In the late 19th century, farsighted citizens took stock in the rapidly developing country, and realized the need to protect its remaining wild lands. In places like the Yellowstone, the Bitterroot and the Gila River headwaters, the first measures were taken to preserve not only forests and watersheds, but equally important values such as scenery, solitude and an idea that had been with us since Colonial times – that of wilderness. This ethic culminated in the Wilderness Act, whose author, the late Howard Zahniser, implored for us to be “guardians of the land, not gardeners.”
The story of federal lands in the East took a different direction. With virtually all of the land settled and cleared, conservation meant reforestation, often on landscapes that were badly eroded and abandoned. It meant a long process of cobbling together forests, usually through purchase, and often through conservation-minded donors. While many of our lands out West had millions of acres that had seen relatively little modern impact, here they are only beginning to recover from overexploitation. And gradually, some forests are receiving meaningful protection, if in smaller quantities than out West.
Americans have a great love of our federal lands, from National Parks and National Forests, to the rangelands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, or places like the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park receives more than 10 million visitors a year. In the Cherokee National Forest, just east of Cleveland, lies the magnificent Ocoee River and the Big Frog/Cohutta Wilderness complex, the largest in the East. These places attract tourists, hikers, hunters and boaters from far and wide, bringing economic vitality to local communities.
It is unfortunate that some in Congress do not see our federal lands as having such rich value. There is work afoot to begin selling off our public lands to private interests. A new rule, written by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, establishes as fact that any legislation to dispose of public lands and natural resources would cost taxpayers exactly $0 – essentially saying that the people have incurred no loss for their lands being sold.
Devaluing our public lands flies in the face of not only the recreation economy, but many other forms of public wealth. Seventy percent of our nation’s water supplies begin in federal lands watersheds. These lands are also the strongholds of biodiversity, including game species that support an enormous sporting industry.