Six hundred and forty million acres of land in the United States—about 28 percent of our nation’s total land area—are owned by the American people and managed on our behalf by the federal government.

The foundational principle of that management is called multiple use. Public lands are used for resource extraction, but that extraction must be balanced with ecosystem conservation, recreation, and the need to maintain these lands so that future generations of Americans can continue to make the most of them.

Public lands contribute to the federal government’s bottom line, reducing the amount of taxes all of us must pay to fund our government’s operation. They support industries like oil, gas, and outdoor recreation, and provide plant and animal biodiversity, helping to protect the environment we live in. In short, these wild places, where we camp, run, hunt, climb, and ride, contribute to our quality of life.

But… an analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress (CAP) calculates that the total area of public lands that have already lost protections during Donald Trump’s presidency, or which his administration is working to reduce protections for, amounts to almost 35 million acres. That’s nearly the size of the entire state of Florida.

“President Trump is the only president in U.S. history to have removed more public lands than he protected,” reads the analysis.

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“We live in a very risk-averse society, and each agency is considering its mission in light of the current context,” said Andrew Bobilya, professor and program director for Western Carolina University’s Parks and Recreation Management Program. “I think they’re watching their peers, so to speak, worldwide and trying to make the best decision. But I think to a certain degree they don’t want to be the ones not being seen as supporting the initiative to reduce the spread of the coronavirus or put people in perceived inappropriate situations of risk.”

N.C. State Parks was the first public agency locally to implement closures in response to the virus, on March 16 announcing that park facilities such as visitor centers and campgrounds would close beginning March 17. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park wasn’t far behind, announcing the immediate closure of its visitor centers March 17. Closure of the visitor center in Asheville on March 18 marked the Blue Ridge Parkway’s initial COVID-related change. On March 22, the National Forests in North Carolina closed all front-country campgrounds.

However, land managers did not see these announcements result in decreased visitation or appropriate social distancing. “What we saw during March was actually increased visitation after other traditional spring break destinations closed, particularly beaches,” said Smokies spokesperson Dana Soehn. “We were actually seeing more people on our crowded trails and along roadways and overlooks.”

Road to reopening…

Don’t worry about finding a dog sitter when you head out for an outdoor adventure. You can bring your furry companion along for all kinds of fun on America’s public lands.

Service dogs are permitted on all public lands, while most national parks allow pets in developed areas. Other locations – such as national wildlife refuges, national forests, and wild and scenic rivers – also welcome pets on designated trails and parts of the backcountry at various times throughout the year.

Don’t forget to check out rules and regulations for each location to know exactly where your dog is allowed.

If you take your dogs on a trip into the great outdoors, make sure to always bag their waste and have a leash handy if required. This ensures you will Leave No Trace and protects your pup, wildlife, and other park goers.

Check out these dog-friendly lands across America where all puppies are welcome…

Smokers burn through 6 trillion cigarettes every year, and most are tossed into the environment. Butts contain microplastics and harmful chemicals, and new research suggests they may be directly toxic to wildlife. Efforts to curb butt litter have been largely futile.

For the environmental advocacy group Surfrider, a plan to curb the littering of cigarette butts began with energetic optimism. It was 1992, and at the time, cigarette filters were the single most frequently occurring item found in most beach cleanups – a statistic the organization hoped to erase.

However, the Hold On To Your Butt campaign has dragged on and on. Even as the 23rd annual California Coast Cleanup Day in September, 2018, calculates its successes – in terms of tons of trash removed from the state’s shores – on the butt end it continues as a humbling exercise in futility.

“Cigarette butts are still the number one item that we find,” says Shelly Ericksen, the director of the San Francisco chapter of Surfrider’s campaign. “It’s pretty clear we haven’t made a recognizable dent in the numbers.”

In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, smokers are estimated to litter 3 billion used filters every year, and no amount of research, campaigning, legislation and education can stifle this waste stream. There is hardly a city block or a beach, anywhere, that isn’t strewn with cigarette butts. Public roadways are lined with billions. Hikers find them on trails. Birds use them to build nests. Animals eat them.

Mobilized by water, wind and gravity, many or most eventually wind up in streams and storm drains and, eventually, the ocean, where it’s probable they are having a variety of negative impacts that scientists are trying to understand. Laboratory research has shown that cigarette butts – generally made of a type of plastic called cellulose acetate and laced with chemicals – are acutely toxic.

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Ed. note: I volunteer picking up trash on the Blue Ridge Parkway and I can vouch for the prevalence of butts being by far the most common litter. I dispose of at least 50 every time I go for trash removal, and that’s just at one overlook. I know when you throw down one it doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but the problem compounds over time, especially when they get into creeks and rivers and oceans. You may think they are biodegradable, but they definitely are not. Like all plastics, they last for generations.

US officials have announced plans to allow increased mining on land that once belonged to two national monuments Donald Trump shrank, and to sell off some of the land despite pledges not to do so.

The two monuments, now significantly smaller in size, are both in Utah. The draft management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument includes a 98-page minerals report that outlines deposits of coal, oil and gas, tar sands and other minerals under the whole of the monument’s original 1.9m acres.

It also targets 1,600 acres for selling to neighboring property owners, although the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, said on his second day on the job: “You can hear it from my lips: we will not sell off public lands.”

The Bears Ears national monument plan allows for mineral development in lands removed from monument status.

It is a goal of the administration to open public lands to increased industrial development. The plans follow Trump’s December 2017 executive order shrinking both monuments by a combined 2m acres, a move that prompted tribal and environmental groups and major outdoor brands to file lawsuits against the administration questioning the legality of the reduction.

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On his first day as Secretary of the Interior, last March, Ryan Zinke rode through downtown Washington, D.C., on a roan named Tonto. When the Secretary is working at the department’s main office, on C Street, a staff member climbs up to the roof of the building and hoists a special flag, which comes down when Zinke goes home for the day.

The department, which comprises agencies ranging from the National Park Service to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, oversees some five hundred million acres of federal land, and more than one and a half billion acres offshore. Usually, there’s a tension between the department’s mandates—to protect the nation’s natural resources and to manage them for commercial use. Under Zinke, the only question, from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters, is how fast these resources can be auctioned off.

One of Zinke’s first acts, after dismounting from Tonto, was to overturn a moratorium on new leases for coal mines on public land. He subsequently recommended slashing the size of several national monuments, including Bears Ears, in Utah, and Gold Butte, in Nevada, and lifting restrictions at others to allow more development.

Zinke has also proposed gutting a plan, years in the making, to save the endangered sage grouse; instead of protecting ten million acres in the West that had been set aside for the bird’s preservation, he’d like to see them given over to mining. And he’s moved to scrap Obama-era regulations that would have set more stringent standards for fracking on federal property.

See what else Zinke has done...

Are you craving some fun in the sun, a thrilling outdoor experience or a chance to witness an incredible natural phenomenon? America’s public lands offer endless opportunities for fun and adventure.

Whether you’re an experienced rafter or a novice, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is the perfect place for individual or group rafting trips. Rafting the Colorado River provides one-of-a-kind views of the Grand Canyon’s striking cliffs and wildlife.

With 40 percent of the park underwater, Virgin Islands National Park offers an incredible array of snorkeling opportunities – mangrove shorelines, seagrass beds, fringing and patch reefs to name a few.

Under perfect conditions, spectacular wildflower super blooms carpet the desert ground for a short period at California’s Death Valley. These seas of wildflowers are produced by three necessary factors: well-spaced rainfall, sufficient warmth from the sun and a lack of drying winds.

The rolling hills of Idaho’s St. Anthony Sand Dunes remind visitors of the sea’s waves. Almost 11,000 acres of shifting white quartz on the edge of the Snake River Plain contains huge sand dunes and miles of trails for endless adventure all managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has compiled a list of some of the best events on public lands throughout the year. From Salt Flat racing in Utah to manatee watching in Florida to casting a line in Georgia, there’s fun for the whole family. This list includes incredible adventures, but it’s only a sampling of the opportunities available on public lands.

We’ve all seen the Instagram pictures of hikers clad in brand-name outdoor gear relaxing in front of picturesque mountain lakes or perching on impossibly angled red rock in all their glory. It’s easy to see that public lands, which include everything from national monuments to national parks and national forests, are beautiful and can provide great photo ops, but what else do they provide?

Money, for one. Each year, outdoor recreation generates $887 billion in consumer spending nationally. You don’t even have to put on Gore-Tex and ford a river to benefit from this huge economic boost — even urbanites who never venture beyond skyscraper views appreciate a few extra dollars in their pocket as people prepare for their adventures.

But the benefits aren’t just economic. Even the simple act of turning on a faucet to pour a glass of clean water often involves public lands, since 66 million Americans get their municipal drinking water from these areas. Just filling a glass with tap water often relies on protected lands. National forests provide municipal drinking water for 3,400 communities, serving 66 million people across the country. This water is worth over $7.2 billion per year.

Forests also provide clean air since trees absorb carbon to protect the globe from the effects of climate change. Each year, forests in the U.S. offset 10 to 20 percent of the nation’s emissions.

Wild lands aren’t just pretty landscapes — for many Native American people, these areas have important spiritual significance. People gather herbs for medicine and ceremonies, collect wood and materials for baskets and clothing, hunt and fish for subsistence, and conduct spiritual rituals.

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In contrast to many advanced countries, the United States has a vast and spectacular publicly owned wilderness, mostly free and available to all. In an age of inequality, the affluent have gated neighborhoods, private schools, backup generators and greater influence on elected officials. But our most awe-inspiring wild places have remained largely a public good to be shared by all, a bastion of equality.

This is a magnificent splendor that no billionaire is allowed to fence off. We all have equal access, at no charge: If you can hold your own against mosquitoes and bears, the spot is yours for the night. Yet these public lands are at risk today.

The march of civilization has been about distancing ourselves from the raw power of nature. At home, we move the thermostat up or down by a degree, and we absorb the idea that we are lords of the universe. On the trail, we are either sweating or freezing, and it always feels as if the path is mainly uphill. Nature mocks us, usefully reminding us who’s boss.

If your kids are suffering from what the writer Richard Louv calls nature-deficit disorder, run away from home together. Flee to the mountains. It’s heaven with blisters.

This is our collective patrimony, a tribute to the wisdom of Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and other visionaries who preserved our wild places for the future. Thank God for them. Otherwise, these lands might have been carved up and sold off as ranches for the rich.

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The provision, included as part as a larger rules package the House approved by a vote of 233 to 190 during its first day in session, highlights the extent to which some congressional Republicans hope to change longstanding rules now that the GOP will control the executive and the legislative branches.

Current rules requiring spending offsets would be abolished. The change is part of the House rules package. It would mean that lawmakers would no longer have to find spending offsets for bills that transfer federal land to state or tribal entities.

Democrats argue that these lands should be managed on behalf of all Americans, not just those living nearby, and warn that cash-strapped state and local officials might sell these parcels to developers.

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