Like many New Mexicans, my 11-year-old son and I just returned from an autumn elk hunt on national forest land. The bull elk that we brought home will feed our family for most of the coming year, but the experience of backpacking into the high country, sleeping on the ground and hearing the elk bugle around us will feed my son’s imagination for years to come. If these lands end up in private hands, there is no guarantee that we will be able to go back year after year with the open access that Western sportsmen cherish.

These types of land-grab schemes are as old as the railroads. But the chief salesman for this latest land seizure campaign, the American Lands Council, is having some success pitching state legislators on “model legislation” to enable these transfers. The legislation was drafted with the help of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, which receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers.

It is unclear whether such legislation is even enforceable.

Still, even the Republican National Committee has bought the snake oil the American Lands Council is selling. Last January, the committee endorsed the transfer of public lands to the states. In addition, the United States House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans, endorsed the outright sale of our public lands.

Like other Westerners who value our shared lands as assets to be used, enjoyed and passed to future generations, I find this dispiriting to see. And for an overwhelming majority of public land users in the West who pay their grazing fees and play by the rules, the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion of Cliven Bundy and the American Lands Council is not so much a movement as another special-interest-financed boondoggle.

Admittedly, the federal government does not do a perfect job of managing America’s public lands. There are real problems that need to be solved, like creating more access points for recreation, hunting and fishing, as my colleagues and I are proposing to do with a bill I introduced called the HUNT Act. But these are problems we can solve because of the very fact that these lands are public and we each have a voice in their management. America’s forests, wildlife refuges and conservation lands are part of the fabric of our democracy. Let’s keep them that way.