PUBLIC LANDS: Don’t sell them

About every 20 years or so, there is some governor or state representative in the Western United States who proposes selling off public lands for development or resource exploitment. Lands that were originally set aside for recreational use by all United States citizens by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1901.

People who endorse the sale of public lands do not understand the benefits and uses public lands provide, nor do they understand why it is so important to protect them. These public lands offer recreational opportunities such as fishing, rafting, picking huckleberries, hunting, hiking, or they allow a person to enjoy the solitude that nature provides. People who want to sell these public lands do not participate in these activities however. Public lands also support logging as well as large trees that produce and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Public lands play a huge part in keeping people in the United States active, healthy, and happy.

CHRIS WELLMAN

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