OPINION — During long deployments overseas, surrounded by concrete barriers, barren landscapes and constant deadly toxins, a soldier looks for a place in their mind that grounds them. For many service members, that mental anchor is America’s preserved public lands. These vast and uninhabited spaces belong to every citizen equally.
This is why the recent decision by Trump and supported by Rep. Juan Ciscomani and others to slash the neighboring boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah by 90% is deeply troubling. This executive action strips protections from millions of acres of public land. It opens up pristine terrain to data-center development and mining interests. This move fundamentally misinterprets what makes America unique.
Our nation’s vast system of protected and public land is a distinctly American victory. Unlike the rest of the world, where forests and game reserves were and remain the exclusive private property of kings, aristocrats and oligarchs, the United States set out on a radical idea: The most beautiful landscapes in our nation should be owned collectively by the people, not tech billionaires.
