The federal government owns and manages approximately 650 million acres of land in the U.S., about 30 percent of the nation’s total surface area. Above is Tongass, with National Monuments and Wilderness Areas. This is a common image.
Defending Public Lands
By Henry Clement
BHA is actively advocating for the protection of public lands, warning that the privatization and ‘unfettered’ access to oil and gas drilling in these lands, your lands, could lead to a loss of hunting and fishing access for future generations.
Congrats to BHA’s Patrick Berry. He puts his money where his mouth is
Whimps run for the hills when the extraction mining and oil and boys sing their siren song: We need access now. “What if . . . blah, blah happens. It will be the end of the world! You don’t wanna be a Sierra type. Good god, we need access now!”
What extraction mining, oil, and gas want is obvious, but BHA isn’t buying it. The extraction lads are selling BS. It is their job.
Graft usually works in its practiced ways with politicians—just spread around a fistful of Franklin’s, and voila, it is dig, baby dig.
We have an advocate speaking for us who is not a capitulator. Support the BHA; you’ll be glad to do so.
Berry with a redfish caught on the fly near Destin, Florida. A former trout guide and commercial fly tyer, Berry hopes to attract anglers to BHA who don’t want to be “tethered to the preservation community.” Photography courtesy of BHA.
By Patrick Berry, President and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
“Public land is as American as Mom’s apple pie and the stars and stripes. It’s woven into the fabric of our history, culture, and principles of democracy. It’s where generations of hard-working Americans have pursued their passions for hunting and fishing, nurtured an enduring conservation ethic, and found solace from the rest of life.
The concept that our shared resources can be managed in a collaborative and cooperative manner to benefit a multitude of public needs and embody the notion that we’re-all-in-this-together is Americanism at its finest. So how did so many of our elected officials become hellbent on handing over these extraordinary public assets to private interests?
Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout by Thom Glace.
There is an avalanche of foreboding attacks on public lands
The avalanche of foreboding attacks on public lands, combined with calculated misinformation campaigns designed to gaslight Americans into believing what’s happening is in their best interest, has reached a crisis point. From Utah’s U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit aimed at eroding the very foundations of federal land ownership to the transactional view that public lands are no more than a line item on a balance sheet to the recent raft of political maneuvers setting the stage for a public lands liquidation – the drumbeat of selling out and selling off has become deafening.
Make no mistake: attacks on public lands are an attack on American ideals. The willingness to betray the core values of our Americanism has become a contagious disease of pandemic proportions, spread by cronyism, corruption, and personal political gain. Will Americans sit back and watch their own public lands legacy unravel? Or can public lands again be the great non-partisan unifier they always have been? As the leading advocate for America’s public lands, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers stands resolute in our willingness to play David to the Goliath of special interests and self-serving political momentum. As a fiercely nonpartisan organization, BHA’s allegiance is to the American ideal of public lands and waters and to the hunters and anglers who play a unique and irreplaceable role in conservation. When fealty to political ideology or the politicians themselves is prioritized over the substance of bad policy, we all lose.
Sadly, we are being gaslighted into believing what’s happening is in America’s best interest
“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste . . . ”
Federally owned public lands have long been managed through an Americanist approach that brings a wide variety of stakeholders to the table. These are all of our lands, managed by the feds but not owned by them; We are the public land owners. The public’s recreational opportunities are balanced with resource extraction and other needs, where both private and public interests benefit. The mosaic of public lands across the country play a crucial role in national security, food production, climate change adaptation, and conservation of fish and wildlife habitat. Our natural, cultural, historic, and scenic heritage is firmly founded in a public lands legacy that is fundamentally irreplaceable.
For millions of Americans, public land offers their only opportunity to hunt, fish, camp, hike, and generally enjoy the outdoors. It’s the great equalizer and one of the most poignant examples of Americanism – offering a true freedom which separates the United States from much of the world. What happens to hunting and angling when we devalue our public lands both philosophically and substantively? What if these shared resources are sold off or leased to the highest private bidder? Do we lose our traditions alongside the land?
Do not quit
Loss of access is consistently identified through state and federal agency surveys as the number one reason hunters hang up their gear forever, making the answer to these questions pretty clear: the uniquely American culture of hunting, in which everyone has the opportunity to participate, will fade into the sunset. It’s an avoidable tragedy, but only if we stand up for what we believe rather than fall victim to blind faith that our elected officials are looking out for us.
We must ask ourselves if some things are worth more than money: health, family, friendships, experiences, knowledge, resilience, self-reliance, peace of mind, sense of purpose, responsibility, and the personal fulfillment of sustainably feeding your family? These are the unquantifiable outcomes of time spent recreating on America’s public lands. So, even if we need to take a hard look at the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of the federal agencies charged with managing public lands, the shared resources themselves are still more than just assets on a ledger. And once they are sold or paved over, they’re gone forever.
Decide what is valuable. Is it a four-lane highway dotted with sludge lakes?
As citizens in this democracy, we must believe in the value our role plays in the great American foundation that is our public lands. Our involvement and our voice matters; BHA matters. Making a positive impact can be as simple as giving out a copy of the Backcountry Journal or sharing the BHA Podcast & Blast with a friend; gifting a BHA membership; or calling your senator or representative and telling them how much you value our wild public lands. It’s time we set political differences aside in the spirit of our common interest in public lands and waters.
Hunters process their elk in November 2020 near Blacktail Butte in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Spending on hunting licenses and equipment funds more than half of state wildlife agencies’ annual budgets- Ryan Dorgan.
We are facing a seminal moment in the defense of public lands, and BHA is unmoved, undeterred, and unwavering in our commitment to stand up for what’s right. For those willing to put politics, peer pressure, and misinformation aside, buckle up. We’re in for the fight of our lives. Thanks for joining us on the front lines.”
Patrick Berry
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers President & CEO
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