To proponents, the Trump administration is putting government-owned land to good use, with big returns for taxpayers.

Nationally, oil production on federal lands is rising at an extraordinary pace, jumping 25 percent in the first seven months of this year compared with 2016, the last year of the Obama administration.

That boom has driven up government revenue from lease sales and royalties collected from oil and gas production on federal lands, which is shared with the states. Wyoming received $669 million from federal oil, gas and coal sales last year, money it uses to help pay for its schools, roads and other needs. One federal lease sale in New Mexico last month brought in nearly $1 billion worth of bids, more than the total lease sale revenue from all sales nationwide in 2017.

“This historic lease sale shows what is possible when we leverage the vast natural resources we have in our country, using innovation, best science and best practices,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in September, celebrating the result of that particular lease sale, adding that critics of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase energy production “are eating their words and once again President Trump’s policies are bearing fruit for the American people.”

But the Interior Department has offered so much land through auctions in the last two years that the majority have failed to attract any bidders. Even so, the overall amount of land actually leased — in deals signed with oil and gas companies or investors — was 1.2 million acres in 2017, according to the agency, more than double the amount from the previous year, and reached 1.35 million acres this year.

As Western states reap the benefits from these sales, they are also confronting the risks that the administration’s policies could scar iconic American landscapes, threatening wildlife and endangering public health.

Trump-era leases have given oil and gas companies access to drilling rights in areas that are known habitats for threatened species, and immediately next to preserved landscapes like the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado, famous for its ancient pueblos, rock art and other archaeological sites.