Keeping Public Land Public

During a beautiful week in Jackson, Wyoming outdoor media, land managers, the outdoor rec industry, and conservation groups converged to discuss the intersection of conservation and recreation. This gathering, known as SH/FT, focuses on three main issues- Conservation Leadership, Outdoor Access, and Responsible Recreation. 

 As part of the gathering, Sierra Club's Kiersten Iwai, helped delve into proposals to transfer public lands to state and private interests. It's a pervasive call across the West, though as Kiersten highlighted, it's not exactly what it may seem. Below are her remarks from the conference.

My name is Kiersten Iwai and I’m an organizer for the Sierra Club based in Bozeman MT. I work on policy and advocacy related to wildlife and wildlands. 

My story starts in San Diego, where I was born and raised a proud Chargers fan, a surfer, and an environmentalist. I was lucky enough that my parents valued outdoor experiences, both in the ocean and on the land in the mountains. I was that kid with a little vest and Junior Ranger badges. This fostered an environmental ethic within me and inspired me to pursue my current career path. What I believe in and what I love to do stems from my love of the outdoors, and lays the foundation for who I am as a person. 

The public lands transfer movement is an interesting conversation with many facets. I hope to bring a conservation perspective from my background with the Sierra Club, and a movement building perspective from my background as an organizer. 

When we look at who’s behind the movement we see that it’s not just some ornery old white man who hates the Feds. It’s an organized effort funded by the really wealthy who make a big profit by exploiting other people and the land. The Koch Brothers are a prime example. The Koch family backs conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which conveniently writes model legislation for member politicians to copy. 

Two Heritage Foundation briefs, "Energy Production on Federal Lands- Handing Keys Over to the States,” and “Federal Regulations and Federal Ownership Limit Oil Production Potential,” make clear the Foundation's vision for the future of our public lands.  The public lands transfer is just another way for the fossil fuel industry to extract more oil, more gas, and more coal. It’s the same fight that we are fighting on other fronts, such as with the Sierra Club's Our Wild America campaign to permanently protect public lands, and with the Beyond Coal, Beyond Oil, and Beyond Gas campaigns that look forward towards a clean renewable energy future. 

The privatization of our public lands makes it easier for the extraction industry to profit at the expense of the public. Under private control we may not always have say in land management. In our current process, we know that there’s a National Environmental Policy Act process and therefore an opportunity to comment. This presents us a huge opportunity to engage local communities and the nation in how their public lands are managed. And while I may not agree with what an off-road vehicle group wants in a travel management plan, both the ORV user and I, a wilderness advocate, have fair input into the plan. The land managers, after all, have to listen to everyone. 

So let’s take a deeper look into the other backers of the public lands transfer. These people are part of a growing anti-government extremist movement. The Southern Poverty Law Center stated that “today’s disputes with federal authority…are an extension of the earlier right-wing Sagebrush Rebellion, Wise Use and county supremacy movements.” These extremist groups back the privatization of our public lands, along with other not so great ideals. For example, Montana State Senator Jennifer Fielder is a member of the Sander Natural Resource Council, which is run by members of the Militia of Montana, a white supremacist group. She also recently spoke at a Citizens Equal Rights Alliance conference, which is a notorious anti-Native American group. She is the poster child for the American Lands Council. She represents a region that I am terrified to go to. 

So we’re not only looking at a public lands seizure movement. Other pro-lands transfer state legislators are Bundy supporters, members of the Oath Keepers, and Agenda 21 conspiracy theorists. These people don’t believe in climate change and believe they’re above the law. 

In response to this we’ve seen a growing coalition of sportsmen, conservationists, recreationalists, and even ranchers and the timber industry. I was talking to the Sierra Club’s Nevada Chapter Chair about this, and he said that while they lost by a heartbreaking one vote on a resolution for the state to take over public lands, the effort really gelled common interests between groups who love the outdoors. It ranges political spectrums, recreation activities, and extends beyond geographic boundaries. In Montana, we’ve seen a sportsmen-led effort to rally in the capitol and garner the support of Governor Bullock for preserving public lands. Even Senator Daines supports the reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Arizona saw great success in the defeat of and lands transfer ballot proposition that was voted down in every county. 

And so finally, I want to bring this back to my personal story.

My nearest national forest was the San Bernadino National Forest, a few hours away. We would go there for cross-country camp in high school and I remember the awe all of us had to be up in the mountains, and breathe fresh clean air. When you’re driving back down the mountain towards the city, you can distinctly see a thick grey layer of smog hover over the Inland Empire. The Inland Empire, which consists of the cities right in the valley below the mountains, has some of the highest pollution per capita of anywhere in the nation. Its communities are comprised of low-income people of color, breathing in some of the dirtiest air. 

And so while public lands fosters the next generation of environmental stewards such as myself, these public lands also provide us solitude, a sense of adventure, and an escape from the business of our everyday lives. It’s a haven away from most human development. It’s literally a breath of fresh air. And if the Forest Service wasn’t managing the San Bernardino National Forest, I have no doubt that the mountain range would be covered in roads and housing developments. 

So when we look at the movement we’re building; a movement of lovers and stewards of our public lands, we need to look at who’s missing from the table. And I would argue that those voices missing are perhaps some of the communities who need our public lands the most. These communities face the same enemy in different forms from bearing the disproportionate burden of air and water pollution, to facing voter suppression laws. We need to broaden our movement to not only be diverse, but also equitable and inclusive. 

After all, these lands belong to all of us Americans. These are American places and American treasures.