National Public Lands Day: Saturday September 28th

Tomorrow is National Public Lands Day.

For most people, it matters most maybe because it's one of the days when entrance to National Parks are free ("You can go to national parks for free on Saturday. Or, you can volunteer. Perhaps both," Denver Post).

I've always wondered why this day isn't better leveraged in the DC area to drive volunteerism.

Many federal agencies own/manage public lands.  While public lands are all publicly-owned lands, perhaps when we hear the phrase "National Public Lands" we're most likely to think about lands controlled by the federal government, in particular National Parks and Monuments, lands controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, and national forests, managed by the Forest Service which is part of the US Department of Agriculture, wetlands managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

But there are sites run by the government, facilities and recreation spaces in association with waterworks managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, etc.

(Many states have state forest units as well as state parks groups.)

Trump Administration moves away from a conservation ethic.  Public lands been controversial for a long time.  Federal lands are caught up in various hard right disputes about the relationship of people to government, etc.

Some locals see federal rule as an intrusion, and economic interests outside of tourism agitate for cheap or free access to the land to support their various business endeavors (mining, logging, oil extraction, grazing).  Meanwhile, environmental and conservation interests prefer the lands be stewarded.

And the Trump Administration, which is vociferously implementing the anti-government agenda of the hard right,has made monetization of public lands a key element of its agenda.

One of the first acts of the Administration was to embark on a process to make certain national monuments smaller, to increase access to these lands for minerals extraction, logging, "recreation" that can damage lands (off road vehicles, etc.). .

Besides working to reduce the size of national monuments, open up lands and seas to oil drilling, redefining more narrowly the Endangered Species Act ("17 States Sue Trump Administration Over New Rules Weakening the Endangered Species Act," AP), narrowing the definition of "U.S. waters" to allow more pollution ("EPA announces repeal of Obama-era clean water regulation," CBS), they aim to relocate the BLM out west, to encourage regulatory capture by lands interests ("This federal headquarters is moving from D.C. to Colorado. Some Democrats are not happy," Washington Post)..

There is a new book out on the subject, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism and Corruption Are Ruining the American West. I haven't read it yet, but there's a great interview with the author, Christopher Ketcham, at The Intercept, "HIKERS, TRUMP, AND THE CAPITALIST CONSPIRACY TO RUIN PUBLIC LANDS."

Climate change and public lands.  Public lands and waters are "the lungs of the earth," and climate change severely stresses our environment (an understatement).  Further stressing the environment by allowing more pollution, etc., makes things worse.

One way this is evident is toxic algae blooms in lakes.  The algae is stoked by fertilizer runoff, mostly from agriculture.  The water becomes unusable as a result.  Not just for recreation, as has been the case with some lakes in New Jersey this past summer, but for drinking water.

Misuse of public lands, places, and resources.  In response to celebrity selfies showing a disregard for heritage trees by Miley Cyrus ("Photos of Miley Cyrus raise concern about Joshua trees," Newsday), an Instagram stream #publiclandshateyou and website was created to draw opprobrium to similar cavalier treatment of public lands ("The vigilante shaming influencers for bad behavior in national Parks," Guardian).

But there are plenty of other examples.

Public Lands Day could be a good day to bring more attention to "Adopt-A-Space" programs, be it trails, roadways, streams, channels (Orange County, California has an Adopt A Channel program), transit stops, or bike routes, an idea I recently proposed, etc.