaths of the West are being locked away from the people who live there, with no meaningful recourse,” he posted on June 28. “That has real consequences for [residents]—from raising taxes for schools and funding local search-and-rescue operations, to being able to build homes and sustain rural communities.”
As Lee’s provision was being revised, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) intention to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that restricts roadmaking and industrial logging on 58 million acres of land.
According to Baker, 600,000 of those acres lie within the Los Padres National Forest, which contains 37 roadless areas and 349 miles of hiking and recreation trails.
Baker said the administration’s plan of action regarding the Roadless Rule is unknown.
“It is not entirely clear what the mechanism for how they’re going to rescind it is. So currently, all that’s out there right now is a press release saying that they’re going to rescind it,” he said.
A USDA spokesperson told New Times via email that the agency saw this effort as necessary for forest health.
“Rescinding this overly prescriptive rule will give federal foresters and land managers the latitude to work alongside the communities they serve to make locally driven land management decisions based on their unique local conditions—reducing wildfire risk, protecting infrastructure, and keeping forests healthy,” the spokesperson said. “Roads improve access for wildland firefighting when timing is critical, and lives are at risk.
Central Coast lawmakers don’t feel the same as the USDA.
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) told New Times via email that he saw repealing the Roadless Rule as a “reckless step backward.”
“For more than two decades, this policy has safeguarded nearly 58 million acres of unspoiled national forest. Dismantling it now would threaten our environment’s long-term health,” he said. “I will oppose this shortsighted decision with every tool at my disposal—including renewing efforts to pass my Central Coast Heritage Protection Act, which has previously passed the House with bipartisan support.”
According to ForestWatch’s Baker, Carbajal has tried to pass the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act for nearly 10 years but hasn’t been able to gain enough support in the Senate.
The bill proposes designating Los Padres National Forest as wilderness, which comes with more protections.
“Eliminating the Roadless Rule would allow these road networks to be built, commercial—big, intensive, commercial—logging operations to happen, and all of that could significantly degrade the wilderness characteristics of these areas, and that would make them so that they couldn’t get that even higher level of protection as designated wilderness,” Baker said.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) is working to make the Roadless Rule a law, which would solidify it as a statute.
“Rescinding this rule is a deliberate attempt to erode conservation efforts under the guise of addressing wildfire threats,” Padilla told New Times via email. “If Republicans have their way, California will lose protections for about 4.4 million acres across 20 national forests—from the beauty of Tahoe to the majestic landscape of the Los Padres National Forest. Our public lands and natural spaces are some of our nation’s greatest gifts, and I will do everything I can to protect them.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Libbey Hanson at lhanson@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 3-13, 2025.
