Case Study: Protecting Public Lands from Congressional Sell-Offs

Key Outcomes

• Client’s priority legislative goal was achieved, as a proposed blanket sell-off of public lands was removed from the final reconciliation bill in both chambers of Congress. 
• Voices of grantee organizations and advocates were elevated through national media coverage, rapid response, and strategic events.
• Through consistent, favorable coverage—more than three dozen stories over three months—millions of Americans consumed messaging around the importance of public lands and national parks and the dangers of privatization in both chambers of Congress.

The Client

Our client is a national nonprofit that supports conservation and environmental advocacy efforts across the United States. They work with a network of partners and grantees to protect and support public lands.

The Challenge

In spring 2025, congressional Republicans attempted to insert a provision into their budget reconciliation bill that would have opened hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands to private sale. An initial proposal, directing the sell-off of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, cleared a key House committee. Senator Mike Lee, the powerful chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was hell-bent on including an even more expansive version in his Committee’s legislative text. The proposal was fast-moving and under the radar, with little public attention. Our client and their partner organizations needed urgent support to raise visibility and apply public and political pressure to defeat the measure.

The Solution

Echo Communications Advisors deployed a variety of tactics that shifted the narrative, elevated trusted local voices, and built a united front that ultimately led to the removal of the public lands provision from the final legislation.

We launched a coordinated campaign to amplify our client and their partners’ voices and mobilize public opposition to the public land sell-off by driving national media coverage. Our approach included:

• Earned Media: We developed and placed press releases, op-eds, rapid response statements, and editorial board memos to secure broad media coverage and elevate partner voices.
• Media Training: We provided tailored trainings for advocates and spokespeople, preparing them to deliver compelling messages on public lands in high-profile interviews.
• Strategic Events: We supported impactful moments like mobile billboards, projections, press calls, protests, and press conferences with members of Congress and advocates that captured public and media attention.
• Reporter Engagement: We facilitated dozens of briefings and interviews between reporters and our client and their partners to deepen coverage and ensure accurate storytelling. We shared timely information with reporters to reveal the full scope of Republican sell-off plans and shape the coverage in our favor, including by frequently following up to seek updates to their stories as new information emerged. And we got reporters to ask the right questions at the right times.
• Paid Media: We advised on media strategy and placed ads thanking champions for their support for public lands, including full-page ads in the hometown papers of Senators Martin Heinrich and John Hickenlooper. 

In the Media