Public lands are an amazing American legacy

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a fish resting in the lee of a big rock. As I drifted by I recorded one more cutthroat trout on a waterproof clipboard strapped to my wrist. As a young fishery technician I was helping a biologist determine how many and what species lived in Kelly Creek. Twice a week I'd don diving gear and collect data.

Kelly Creek is in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest, where the US Forest Service manages land for ecological health. Kelly gurgles westward through the wild Bitterroot Mountains to join the Clearwater, Snake, Columbia and eventually Pacific. Watershed vegetation grips the soil so firmly that Kelly's water is devoid of silt and chemicals. Some of that pure water eventually enters homes and irrigates crops downstream. The Creek is a premier destination for anglers.

A few years later I was a fishery biologist conducting salmon and trout research on streams flowing into Bristol Bay, Alaska. About 21 million salmon are sustainably harvested there each year and end up in grocery stores worldwide. Some Bay tributaries sustain 14 pound wild rainbow trout! The fishery is healthy because of superb land care by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and management by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, my former employer.

Kelly's cutthroats and the Bay's salmon have one thing in common-both thrive in clean water on public land.

In September my son, Dan, and I joined volunteers directed by Wyoming BLM staff and removed a mile of mesh fence that prevented pronghorn antelope from migrating. We replaced it with fencing they could cross. The project was a tiny example of the BLM's sensitivity to wildlife.

Public land is uniquely American. Many countries lack them. Vast tracts of property, mostly in Western States, constitute about one of every five American acres. Held and managed by the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service they are open for outdoor recreation and sustainable resource production. The lumber in many houses and beef or salmon on the dinner table may have originated on our public land.

In our nation's early days Federal policy encouraged privatization of public land. The Homestead Act, for example, allowed people to easily obtain land if they'd convert it into farms, ranches, or mines. Vast tracts were given to railroads. The Louisiana Purchase brought all of Iowa into government ownership but within a half century nearly every acre was privatized.

Government policy began shifting when President US Grant signed a bill creating Yellowstone National Park in 1872. The government didn't buy Yellowstone. It was part of the Louisiana Purchase and already in Federal ownership. Grant simply withdrew it from privatization because of its amazing natural features. He started a tradition of withdrawing land from privatization in an era when conservation was a Republican priority. Several later presidents created national forests and parks but none with the gusto of Theodore Roosevelt. His legacy is dozens of national forests, parks, and wildlife refuges that today are open for enjoyment, education, and the careful extraction of forage, timber, and minerals.

Our public lands are under political threat. Senator Ted Cruz, mining companies, and some western states advocate selling it to private interests or transferring it to Western states where it will receive less environmental scrutiny. It's a bad idea. Expanded drilling, mining, and livestock grazing will sully water and 'no hunting or trespassing signs” could appear.

Our public lands resulted from progressive conservation action and are America's playground. Hopefully politicians of both parties will recognize their value and cherish and protect them.

' Before becoming a nature center director fishery biologist Rich Patterson worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service. He and his wife own Winding Pathways LLC. Comments: windingpathways.com.