Parks and Public Lands

Protecting America’s Public Lands

Roughly 300 million acres of American lands, most in the West, are set aside as public lands and maintained using taxes paid by all Americans. These lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and National Wildlife Refuge System are by charter supposed to be managed for multiple uses including recreation and provision of wildlife habitat and clean water sources. Increasingly, however, they are run for the benefit of extractive industries and with little regard for the preservation of the rare wildlife or iconic natural beauty for which they are famous. 

With the help of conscientious range management specialists, scientists, law enforcement officers and other workers within these agencies, PEER is uncovering how our precious national heritage is being sold to the highest bidder, often under the direction of poorly qualified and illegally appointed political appointees. 

Grazing Reform

Livestock grazing allows heavily subsidized private operators to degrade our public lands.

Plastic Free Parks

Our national parks are drowning in a rising tide of plastic waste.

Cell Tower Invasion

Cell phone towers spread across national parks without proper planning and public input.

Off-Road Wreckreation

Off-road vehicle abuse is a growing problem on our public lands, especially in the West.

Oil and Gas Drilling

Environmental and public health risks are being ignored by regulatory agencies and decisions heavily influenced by profit-driven industries.

“Orphaned” Park Wilderness

Twenty-five million acres of recommended wilderness in our national park system are in limbo, marooned by politics.

A New Era for the Bureau of Land Management

In January and February of 2021, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) conducted a series of in-depth phone interviews with current and former Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees from nine states from Headquarters, State Offices and Field Offices. The purpose of this survey was to identify steps the Biden administration can take to strengthen the institutional capacity of the BLM to better address conservation and climate change goals. read the report»

Beyond 2020

Learn more about steps Congress and the Biden Administration can take to move the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service into a better run healthier future. Read More»

NEWS FROM PEER

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Can National Parks Practice Social Distancing?

Apr 13, 2020

The still-unfolding pandemic has underlined the public health risks that national parks and refuges pose both to the visiting public and their own employees. How can national parks dedicated to attracting crowds operate in a new era of social distancing?

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