ÂÜÀòÉÙÅ®

A Republican representative from the Mountain West led an effort Wednesday to remove a controversial provision to sell 450,000 acres of federal land in Nevada and Utah from the House reconciliation bill.

Thanks to a new initiative, private landowners in Colorado and Wyoming are now letting people cross through their property for free to access these acres.

Republican representatives in Nevada and Utah this week were successful in getting an amendment to sell public lands in federal budget legislation. In Nevada, the idea is already facing strong opposition.

An amendment introduced late in the evening includes over 10,000 acres in Utah and identifies nearly 450,000 acres in four Nevada counties for sale or exchange.

Freshman Representative Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) is sponsoring a bill that would require Bureau of Land Management field offices across the west to adopt plans that would open up more lands to oil and gas drilling.

The announcement comes as many cities and rural communities across the Mountain West struggle with housing affordability. About half the land in the West is owned by the federal government.

A bipartisan team of researchers leads Colorado College's annual "Conservation in the West" poll of about 3,300 voters in eight western states: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

Public lands advocates worried that allowing Utah’s case to move forward would threaten to upend management of 200 million acres of public lands across the West.

The Department of Justice says Utah gave up the rights to the federal lands within its boundaries when it joined the union in 1896.

If the U.S. Supreme Court hears the case, it could drastically change the ownership and management of public lands across the West.