Protect America’s Outdoor Heritage

The American system for preserving public lands and supporting its citizens' access to them has been the envy of the world, but it’s currently under attack. Use our easy-action form to ask your lawmakers to support a new bipartisan bill introduced by Congressman Zinke (MT-1) and Congressman Vasquez (NM-2) that helps keep public lands and waters in public hands by requiring congressional approval for the large-scale transfer or disposal of public lands and waters.

Reaching out your representatives will also help to prevent encroaching bad ideas about disposing of public lands, including recent failed attempts to transfer public lands in Wyoming and Utah. In January, the Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit filed by the state of Utah that demanded state control over 18.5 million acres of federal public land. And in early February, the Wyoming state senate passed a resolution demanding that public lands and waters, including Grand Teton National Park, be turned over to the state government.

These are two of the latest efforts to take over and dispose of America’s public lands, a direct threat to the legacy of outdoor access in the West and to the outdoor recreation economy, which generates more than $1.2 trillion in economic activity and supports 5 million American jobs.

Even as these unpopular proposals often meet rejection, they are an ominous portent of more land seizure efforts to come.

Step back to the turn of the 20th century, the Theodore Roosevelt era, and we see the robber barons, corporate monopolies who engendered a widespread feeling that the broader public good was being overpowered by greed. Out of this feeling grew the political will to create our public lands system, meant to serve every single citizen of the United States. These lands and waters symbolize American democracy and our culture of independence and freedom. Public lands are the largest provider and protector of fresh water, which ultimately is the most limited resource on our planet. If water isn’t protected and kept clean, we will face huge costs in terms of forgone opportunities to enjoy our rivers, not to mention in providing clean drinking water to our communities.

Many units of our public lands system are very closely tied to local economies and communities. Many rural towns and small cities at least partially rely on investment income, which means people are bringing their wealth with them, and they’re moving to take advantage of opportunities on public lands and waters. In western states especially, recreation is a huge part of the economy. People may not realize just how many jobs depend on public lands. It’s not just those employed directly by the Park or Forest Service. It’s every outfitter that operates on public lands, every ski area, every boating shop employee, every gift shop owner, and independent eatery within the vicinity of popular public lands units who stand to lose in the privatization of public lands.

If you support keeping public lands and rivers public, please take a moment to use our easy-action form and send a letter to your congresspeople today! Thank you!