“Kinship demands reciprocity. Every nature girl and boy should be prepared to defend the places they love. Otherwise we have not earned them. …we must argue on their behalf, pressure politicians . . . to wean themselves from their unsightly addiction to corporate blubber and for once act in favor of things that matter, like air to breathe, water to drink, and space to roam.” —Ellen Meloy, “Tilano’s Jeans”
Click here if you’re ready to jump into action and don’t want to read my musings.
I’ve been wandering in and writing about public land in Utah for most of my life—the beauties of my home valley in Tooele and the dangers of extractive practices there, the healing I’ve found in the deserts and canyons of the Colorado Plateau, misadventures in the mountains. I am a nature girl at heart—largely in this for the preservation of open space in which to wander—but there are so many benefits of public lands.
- national parks
- local tourism and rural economies
- protecting fragile ecosystems
- preserving cultural and natural heritage
- maintaining affordable grazing rights
- preserving of natural resources like clean water, breathable air, and dark skies
- so much more than I can list here
Whatever brings you here, thank you for your kinship and your fight on behalf of land that belongs to all of us, that should be there to serve all of us (and us it), and not simply to line the pockets of private interests and wealthy extractors.
Here are some steps you can take:
No Matter Where You Are
Get More Info
- Read more here about the mandate to sell off millions of acres of public lands at Outdoor Alliance or here at Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Send Messages
- You can choose between Sierra Club and Outdoor Alliance Forms for sending messages to your federal representatives. Or you can send your own email and forgo the forms. Or all three. (Can’t hurt, might help right?)
- Sierra Club Form with talking points for building your own unique message
- Outdoor Alliance form, which has a prewritten message with information about section 0301 of the Senate spending bill that you can edit and personalize.
- Website where you can find contact info for federal representatives.
- Whichever you choose, be sure to mention Section 0301 of the Senate spending bill (“The Big, Beautiful Bill”) which allows for the sale of public lands, and (if you’ve got it in you) take the time and energy to tell them:
- a story about experiences you’ve had at national parks, forest service land, etc, especially in the American West where the majority of land would be up for sale
- the ways your life has been positively affected by your access to public land
- the ways public land access positively affects your livelihood or the economy in your area.
- Consider contacting your state representatives and county commissioners, especially if you live in one of the states where land is in danger of being sold. Encourage your local politicians to contact your federal representatives and inform them of the negative consequences of public land sales. Often local and state representatives have some extra pull with our federal representatives.
Make Calls
- You can always use the official government website to find contact information for public representatives.
- Or, I love the 5calls website which you can access for many different things, but this is a link to the page for contacting representatives about sales of public land in the current Senate spending bill.
If You Live in Utah
Email or talk to your county commissioners/councilors and ask them to inform federal representatives of why the protection of public land is important in your county.
Scroll through the list below to find the website for your county.
heathercholland.com 