Yellowstone Is Not for Sale

— May 12, 2025 —

I'm standing up for Montana’s public lands, for our economy and our future.

I was in Yellowstone National Park today. On my way south on Highway 89 to Gardiner, I talked with folks in gateway communities about the economic importance of Yellowstone and the surrounding national forest land to the economic health of the region.

Yellowstone isn’t just beautiful. It’s alive. It moves. It breathes history. It also fuels local economies across rural Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Today, all of our national parks and public lands are under threat from D.C. extremists who see these lands not as a shared legacy with fellow Americans, but as something to liquidate.

Trump and Daines support a policy playbook, written by fossil fuel and chemical industry insiders and rife with ideas designed to dismantle federal protections and open public land to private control.

The authors of Project 2025 are no conservationists. They’re corporate profiteers looking to drill, mine, and sell what belongs to all of us. If they succeed, places like Yellowstone and Glacier could be sold off in a matter of months.

Where is Montana's U.S. Senator, Steve Daines? Silent. Or worse, complicit.

Daines has backed legislation to weaken environmental reviews and fast-track leases time and again. He cheered Trump’s rollbacks on monument protections. Now, he’s stepping aside while Project 2025 advances.

Let’s talk numbers, because this isn’t just about beauty or heritage, it’s about Montana’s bottom line.

• Yellowstone brings in about $452 million annually in visitor spending, supporting over 6,200 jobs and generating $600 million in local economic impact.

• Glacier adds $368 million in spending, over 5,600 jobs, and $548 million in total impact.

That’s over $1 billion in annual revenue directly tied to protected public lands. These dollars support restaurants, hotels, outfitters, gas stations, and small businesses across communities like Gardiner, Columbia Falls, and West Yellowstone.

The stability of our National Park Service and Forest Service is cracking. The Trump administration has already cut over 1,000 National Park Service jobs and proposed slashing the agency’s budget by $1.2 billion. That means fewer rangers, closed visitor centers, and delays in road and campground openings.

They’ll call it efficiency but the truth is this: once public land management is sufficiently underfunded, it will be privatized. Once these lands are gone, they don’t come back.

I’ve heard the same thing at roundtables across Montana: Montanans value our land. No matter what our political stripes, Montanans know that our national parks aren’t red or blue, they're part of our identity.

This campaign isn’t about Washington. It’s about Montana. If you're tired of politicians selling out our parks to oil and gas donors, stand with me.

I’ll say it again: Our national parks are not for sale. Not now. Not ever.

It's time for our leaders to stand up against initiatives that threaten our environment and economy. We must hold them accountable and ensure that Montana's public lands remain protected and accessible to all.