Happy National Public Lands Day!
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
“There is nothing so American as our national parks….The fundamental idea behind the parks…is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Today is National Public Lands Day, a day celebrating the magnificent landscape that our nation’s beloved wild horses and burros call home.
Photo by Kimerlee Curyl
The conservation of our public lands — and the wildlife that inhabit them — is a proud statement of what Americans value. It’s a testament to our nation’s innate desire to protect what’s wild and free.
Currently, there are 640 million acres of federally protected land across the United States where elk trek the plains, eagles soar across the large western sky, and where wild horses and burros roam the rugged landscape.
But Meredith, our public lands, and our wild herds who inhabit them, are in danger. A century and a half ago, the U.S. supported almost two billion acres of public lands – nearly three times what it is today.
And alongside this dwindling public landscape has been the systematic elimination of America’s wild horses and burros’ habitat. These federally protected animals now live on just 27 million acres of public lands in ten Western states.
Worse, the federal government is determined to continue shrinking wild horse and burro populations even further as inhumane helicopter roundups continue, all while giving 97% of those lands — your lands — to the commercial livestock industry that has been lobbying for the removal of these innocent animals for decades and that wants to replace them with cattle and sheep grazing that we, the taxpayers, subsidize.
We know that there is a better way to manage our nation’s wild horses and burros on public lands where they belong. That’s why we’ve been fighting day in and day out in the field, in the courts, and on the Hill to conserve wild horses and burros for generations to come and protect the lands they call home. If you’re with us, please share this graphic on social media and join our fight.
Happy National Public Lands Day!
– The American Wild Horse Campaign