How Much Land in Each State Is Owned by the Government

More than 30% of New Mexico land is owned by the federal government, equivalent to nearly 25 million acres. More than half of federally-owned land in the state falls under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management — much of New Mexico’s BLM-administered territory is for the purposes of managing subsurface minerals.

The state is also home to White Sands Missile Range, which, at 3.5 million acres, is the largest military base in the United States by landmass.

The U.S. Forest Service owns 14.5 million acres of land in Colorado — a larger area than the entirety of Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Jersey combined. The FS manages a number of national forests in the state, including the White River, Medicine Bow-Routt, Arapaho, and Roosevelt forests, among others. As is the case in many Western states, the Bureau of Land Management also has a large footprint in Colorado, managing nearly 8.4 million acres.

The Department of Defense and the Bureau of Land Management have reduced the land they own in Arizona over the last three decades. In all, federally-owned land in the state is 18.4% smaller now. Even with this decline, almost 40% of the state is still federally-controlled, equivalent to 28 million acres, nearly the size of the state of Pennsylvania.

Four of the five major bureaus managing federally-owned land control at least 1 million acres in the state, with the BLM responsible for the largest share — 12.1 million acres.

Nearly one in every two acres in California are owned by the federal government. While the largest share of federal land in the state is controlled by the Forest Service — through a number of national forests including Lassen, Sierra, Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, Sequoia, and Six Rivers — the Department of Defense also owns more land in California than it does in any other state. Through hundreds of military bases, including Camp Pendleton, a massive Marine Corps base north of San Diego, the DoD controls 1.7 million acres in California.

California is also home to a number of federally managed national parks including Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite. These, and other national monuments, recreation areas, historic sites, and preserves comprise the 7.6 million acres of land in the state owned by the National Park Service.

The Bureau of Land Management owns more than one-quarter of Wyoming’s total land area. Wyoming is a resource- rich state, and through production royalties levied on energy companies, the BLM reported $385.2 million in coal royalties and $733.2 in oil and gas royalties in 2019 — much of which went directly to the state of Wyoming. BLM land in Wyoming is also available for public use and recreational activities like hunting and hiking.

The U.S. Forest Service owns an additional 9.2 million acres in Wyoming. The FS manages the Thunder Basin National Grassland and a number of national forests, including Shoshone and Bridger-Teton. Wyming is also home to Yellowstone National Park, one of the larger national parks in the country.