6 Ways To Help Protect Your Public Lands
As co-owner and stewards of our extraordinary public lands, we have lots of opportunities to protect them. Here are six meaningful ways to get involved and make a difference. Your stewardship really matters.
Let Your Voice Be Heard
Our public land managers and elected officials at the national, state and local levels frequently propose changes to the management of our public lands. What do YOU think?
Your voice matters. You are the “public” in public lands. There are many impactful ways of communicating your views, including writing comments, signing petitions, testifying at public hearings, and calling or meeting with your elected officials.
How can you find out what is being proposed? The easiest way is to join conservation groups and read their alerts. Fortunately there are many excellent local, state and national groups that focus on public lands covered in this website. They are listed below.
Join & Contribute
There are so many outstanding conservation groups that are dedicated to protecting our public lands. It is important to join and contribute financially to these groups, which are identified by categories below:
A) Groups focusing on important public land policies. The staff and volunteers from these groups work hard to find out what agencies, outside interests, and elected officials are proposing to do to our public lands. Then they research the issues to give us needed information about the potential impacts of these proposed actions. They also send out alerts, comment links, petitions to personalize and sign, and more.
Excellent groups that address many of the public lands listed in this website are:
It really is positive, interesting and important to join their newsletter and alert lists.
B) Do you have money, land, or interest in helping to expand our public lands?
Groups helping to expand our public lands through land acquisitions and the acceptance of land and monetary donations include:
C) Groups that directly support the programs, maintenance, and funding of public lands include:
D) Groups helping us lower our carbon footprint, which reduces the resource extraction and other development pressures on public lands, such as:
E) Groups helping to get youth outside and involved in learning about and appreciating our public lands, such as:
Help Plant & Maintain
Lots of organizations, and several government agencies, help organize community plantings, trail maintenance, invasive species removal or clean-up efforts on our public lands. These can take place on beaches, in the mountains, and in riparian areas, among other places.
Here are a few possibilities that focus on nearby lands and waters:
Vote For Bond Measures Supporting Public Lands
Virtually all of our California state public lands, especially parks, have been acquired using public funds or donated. They need your vote!
Serve On Commissions
For the Santa Barbara/UCSB area these commissions include:
Vote For Candidates Supporting Public Lands
Who we elect makes a tremendous difference to current and future generations and our public land heritage.
Final Thoughts
There are so many ways to make a difference. Thanks for helping to make sure that our public lands will be enjoyed now and for generations to come.
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