Conserving the Nation’s Public Lands: More Than Natural Beauty is at Stake

Whether rafting the Colorado river through the depths of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, hiking among the towering trees in Sequoia National Forest in California, or listening to the pounding surf at Outer Banks National Seashore in North Carolina, America’s public lands have long provided opportunities for recreation, education, conservation, and inspiration.

It’s not an overstatement to say they also are responsible for our very survival. Public lands provide clean air and drinking water, food for our table, energy to heat our homes, and jobs that fuel local economies. These lands provide important wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration, too, which are key to addressing both the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis that our nation faces.

As we gear up to celebrate National Public Lands Day on Saturday, it’s important to appreciate just how vast these benefits are.

The federal government stewards more than 640 million acres of public land, spread across all 50 states — more than a quarter of the land in the nation. These lands include everything from national parks and forests to wildlife refuges, historic sites, conservation areas, and national monuments. More than one-third of public lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, providing jobs in timber, grazing, energy development, recreation, and conservation. These multiple-use lands are the economic engines for so many rural communities throughout the West.

These public lands also provide habitat where diverse species of wildlife can mate, raise their young, find forage, and make seasonal migrations to survive. With one-third of America’s wildlife species at heightened risk of extinction, it’s imperative to conserve wildlife habitat on public lands.

But public lands are facing pressures like never before from drought, flooding, wildfire, disease, invasive species, overdevelopment, and irresponsible recreation. Left unchecked, these impacts threaten wildlife and people alike.

Fortunately, the Biden administration and Congress have taken a number of steps over the past two years designed to counter some of these threats. President Biden has designated new national monuments, including Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument in Colorado, Castner Range in Texas, and the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. All of these designations safeguard lands, waters and wildlife while allowing more opportunities for people to connect with nature, and recognizing and supporting most existing uses.

In addition, the Bureau of Land Management has proposed new rules for oil and gas leasing on public lands that will ensure oil and gas companies pay to clean up after development. Currently, abandoned wells can leak toxins into the air and water, and taxpayers are often left on the hook to pay for the cleanup.

The administration has canceled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, prohibited leasing in 13 million acres of a wilderness near the refuge, reinstated roadless protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, and instituted a 20-year mineral withdrawal in the headwaters of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters. It continued the efforts of the Trump administration to protect the largest salmon fishery in the world from the potential effects of the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska.

Congress has played an important role in public land conservation, too. Its passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act in 2021 is paying dividends today. Congress invested billions of dollars in public lands that are now being used to remove invasive species, improve watershed health, build wildlife crossings, and reduce wildfire frequency and intensity across the country.

Congress is considering bipartisan legislation that, if passed, would benefit public lands profoundly. For example, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would provide important resources to help states and tribes manage and recover at-risk species. The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act would make the cleanup of abandoned hardrock mines easier for state agencies, nonprofits, local governments, and others.

Lastly, the Bureau of Land Management is seeking ways to better manage public lands in the face of soaring recreational use by issuing its Blueprint for 21st Century Outdoor Recreation. It is important that we encourage more people from all walks of life to enjoy and appreciate public lands. It is equally important that it be done in a responsible manner that won’t degrade those lands, waters or wildlife.

All of these proactive measures are designed to ensure that we don’t “love public lands to death” but instead love them to life. Whether it’s for climate mitigation, wildlife recovery, water conservation, economic revitalization or expanded recreation opportunities, it’s vital that we conserve and restore these cherished lands so that they thrive for generations.

David Willms is associate vice president for public lands at the National Wildlife Federation.