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Our National Heritage Threatened as Never Before
This website focuses on our vast and beautiful public lands and various efforts by the right wing to undermine our public lands both for ideological reasons and on behalf of industry.
Among other things, we focus on the very well funded effort to privatize America's federal public lands. Funded by the libertarian right, the campaign to "transfer" federal lands to the states poses a serious threat to our national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges and our Bureau of Land Management lands. These lands could be permanently closed to the public and ravaged by commercial activity if they are lost to their current owners; the American People.
The Antiquities Act has become a lightning rod for the right as well. The national monuments created by Presidents Clinton and Obama have drawn the wrath of the oil industry and off road vehicle companies who want the republicans to erase or reduce these national monuments to allow for oil and gas drilling, coal mining and unrestricted motorcycle access to wilderness lands.
Every American owns the public lands whether they use them or know they exist or not. These lands protect the heritage of our nation, the wildlife, the scenery, the freedom of access that we all cherish. The US government manages over 640 million acres throughout the United States, or about 28% of the total national acreage. These lands are owned under Article 4 section 3 clause 4 of the US Constitution.
For the last 140 years, Americans have realized the need to "conserve" our public lands by taking care of them so that they are not overused, not destroyed by exploitation, and can be handed down to future generations as a trust. The public lands are open to us to enter any time we want and we may move freely through them. These are vastly beautiful areas where we can find spiritual health and maintain our physical well being.
Though in many places federal agencies have not always been good stewards of our common heritage, we maintain a democratic system which gives all of us a say in how our lands are managed. There are numerous ways the public can interact with federal agencies and to date the agencies have been involved in an improving conversation with the local and national public.
Danger
America's public lands are entering their most perilous time in the last century. While many conservatives have opposed federal land ownership since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, they have never had a political atmosphere in Washington such as we face today. Though President Don Trump reportedly opposes federal land transfer, he could be talked into it by other republicans or a land transfer bill could be attached to a must pass piece of legislation
Our only firewall at the beginning of the Trump years is the solid opposition by a majority of the public in the West and Democrats in the Senate who have the power to block a bill with a few helpful republicans.
Its critical that people pay attention and be active. We cannot let our public land heritage be lost the way the election was lost... by a few people who chose not to participate.