Public lands in the United States are managed by a host of federal agencies for many uses, ranging from industrial development to car camping to flyfishing. The nation’s public land is a priceless asset. Without getting too nostalgic, Woody Guthrie had it right: This land was made for you and me.

It’s our birthright. Shared ownership of a shared resource provides cultural, social and economic benefits to local communities, regional economies, state and federal coffers and any citizen or visitor who desires to step off the pavement and stand, free and clear, on a piece of real estate from which no one can evict him…

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above Mia Sheppard, Oregon field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, walks to the next steelhead run down the banks of the John Day River in northeastern Oregon. The John Day, a tributary of the Columbia, is the third-longest free-flowing river in the Lower 48.

Photo: Steven Yochum