Why Public Lands Matter to Every Traveler

Not long ago, we were driving through Utah, down the remote highways that link national parks and other public lands in that state’s stunning deserts. Easy enough to get hypnotized in those landscapes. And, sure enough, it happened to us on Highway 24. We drove into Capitol Reef National Park … all the way through … out the other side. Never mind that we’d passed our destination miles back. We finally stopped at a rocky turnout.

A Bureau of Land Management sign marked Cathedral Valley, which, as we’d learn, stretches across Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, then back into national park land. This dusty spot is a portal to remote wonders like the Bentonite Hills and the Temples of Sun and Moon—treasures held in a public trust for everyone to experience.

PROTECT PUBLIC LANDS WITH PATAGONIA ACTION WORKS

Our nation’s public lands matter for many reasons. Across the nation, our parks, monuments and national forests protect intact ecosystems, vital habitat and the ancestral homelands and cultural sites of Indigenous communities; many of these landscapes are sacred. For travelers, public lands offer opportunities to explore the natural world and pursue our passions. Without public lands, we would not be able to hike, fish, hunt, climb, boat, camp, wander, stargaze, forage or dream as we do in the United States.

The vast majority of Americans believe these lands should be stewarded and preserved. We agree. That’s why Wildsam is proud to get behind Patagonia’s efforts to protect public lands. Because right now, public lands face unprecedented threats. 

PROTECT PUBLIC LANDS WITH PATAGONIA ACTION WORKS

Though they belong to all of us, powerful interests view our public lands as commodities to be sold off. Right now, Congress and the federal administration are attempting to overturn the protections of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and millions of acres of public lands. They are also slashing funding for public lands, with trails and campgrounds being shut down and neglected due to staff cuts. Expanded oil, gas and mining activity will limit our shared ability to explore and recreate in these places.

 At Wildsam, we celebrate many ways and places to travel and the history and people who shape destinations across the country. But maybe we don’t talk enough about the Antiquities Act of 1906, or the wise move by Calvin Coolidge, way back in 1924, to protect the “weird and scenic landscape” of Idaho’s Craters of the Moon. Over decades and centuries, Americans made decisions that created the public lands we know today.

 These places are more valuable when we take care of them. They benefit all of us—a rare quality in a time when it often can seem that a win for one must be a loss for another. And so our public lands represent an opportunity to come together around what’s truly valuable, explore new vistas and tell new stories about where we’re going.