As the publisher of Alpinist, Backcountry, Cross Country Skier and Mountain Flyer, Height of Land Publications represents a broad and passionate community of climbers, skiers, mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts whose lives, livelihoods, and identities are deeply rooted in public lands. We stand in firm opposition to the provisions in the House Natural Resources committee bill that proposes the sale of over 500,000 acres of federal public lands in Utah and Nevada.
The dangerous precedent this sale would set is well outside any existing statutory construct for the sale of public lands. In short, what goes next?
Roosevelt said it best: “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.”
That ethic of stewardship is as relevant today as it was more than a century ago. Public lands are not disposable assets.
