No matter what side of the political fence you fall on it’s time we come together on the one piece of common ground that we all share. I’m talking about our public lands. Those slices of heaven on earth that give us the access many, if not most, of us need to fish the waters we love. I don’t care who you voted for, what policies you support or what you want on your Starbucks coffee cup during the winter; all I want from all of your reading this is to help save our public lands.
I know you’re here to escape the political mumbo jumbo swarming through social media and every conversation that you’ve had since last year, but these are desperate times my friends. Reading Outdoor Life (OL) last night, I stumbled across an article about House bill H.R. 621, which was introduced last week by Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). The OL article stated the bill, “would direct the Secretary of the Interior to sell off 3.3 million acres of federal land.”
Anyone else super pissed yet?
(You can read the full article from Outdoor Life here).
No? How about this direct quote from the proposed bill: “The long overdue disposal of excess federal lands,” or how about, “…these lands have been deemed to serve no purpose for taxpayers.”
Disposable? No purpose? The last thing I would call disposal is our treasured public lands. They’re ours folks, and any politician that tries to say your lands offer zero value is insulting your intelligence. It’s time to make all of our voices heard, loud and clear, that these lands are cherished by all, because they belong to us all, and not just a few. You can get started by signing the petition linked below.
Now listen, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ever sell public lands, that’s just close minded. If we could find conservation commissions and other conservation-driven organizations to purchase federal land, maintain it and still offer all of it up for public use, I could get behind that. But this bill isn’t proposing the perfect compromise, it’s saying to sell the land to the highest bidder.
A little public lands know how for you, courtesy Sportsmen’s Access:
If you don’t like to mix your fly fishing and your politics, that’s fine, just skip to the next blog post. If you don’t mind joining with your fellow anglers and helping to protect the lands we love, then I thank you friend.
UPDATE: Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has pulled House Bill H.R. 621, saying on Instagram, “I am withdrawing HR 621. I’m a proud gun owner, hunter and love our public lands. The bill would have disposed of small parcels of lands Pres. Clinton identified as serving no public purpose but groups I support and care about fear it sends the wrong message. The bill was originally introduced several years ago. I look forward to working with you. I hear you and HR 621 dies tomorrow. #keepitpublic #tbt“
Read the full article on Men’s Journal now, click here.
That’s one for the win column of sportsmen everywhere, but this is just one battle in a very long, tedious, possibly never-ending war. Chaffetz has introduced that bill five times before, so it’s likely that we’ll see it, or something similar in the very near future. House Bill H.R. 622, another bill recently submitted by Chaffetz, is trying to “terminate the law enforcement functions of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and to provide block grants to States for the enforcement of Federal law on Federal land under the jurisdiction of these agencies, and for other purposes.”
If our government can’t successfully sell off our public land, the next best thing in their eyes is to neuter the support of public lands, wearing it down little by little until they can try selling it off once again.
Is it romantic to think that our elected officials should do what is in our best interests? We’re all in this together friends, and the time to fight is now, before it’s too late.
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