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. 

Oil and Gas Drilling

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

Cell Tower Invasion

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

Grazing Reform

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

Off-Road Wreckreation

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

Commercializing Parks

“Orphaned” Park Wilderness

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

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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PEERMail: BLM’s Darkest Days Cloud Your Future

Aug 14, 2019

The Trump Administration’s effort to crush the federal civil service has hit the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) hard. The BLM manages nearly 250 million acres of public land, an astonishingly diverse landscape of mountains, forests, deserts, grasslands and...

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