Protecting America’s Parks & Public Lands for All
Approximately 600 million acres of land and water in the United States are managed for public use. These public lands include federal lands like national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and monuments, as well as state and local areas owned by the public.
Many federal agencies manage these public places, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. With the help of employees in these agencies, PEER is committed to safeguarding our public lands so that they provide habitat for wildlife, opportunities for people to enjoy nature, and the preservation of intact, undisturbed ecosystems.
PEER also supports increased staff levels in land management agencies. Rangers and land managers are facing declining budgets, lower staffing levels, and an increase in responsibilities as the use of our public lands grows dramatically.
Here’s how PEER is pushing back against efforts to undermine our public lands for the benefit of special interests.
U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Grazing & Rangeland Health
Livestock grazing allows heavily subsidized private operators to destroy our public lands. PEER is a leader in challenging government agencies to protect and restore wildlife and ecosystems from the effects of overgrazing.
Oil & Gas
Too often, regulatory agencies ignore the environmental and public health harm caused by oil and gas development on public lands. PEER works to minimize the impacts of the fossil fuel industry on public lands.
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Wilderness Areas
National parks contain some of the most magnificent wild lands in our nation and, for that matter, the world. PEER advocates passionately for increased protections for existing wilderness areas and expanding existing wilderness designations.
Park Overflights
Excessive commercial intrusions in the skies above national parks are too common. PEER is continuing its successful work to limit commercial air tours over parks that disturb wildlife and ruin the visitor experience.
Cell Towers on Public Lands
Cell phone towers are spreading across national parks without proper planning and public input. PEER is challenging the National Park Service to involve the public and protect the wilderness experience in its decisions on building new telecommunications infrastructure on public lands.
Plastic-Free Parks
Plastics are inundating our national parks, harming wildlife and public health and wasting precious government resources on managing the waste. PEER is working to speed up the phaseout of single–use plastics in national parks and is calling for steep reductions in plastic usage at parks.
A SNAPSHOT OF PEER’S PAST EFFORTS
Here are some examples of how PEER has made a difference:
- Helped get genetically modified crops out of National Wildlife Refuges
- Halted off-road vehicles from destroying national forests, parks, and fragile desert lands
- Successfully forced reductions in disruptive air tours over many of America’s national parks
PEER’S PERSPECTIVE
Letter to Interior Secretary Burgum – National Park Service Probationary Employees
READ MORE NEWS ON PARKS & PUBLIC LANDS
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Unprecedented “Pay-to-Play” Deal Gives Private Bike Group Backcountry Access
Big Cypress ORV Plan Triggers Lawsuit Threat
Proposed Trail Network Poses Threat to Florida Panther and Other Protected Species
Obama Administration Embraces GE Crops on Wildlife Refuges
Plans Issued to Green-Light Genetically Engineered Agriculture on Scores of Refuges
Court Orders Redo of Federal ORV Plan for Millions of Acres in California’s West Mojave Desert
Court Orders Redo of Federal ORV Plan for Millions of Acres in California's West Mojave Desert San Francisco — A federal judge Saturday issued an order forcing the Bureau of Land Management to redo its plans for off-road vehicle use on millions of acres of public land...
Feds Drop Effort to Salvage Bison Range Tribal Pact
Refuge Has Not Rehired Staff After Tribal Funding Agreement Rescinded
Feds Yank GE Crops From All Northeast Refuges
Settlement of Bombay Hook Suit Makes Southeast Refuges Next Legal Target
Wilderness Vanishing Act in Big Cypress
Converting 40,000 Wilderness-Suitable Acres to ORV Trails Violates Law and Policy
Bid to Carve Tribal Park out of Redwood National Park
Yurok Tribe Push Legislation to Take Over Scenic Park, Forest & Sanctuary Lands
