Hi Everyone - I’ve missed you over the last week! Glad to be back. Hopefully you’re a little bit pleased to see this newsletter back in your inbox as well!
I just took a few days break to regroup and look ahead to the next quarter, AND I’ve been planning some new things associated with this newsletter too, which you’ll hear about on Thursday! (I know….it’s hard to contain yourself…but please try, you’re embarrassing your kids).
I spent the last four days in a state park, one of over 6,600 state parks in the US, according to a report from Resources for the Future, together covering over 14 million acres. Our national parks cover even more territory: 85 million acres. And that doesn’t include others areas managed by the US Forest Service, or other agencies. Altogether the US has over 275 million acres that are considered protected lands. This is an extraordinary 12% of the land area of the U.S. In our marine territories, it’s even greater. We protect over 37% of U.S. marine areas, more than 1.2 million sq miles.
The systems of state and federal protected areas in the U.S. is something I think we could talk more about! It’s a jewel in America’s crown as far as I’m concerned (and yes, I know we more or less banished crowns 250 years or so ago, but stay with me).
We are benefitting now from the foresight our leaders showed well over 100 years ago and since then, including during the toughest economic times we’ve ever faced - in the 1930s - the protected areas were extended and ingenious solutions deployed to further build them out and keep people employed.
A lot of state parks benefited from something called the Civilian Conservation Corps, started in the 1930s as part of the New Deal to combat unemployment during the Great Depression. We owe much of the infrastructure and the forest (3.5 billion trees were planted) to the CCC and its work. The Corps faded as World War II began, but I’d like to think we could use its lessons to facilitate something more modern to promote both service and conservation-focused work.
I was camping at a Tennessee state park and for about $30/night, I had electricity and water, access to a shower and bathroom, and was surrounded by trees near a large lake. I could explore to my heart’s content on miles of well-maintained trails, or do absolutely nothing. And, as well as being a place of recreation, the area is protected from large scale development, is a sanctuary for wildlife, and a source of oxygen, healthy soil, biodiversity, and quite a lot of mud, this week.
My little camping fee helps maintain the park of course, along with the state’s general fund, grants, and some federal money (along with various other sources). Money hugely well spent it seems to me.
Tennessee alone has 56 state parks, and the acreage in state parks across the country has been steadily rising since the 1980s at least.
So I can’t cover all 6,600 state parks, but just for today, here is a list of the over 20 ways the federal government protects land in the US. Some of these areas exclude all development and some allow controlled development, recreation, or resource exploitation (e.g. lumber).
I contend that our next chapter needs to support and celebrate this great system. Our states and nation would be much poorer without these wild, wildish, historical, and recreational places.
Federal protected area designations
National Park System
National Parks
National Preserves
National Seashores
National Lakeshores
National Forest
National Forests
National Grasslands
National Conservation Lands
National Monuments
National Conservation Areas
Wilderness Areas
Wilderness Study Areas
National Wild and Scenic Rivers
National Scenic Trails
National Historic Trails
Cooperative Management and Protection Areas
Forest Reserves
Outstanding Natural Areas
National Marine Sanctuaries
National Recreation Areas
National Estuarine Research Reserves
National Trails System
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System
National Wilderness Preservation System
National Wildlife Refuge System
Have you read/listened to Nature's Silent Message by Scott Stillman? And his first book - Wilderness - The gateway to the soul?
I think you'd like them both... :)