The climate, the oceans, species, watersheds, ecosystems, landscapes, cultures, and economies that depend on federal public lands all depend upon the 45th president of the United States having a bold public lands conservation agenda.

Even today, one can drive across the American West and view literally millions of acres of federal public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) without even knowing it

The BLM has jurisdiction over 264 million surface acres of federal public land in thirty-three states, which is approximately 11 percent of the total surface acreage of these United States. The majority of BLM holdings are in the eleven western states and Alaska. The BLM also manages nearly 700 million acres of federal subsurface mineral estate.

While the National Park System has generally led to improvement in the conservation and interpretation of nature, culture, and history, the National Park Service has had its unwise episodes. Image by: Hendrik Cornelissen

It’s worth summarizing how Utah’s beloved national parks came into being. The general trend is that they were first national monuments proclaimed by far-away presidents, almost always over the opposition of the State of Utah Image by: Fuji Nakama

Those in opposition to the preservation of wilderness, especially “small” wilderness will disparage it because it is small. If the source is someone who generally disdains wilderness of any size, their arguments may be dismissed.

Republican legislator, lawyer, chief justice, granger, sportsman, conservationist, explorer, and scholar John B. Waldo read and quoted Thoreau, Shakespeare, Emerson, Aurelius, Goethe, and Wordsworth. He made twenty-seven summer sojourns in Oregon’s Cascades.

In 2012, the Utah State Legislature enacted the Transfer of Public Lands Act (TPLA), which demanded that the federal government hand over the state’s ~30 million acres of national wildlife refuges, national forests, and other public lands by the end of 2014.

Until relatively recently, no president had applied the Antiquities Act of 1906 to any large amount of salt water. A few national monuments include seawater associated with islands and adjacent lands, but no national monument had been proclaimed that included a lot of ocean.

With declining commodity industries and a growing outdoor recreation industry—as well as increased concern for watersheds, ecosystems, and native species—it’s time for a 21st-century management structure for the nation’s national forests.

Presidents matter when it comes to federal public lands. Let’s examine the policy positions, party platforms and statements of the two 2016 major party candidates. Image Wikipedia: Wild horses run through Tule Valley, Utah. Notch Peak and the House Range in background.

As presidents near leaving office, more of their thoughts turn to legacy. How will history remember them? Though the history of conservation is but a fraction of the history of the nation, let alone the world, it matters to most presidents. Congress has empowered a president to be able to do great good for the conservation of nature and history for this and future generations.

The Merriam-Webster definition of “public land” encapsulates the broadest and the narrowest definitions: “land owned by a government; specifically:  that part of the United States public domain subject to sale or disposal under the homestead laws.”

A Maine Woods National Monument would be the embryo of a Maine Woods National Park that could grow in size and allow the trees to again grow as tall as they used to. Image by: Raphael Assouline @raph_asln

The Bundys and their ilk disdain the federal government and deny it owns the federal public lands in the West. While they hate the federal government for its size, its actions and its policies, they nonetheless revere the United States Constitution. They believe the federal government (executive, legislative and judicial branches) has run amok from the intent of the founding fathers.

The national park idea, the best idea we ever had, was inevitable as soon as Americans learned to confront the wild continent not with fear and cupidity but with delight, wonder, and awe. Image by: Hendrik Cornelissen @the_bracketeer

While producing energy on public lands reduces our addiction to foreign oil—and if renewable energy, reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions—energy exploitation also ruins the values for which most Americans hold public lands dear.

The intent of this Public Lands blog is to each week give the reader a ~750-word exposition on some aspect of federal or state public lands in the United States. Some weeks you will a find a piece that goes rather deep and serves as a useful (I hope) backgrounder on particular areas, matters or issues surrounding public lands. Other weeks, you’ll find a topical piece addressing a public lands controversy of the moment.