The federal government says Oregon has 110, 994 miles of streams. Most do not qualify for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System as they have been dammed, dewatered, ditched, denuded, and/or otherwise degraded, if not downright destroyed. Today, 2 percent of Oregon’s streams are in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Big Timber in Oregon is so 20th Century. It used to be that timber jobs were above the state’s median wage; now they are below it. Today, only 1.3 percent of Oregon’s jobs arise from falling trees. That number will continue to decline in relative terms as Oregon’s economy continues to grow, and it will continue to decline in absolute terms as the timber industry continues to automate.

Though we’ve burned through one-sixth of the current century, Congress has yet to enact any sweeping and bold public lands conservation legislation in the new millennium. There’s still time though, and a crying need.

Here are some national monuments, quite beloved today, that had strong local opposition at the time of their proclamation: Devil’s Tower, Petrified Forest, Muir Woods, Oregon Caves, Natural Bridges, Dinosaur, White Sands, Caters of the Moon, Lava Beds, Admiralty Island, Cascade-Siskiyou, and Virgin Island Coral Reef.

While federal public land grazing permittees don’t have a property right associated with such grazing, they do have a property interest. Federal grazing permits have monetary value in that they are associated with particular ranches (“base properties”). The IRS taxes capital gains in the value of permits attached to ranch properties when they are sold. 

One usually has to overcome an entrenched establishment of industry, locals, and government that doesn’t want things to change. Yet, conservationists proceed anyway, and if they are smart, clever, and persistent (with emphasis on the latter) enough, they do find success. It often takes a generation to change the world, or even a part of it.

The American system of justice may be the best in the world, but it’s not perfect. In the matter of seven defendants who—by force of arms—illegally occupied and caused damage to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon, justice was not served. A view of the Steens Mountains from the Buena Vista Overlook located in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Image source: Wikipedia

There are those days where one is reminded, by a proverbial kick in the gut, that life is not fair. Such was the day of the general election of November 2016. [Image by Manny Becerra]

Historically, much of the carbon loading into the atmosphere (which subsequently loads the hydrosphere) came from the biosphere (we used to live on a forested planet). Today, most atmospheric carbon loading comes from the lithosphere—the hard outer layer of Earth—in the form of fossil fuels that are extracted and then burned.

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.