Saving Nevada’s public lands isn’t a partisan issue. Here’s how you can help.

Originally posted in Reno Gazette Journal

By Bruce Old

Patagonia has a history with Ryan Zinke.

When the first Trump administration shrank Bears Ears National Monument in 2017, we joined a coalition of Indigenous and conservation groups suing the administration to block reduction of the monument’s boundaries. We saw — and still see — the move as illegal. The Antiquities Act allows presidents to create but not shrink or rescind national monuments.

Then-Interior Secretary Zinke called our claims “shameful” and “appalling” among other things. The House Natural Resources Committee claimed we were lying, but we did not back down from holding Zinke and the administration accountable.

Today, Patagonia is again asking our community to defend public lands. But this time, we’re on the same side as Zinke, who is now a Montana congressman, fighting for public lands.
Zinke’s recent comments at a press conference launching the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus could have been written by Patagonia: “Our public land is not a Republican or Democrat issue,” he said, “it’s an American issue.” By breaking from tired political narratives, Zinke is doing the work to show both sides of the aisle care about public lands protection and preventing the issue from becoming tainted by polarization.

Public lands are supported by the majority of Americans for what they are, not what’s beneath them — or how much they can be sold for. Without public support, many of these places may be condemned to drilling, mining and development. We know the best way to build that support is by engaging local populations, so we are calling on our communities to elevate the issue to their representatives. Including Nevada.

I’ve been in Nevada for the past 25 years running Patagonia’s global distribution center, which opened in 1996. We employ nearly 800 people in the state across multiple functions. We co-founded the Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition and have supported 55 environmental organizations in the state with $1.6 million in grants since 1995. Our employees test products and find connection to nature in this state’s public lands.

We also know the “Nevada way” of handling things, and our employees are deeply invested in communities and local issues. That is why we need to call out Rep. Mark Amodei’s last-minute amendment — which Rep. Zinke said he would work with House leadership to get removed from the bill if the GOP wants it passed — to sell off nearly 100,000 acres of public land in the state. We need Nevadans to join us in calling Amodei and their representatives to urge them to prevent any such selloff. The amendment also includes approximately 11,000 acres in Utah (including thousands in the district of Rep. Celeste Maloy, a relative of the Bundy family).

In addition to the flawed notion that public lands can ease the housing shortage, including it in the reconciliation process circumvented the public input process entirely — which may have been intentional if you look at the poll numbers.

Seventy-five percent of Nevada respondents to a Colorado College poll of Western States residents said developers should focus housing to be closer to existing communities. Sixty-one percent of Nevada respondents also opposed turning over public lands to state governments.

We’ve long suspected public lands are a political issue strictly in legislatures. Polls and Zinke’s comments reflect that sentiment: Nearly three-quarters of Americans oppose the sale of public lands, according to a Trust for Public Land poll, which surveyed 4,000 residents across political ideologies. The Colorado College poll found 81 percent of Trump supporters in Western states believe the government should keep national monuments protections in place as they are. On a personal level, I’ve spent many days on public lands fishing, hunting and recreating. Nevadans know the value of these places is in keeping them wild.

Poll after poll shows Americans want to see nature protected. It’s on all of us — the MAGA diehard, the environmentalist, the birdwatcher, hunter, climber, camper, runner and everyday Americans — to make sure all of Congress knows it.