Commentary: Public lands such as forests have historically been protected by Republicans, but now face threats from Trump's short-term, corporate-driven policies; Park Service staff faces loss of budget resources, and efforts are underway to weaken NEPA

May 19, 2025 (The Asheville Citizen-Times) –

The billionaires and polluters are after America’s public lands. For generations, our national parks, monuments, Bureau of Land Management lands and national forests have been natural treasures for all Americans. They have enjoyed widespread, bipartisan support. In fact, Theodore Roosevelt , the first Republican president of the 20th century, was instrumental in establishing many of the protected lands we enjoy today. He protected 230 million acres of land. He also signed the Antiquities Act into law, allowing U.S. presidents to establish national monuments. 

Sadly, we are living to see an unprecedented attack on the idea of protected public lands belonging to all of us and future generations. President Trump and his appointed enablers are scheming to raid public lands for short-term gains, for corporate greed and for billionaires’ pockets. They want to sell off our national treasures, or greatly reduce their size.

Many of the attacks are focused on western lands, but in Western North Carolina we are facing the impoverishment of our collective ecological welfare through WNC-specific impacts of funding and staff reductions at the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service . The Park Service employees charged with the protection and stewardship of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway are caught in a vise of dictated policy directives and loss of budget resources. Likewise, the staff of the U.S. Forest Service , many of whom entered their careers with the honest commitment to be good stewards, are now unable to freely speak to the public and to reporters about the internal chaos occurring within their agency.

It is important to note that the landmark federal laws governing how these public lands are managed were signed into law by Republican presidents. These laws balance the many legitimate uses of the land in ways that conserve and preserve their characteristics for the future. However, efforts are underway by the current administration to gut and/or ignore the National Environmental Policy Act, which, among other things, requires environmental analysis of proposed actions and public involvement. Already the implementing rules have been discarded. This puts activities, such as logging, in the dark as far as their impacts to ecological values such as wildlife, clean water and clean air. NEPA was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon , who also signed into law the Endangered Species Act in 1973. It represents the most comprehensive law to protect species of plant and animals from extinction due to commercial activities, like endangered bats in WNC.

In 1973, President Gerald Ford signed into law the National Forest Management Act, which governs the requirement for comprehensive Forest Management Plans to achieve balanced uses. This law, along with the rules developed to implement it, was used — albeit with significant errors — to develop the 2023 Plan for the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests. These three laws give citizens a say over the management of their lands and allows them to seek administrative and judicial relief from decisions they believe to be inconsistent with the intent of the law. The Sierra Club and other conservation groups have relied on this landscape of key legislation and rules to even the playing field between commercial interests and the public interest we advocate for.

That’s why this administration is attacking them, and is seeking to dismantle over a half-century of legal precedent, and over 125 years of presidential and bi-partisan leadership. They know they can’t win on level ground and in the daylight. They must manufacture artificial “emergencies” to justify their schemes. In short, your public lands are being raided for the enrichment of the already wealthy in a manner that will impair and strip their value for future generations.

To act now is to support the embattled public lands agencies and employees who are being led by political appointees with directives and goals that are the very antithesis of the mission at the core of these agencies. If we do not speak out and push back at this critical juncture, then we are at risk of losing our wonderful natural heritage. It will never be more important to ask our U.S. representatives and senators to stand up for our treasured parks and forests.

More: Opinion: Who will care for our public lands? The unseen cost of shrinking government

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David Reid is a 41-year resident of Swannanoa and long-time activist with the NC Chapter of the Sierra Club . He represented the Sierra Club in the revision process for the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forest Plan. He serves as National Forest Issues Chair for the NC Sierra Club and leads outings.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: America's and WNC public lands likes Smokies, parkway are under attack Trump