This op-ed by Rose Marcario, president and CEO of Patagonia and Land Tawney, president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers was originally published in The Missoulian.
One hundred years ago, a gold prospector named Ralph Cameronattempted to claim the Grand Canyon. It seems ridiculous now, but it’s true — he wanted to get rich mining the land, and if President Theodore Roosevelt hadn’t signed into law a powerful conservation bill, we might have lost one of our nation’s greatest treasures.
Since its passage in 1906, the Antiquities Act has since been used by almost every president, Republicans and Democrats alike, to conserve wild places and expand Americans’ access to public lands. On this Presidents' Day, it’s worth celebrating these 15 presidents who have used the Antiquities Act exactly as it was intended. It has helped create and preserve 170 national monuments, including Pompeys Pillar, Big Hole National Battlefield, Lewis and Clark Caverns and the Upper Missouri River Breaks here in Montana. It represents one simple yet powerful democratic ideal: that public lands belong to all Americans, no matter our class, race, party or creed. These spaces aren’t reserved just for the privileged class to enjoy. They are for all of us.
We both are worried about the future of our public lands. Precedents are being set that put public lands in grave jeopardy. Our 640 million acres of public lands should be responsibly managed — not defiled and used strictly to generate money for a select few.
The current administration, fueled by the extractive industries, is intentionally stripping protections from public lands lawfully designated by previous administrations, including the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. That’s never been done before. It is an insult to the American people and an attack on our natural heritage. So are its efforts to roll back management plans that conserve the western sagebrush steppe, push for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, weaken the National Environmental Policy Act and dismantle the Clean Water Act. And let’s not overlook the administration’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management — an individual whose personal agenda could unravel our legacy of public lands and waters.
But we are feeling optimistic about this fight for two important reasons: Patagonia and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, working with local communities, have built a record of winning protections for our lands and waters. Further, our livelihoods depend on us winning — especially in a state that’s nearly 30% publicly owned and whose outdoor recreation industry is the second-largest sector of the economy. Whether for work or play, to hunt or to hike, Montanans rely on healthy, vibrant natural spaces. Eight in 10Americans think that conserving natural resources is patriotic. Two-thirds of voters in Western states believe that Congress should prioritize conserving public lands. That’s why early last year both Republicans and Democrats in Congress passed a popular, veto-proof conservation package that established more than 1.3 million acres of wilderness in the West, created three new national parks, and withdrew mining claims around Yellowstone, one of our most iconic and treasured landscapes.
We’re part of a broad coalition of conservation groups, outdoorsmen and -women, hunters and anglers, sovereign tribal governments and indigenous communities who recognize that when our leaders would rather enrich polluters over the stewardship of increasingly scarce wild lands, we as a people are poorer for it.
Tomorrow, Patagonia Films premieres "Public Trust," a film that tells the story of how public lands are integral to American life. In it, Hal Herring, an outdoorsman and journalist who hosts BHA’s podcast, says, “It’s as if there were oil and gas under Notre Dame. And somebody chose to make the money from that oil and gas rather than preserving the cathedral.”
This Presidents' Day is as good a time as any to remind ourselves that we deserve leaders who will protect America's greatest treasures — not sell them out to the highest bidder. Let’s get our hands dirty and get to work. Our public lands and waters need us.