There鈥檚 no denying that politics and the outdoors are linked. Most of our favorite playgrounds are federally owned, meaning what happens in Washington, D.C., affects our wild places. Of course, that doesn鈥檛 mean we always agree about how our public lands should be managed. The most recent controversy has to do with our national monuments, which U.S. presidents have been designating for more than a century. Bears Ears National Monument, in Utah, has provoked fierce debate since its creation by then-President Obama last December; this June, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recommended that Donald Trump shrink its boundaries. (Zinke has since done the same for .)
Bears Ears is far from the only politically charged place where outdoor lovers recreate. Which is why we鈥檙e inviting you to , a private group on Facebook. This will be the go-to spot for discussions about what these lands mean and how they should be governed. We want you to use the forum for posting links, asking questions, and sharing the stories that are most important to you. Several journalists who鈥檝e been reporting on public lands, plus several of their sources, will be there to share their unique perspectives as well. Although the group will be labeled 鈥closed,鈥 anyone who requests to join and answers a question will be approved.
Many 国产吃瓜黑料 readers write to us each month praising our politically oriented stories or asking that we do more to encourage activism in favor of protecting the national monuments. Many others write in complaining that we鈥檙e biased, asking us to shut up about politics or simply trying to persuade us that national monuments aren鈥檛 so great in the first place. We鈥檙e launching this forum in an earnest effort to satisfy both sides: Rather than hitting all our readers over the head with constant public lands coverage of our own, we鈥檙e building a stand-alone hub for balanced debate, where interested parties鈥攈unters, hikers, Republicans, and Democrats alike鈥攃an add insight. (Those of you who aren鈥檛 interested might consider becoming fans of our instead.)
In the end, this forum isn鈥檛 really about politics鈥攊t鈥檚 about outdoor access. If you care about whether Vinod Khosla has the right to ban surfers from the waves that touch his California beach, or whether Yosemite has been ruined by bumper-to-bumper traffic, you care about public lands. And we care about your opinions.