Where you first learned to fish or where you caught your first elk. A campsite I went to with my family for a long weekend. The path I took to clear my head. A place that has held sacred cultural meaning for thousands of years. An awe-inspiring landscape you watched pass by on a long drive, or the place where your husband proposed to you.
These are our public lands and your American birthright.
They define our Western landscape and identity. They are central to our way of life, where we make memories, seek adventure, and hunt and fish to fill our freezers and feed our families.
In a world where so much is available at the swipe of a debit card, these public lands and waters belong to all Americans, no matter how big or small their paycheck. Next, these lands are A thriving outdoor recreation economypreserve rural communities and preserve Western traditions.
Utah is willing to risk all of that.
Utah Republican politician filed a federal lawsuit Last summer, it attempted a massive land grab that stripped protections from 18.5 million acres of America's public lands.
Had the maneuver succeeded, it would have opened the door to privatizing public lands in states from New Mexico to Washington, Montana, and California. It's Utah's leaders and Other Western officials expressed support — In reality, we do not want to “transfer” public land to state management. They want to privatize it.
And they probably will. The costs of managing these public lands, especially those that should be considered. Increasing costs of managing an increasingly devastating wildfire season —Western state governments will almost certainly go bankrupt. The only way states can balance their budgets while incurring new costs is by significantly increasing local taxes, or by leasing and even selling large tracts of these public lands to the highest bidder. Probably.
Our public land system, on the other hand, these lands are carefully managed To balance recreation, conservation, and resource development. It also provides important protection for cultural resources and sacred sites.
This ensures that the land we love will continue to exist for our grandchildren and beyond. That's how we protect the watersheds our communities depend on. And that's how we stop the billionaires from turning America's birthright into a fenced-in playground.
Land grab attempts in Utah are not new. Actually, exactly 10 years ago, In the opinion column of the New York Timeswarned of similar schemes dating back to the railroad and cattle kings of the 19th century..
Attacks on our public lands are relentless, whether by insurgent groups such as: Illegal rancher Cliven Bundy and the staging of his sons violent confrontations with federal law enforcement; or previous Appointment of anti-public lands zealot William Perry Pendley — Someone who believes that “the Founding Fathers intended for all land to be owned by the federal government.” It will be sold. ”
Now, Supreme Court dismisses Utah lawsuitstate's multi-million dollar effort Damaging and privatizing federal public lands may remain the greatest existential threat.
We must protect public lands.
Aldo Leopold, a visionary forester who worked to protect some of the most precious public lands in my home state of New Mexico and throughout the West, once wrote: For others, it's the most valuable part. ”
Utah's leaders behind a reckless federal lawsuit are treating our public lands as mere blank spots on the map, wealthy private landowners, commercial developers, oil and gas companies, and mining and timber interests. may see it as ripe for the taking. they are wrong.
When Americans spend the day with their families at their favorite lake or, as I have done many times, chase Gambel's quail in a corner of the Bureau of Reclamation, they often find themselves surrounded by locked gates or “no trespassing” gates. I don't want to see any signs. land.
In reality, majority of westerners We reject Utah’s myopic and purely extractive view of our public lands. That's because we already know how valuable these public lands are.
To be clear, our public lands are not for sale. And the efforts of Utah politicians to steal these places from future generations are un-American.
Our grandchildren deserve to know the freedom of standing in the middle of a vast landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see, or in the midst of trees that reach overhead. Regardless of what's in their bank account, it's their American-born right.
Martin Heinrich is Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
