Access to Public Lands Should Unite All Americans
Mary Beth Laughton, CEO of REI Co-op, warns: Once public lands are permanently altered, fragmented, or developed, there is no turning back.
Experiencing wild, open, and natural spaces is part of what it means to be American to me, and I know I'm not alone in this belief.
Our shared connection with nature transcends geography, generations, and political beliefs. From a neighborhood trail to a national park or an open wilderness, the outdoors give us places to gather, find perspective, and experience something bigger than ourselves.
In times of heightened loneliness, division and stress, being outside can improve physical and mental health, strengthen community and reconnect us. For millions of Americans, public lands make this possible.
But places that maintain that connection are under increasing pressure because of decisions made by elected leaders. That's why, heading into this year's midterm elections, voters should ask each candidate one simple question: How will you protect our public lands?
The answer will help determine what we leave for future generations.
Consider Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. A presidential proclamation issued this summer reduced the monument's boundaries from about 1.36 million acres to about 131,000 acres and removed historic monument protection from more than 90 percent of the landscape. Bears Ears is a living cultural landscape and sacred ancestral land of great importance to tribal nations.
Similar decisions are being made across the country. Congress repealed protections for boundary waters, opening the door to mining at their headwaters. The Trump administration is also considering transferring a parcel of Yosemite National Park to a private developer. A country without pristine roads may also be open to development and mining. These decisions will have lasting consequences.
There is room for honest debate about how to manage public lands. Recreation, conservation, grazing, timber, energy development, and local economies all deserve attention. Responsible stewardship requires balancing these interests while protecting the places that generations of Americans have worked to preserve.
This discussion is important because public lands are not only a conservation heritage, but also an economic engine.
Outdoor recreation generates $1.3 trillion in economic output and supports 5.2 million American jobs. Communities and businesses across the country depend on forests, rivers, trails, parks and open spaces that draw people outdoors.
The meaning is deep. Public lands are among the few places in American life that connect us all. A rock climber in Yosemite and a hunter in Montana may not have the same policies, but they share in keeping these places healthy, accessible, and protected. Public lands remind us that our common ground is more than an idea—they are real places beneath our feet.
The decisions that are made today will be greater than this government and this Congress. Once public lands are permanently altered, fragmented, or developed, there is no going back.
One of the best ways to protect these places is to help connect more people to experience them. People protect what they know. They fight for places that become a part of their lives. The future of our public lands will be determined by whether Americans still believe they are worth protecting, and whether we elect leaders who believe that.
As candidates ask for our votes, we must ask where they stand. Look at the choices they made. Look at the policies they support and listen carefully to their answers. For generations, Americans of all political persuasions have chosen to protect extraordinary places for whoever comes after them. The forests, rivers, and mountains we enjoy today exist because of these choices.
We can think of public lands as just another political issue, or we can see them as places that heal us, bring us together, and connect us to something bigger than ourselves.
This November, we must elect leaders who believe public lands are worth protecting.