I received a well written email from the head of student council at a local high school asking for BHA to come table an event during their Earth Week. He was put up to this task by his environmental science teacher, who just so happens to be a BHA member as well.  I coordinated with the student and picked a date for me to come in at lunch. Prior to Earth Week, I also dropped off BHA donated supplies to help with their Earth Day trash clean-up.

With donated supplies from BHA, the students picked up lots of trash around campus.

Now, how to catch high schoolers fleeting attention during a lunch break? The answer came to me a week before the event when I was turkey hunting with a creative and artistic 13 year old. She wanted to try to make a quill out of a turkey feather from the bird she would hopefully harvest. Later at home, pursuing my new “The Turkey Book” by Jesse Griffiths, there was a page with instructions. I just so happened to already have a bottle of ink handy as I write with a fountain pen, so I only needed some fresh turkey feathers for the project. 

Two days before the event I was lucky enough to fill one of my turkey tags. Feathers procured! After processing my turkey and saving all the wing feathers, I dug out my Exacto knives and proceeded to try to make a quill. And quickly became discouraged with how hard it was to cut mature Tom wing feathers. I sort of managed to make one, without cutting off any of my fingers. This is when I did what any rational person would do: get out the power tools. Or at least mini power tools. The Dremel made quick work of the 40 or so feathers and I only had to do one cut on each with the blade.

The quills were a hit. Loads of students and teachers wanted to try writing with them and many of them brought one home. I asked each person to write down their favorite public land spot. Some students knew right away what public lands were and what their favorite spot was. Others needed a little prompting: do you go camping, hiking, spend any time outdoors?  In looking through the list at the end of the day, a theme appeared: local spots, easily accessible by teenagers, were popular.

Later the same day, I was at a meeting for the outdoor program at North Idaho College. Chatting with some of the students enrolled in that program, the same theme emerged: the public lands and waters they have access to through class and after class were the routine favorites. Paddle boarding at the public lake access, mountain biking, riding horses, dirt bikes or hiking on Forest Service and BLM trails adjacent to town, or skiing backcountry powder in the local mountains. The entire outdoor program revolves around public land: activity locations are based on special use permits with the Forest Service and BLM. The future careers of many of these students will also depend on public lands, as they will go on to be rock climbing, rafting, or fishing guides working for outfitters who also operate under special use permits on our federal lands. Trips these students will lead are an important part of the conservation conversation, as they introduce people to special places just beyond their ordinary reach. These spots then become tangible locations worth protecting.

For me, my interactions with these students hammered home the message that every acre matters. Many in my circle of friends, hunters and backcountry adventurers, have favorite spots far into the backcountry. But for many, the easy access wildland-urban interface acres are the favorites. The ones you can go to again and again for a dose of solitude, reflection, exercise, art, beauty, or friendship. These are the very same spots that some in our current legislative administration want to take away from us. The favorite acres of high schoolers and college students (and a lot of adults) would be the first to go if the proceeds from public land sales are used to reduce the federal deficit. The characteristics that make these acres usable to so many also make them prime real estate: road access, adjacent utilities, coveted locations on the edge or even center of town, sometimes even lakeshore. But we can’t let that happen. We need those spaces, all our kids need those spaces, their kids will need those spaces in the future.

Every Acre Matters.

I urge you to take action and tell your representative these lands shouldn't be for sale.