Tell us about your experience exploring public lands!

Life long outdoor person, advocate and volunteer for trails and public land protection.

Advocate and Volunteer for local food growers.

Professional Ski Instructor for 50 years.

Life Long Bicycle Commuter.

Retired Aerospace Engineer.

Clean Energy Expert, North American Board Certified.

I have been quite fortunate in my 74 years to have been to all 50 states, mostly to see many of the unique and special public lands in each state. While the economic and environmental benefits noted in the article are certainly huge and compelling, what impacts me most when in these special places is the sense of awe and wonder I feel surrounded by (relatively) untouched nature. People don't care about things they don't know about, and people don't value things they don't care about. I doubt that most of the politicians in Washington have ever felt a sense of awe while standing before god's creation. And when a forest or river or mountain is reduced to it's dollar value, we have lost our values.

I want to preserve wild lands, and all the creatures and plants in them. I don't really care who owns them, but perhaps a government does not change it's mind so easily? I'm not sure about that.

When I was younger I often spent time on public lands. Now I'm too old, but I still want them there for my children and grandchildren.

I don't mind if the human population declines. 8 billion is more than enough, in my view.

We have been frequent fliers to Yellowstone for over 30 years. We also live in Utah, which has 5 national parks and, unfortunately, Mike Lee as one of its senators. I've encountered lots of people who wonder how this corporate shill with no moral center keeps getting elected. Utah''s national parks and, of course, Yellowstone are tremendous public draws. Our experience in Yellowstone and Zion is that peak season can be quite crowded but that people who want to be surrounded by "nature" really only have to travel an eighth off a mile off the popular trails to get away from the crowds and "feel" the wildness of the forests or mountains.

In 2005, Richard Louv coined the term Nature-Deficit Disorder. But I'm not sure we even need a formal definition of what urbanization does to us to understand we sometimes need to get in contact with lands untouched by the hand of humanity. My point with mentioning NDD and how easy it is to get away from the crowds in popular parks is this: If we sell off public lands for whatever reason (easing the housing crunch or exploiting mineral resources), we're not going to sell off Old Faithful or the Emerald Terraces. We'll sell off the lands around the periphery of the parks. This will have the effect of shrinking the parks' back country. Suddenly those of us who want to be in touch with the natural world have less natural world to be in touch with. Taking this to its logical extreme, places like Yellowstone and Zion will eventually have nothing but the popular tourist spots like Old Faithful and Emerald terraces. With respect to these features, they tend to have tourists crawling all over them and are not good representations of the natural world. We need as much back country space as we can get so we can truly go where no one has gone before.

Let me add this as the mother of a 28yo who is still living at home while she finishes her schooling. The housing crunch is not being caused because we need more land, public or otherwise. It's caused by corporations buying up homes and apartment buildings so they can control the market, mainly for rentals, and not so much charge what the market will bear as dictate what the market can charge. Public lands freed for housing development will not change corporate greed and lust for power. The one time my daughter and her best friend looked at taking a house with 3 other people, the management group wanted not only an insane amount of rent (2-3 times our mortgage payment) but first and last month's rent, a damage deposit, and a document listing work situations for the past 2 years and references for the past 2 years of renting who would assure the management group you hadn't wrecked your rental. My daughter may own a house one day, but it's likely to be the one we leave her in our will.

National and state parks have helped my spirit bloom and blossom. While not a hiker (I had polio as a child), my parents took us to parks when ever they could. I camped as an adult whenever I could. I continue to go to a nearby national park every day that I am nearby. I think they represent the spirit of our nation

I don’t travel to these lands much anymore but it would break my heart to learn that they were no longer protected for all those after me who would love to experience them.

Public lands are the soul of America. I grew up on a family homestead in CT established in 1717 by my original ancestor

who emigrated from England, and who fought at age 60 in the French-Indian War in Louisburg, Nova Scotia. I was the 9th and last generation to work the dairy farm. I had to let go of ownership of the land two years ago which left a hole in my heart. There is no substitute for relationship with the land and the life which makes its home there. It formed who I became for which I was fortunate and am deeply grateful. I believe it informed my instincts as a physician and called me to a walk with God.

My wife and I a few years ago visited about 10 National Parks. This was a wonderful trip

throughout the Wsst - from Montana, Dakota's , Utah, Colorado, Nevada. Every National

Park was very beautiful and we need that beauty for all of our citizens and visitors from

around the world. We must not give away the land to developers who would spoil the beauty

by destroying that land.

I grew up in the suburbs of Manhattan and was almost 35 before circumstances caused me to run away from that environment. First I went to Big Sur, CA and after that to New Mexico Zuni land. I have spent over half of my life surrounded by Nature. It has nourished me and made me stronger. I have visited Public Lands of all kinds, and been fortunate to hike the Grand Canyon from both the South and the North Rim and float through on the Colorado. After starting life in a dense urban area, I have been blessed to discover that I am so much more happy and at home in wild places. I now live where I cannot see another home and am surrounded by trees. This makes me happy.

I visit weekly at least. Wild lands are my church, and the place where my most indelible memories are born. Eye to eye with a fisher. Sitting on a granite slab, realizing finally that it is littered with thousands of obsidian flakes. Nameless lakes. I am grateful always for our country's most precious gift.