Over at Medium, Chad Love asks: Public Lands Takeover How is this still a thing?
Our public lands, our collectively-owned natural resources, are the physical manifestation of who we are, what we aspire to be. But there are forces hard at work trying to take them away, to “give them back” as they like to claim. Give them back to whom, exactly? The last time I left dusty boot prints on some lonely, windswept high plains prairie as I followed my dogs in search of birds, I already held title to the land I was hunting, just by being an American.
....We would not be the people we are today, we would not be the nation we are today, without the concept of public space, public freedom, public lands; free for all to use, to love, to enjoy, to wander across, to wonder about, to hunt, fish and hike on; to climb, paddle, bike, swim, or just be in.
This is not a liberal versus conservative issue. It is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. It is, at its core, an American ideals versus anti-American ideals issue. It is the calculated and cynical trashing of the concept of public lands held in the public trust for the public good. It is an all-out assault on the egalitarian principles that have fundamentally shaped who we are as Americans. And it is an absolutely existential threat to the future of hunting, fishing and other public land recreation as we know it and enjoy it today.
Read the whole thing and pass it on; the article and the land.
1 comment:
Agreed. I wish we had the concept of public land in the U.K. Even in the national parks, the land is still privately owned and frequently farmed with the consequence of little to no forest, little diversity and a dearth of wildlife.
The form of hunting that has the most support in the U.K. is angling and it's no surprise that it's the one form that doesn't depend on access to landowners to do. Most waterways are accessible to and supported by the public, many of whom work hard to keep the waterways clear of rubbish, planted to encourage fish and the like. I happen to live half a mile from the world's oldest angler's club (http://salfordfriendlyanglers.co.uk) and frequently see people fishing on the banks of the Irwell.
If only it were so with the land. Don't lose what you have -- it's precious.
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