Where I live around Lake Tahoe, families are deeply connected to public lands. We hike and fish, off-road, mountain bike and ski on publicly-managed lands. This feeds the local economy, where rural businesses count on visitors drawn to these beautiful and shared landscapes.
When public lands are managed responsibly, everyone benefits. But when political leaders prioritize private interests over public use and responsible stewardship, then access shrinks, landscapes fragment, and entire communities lose.
That’s why this moment calls for strong leadership from our elected officials – including Rep. Kevin Kiley.
The Bureau of Land Management oversees roughly 10 percent of all land in the United States, including millions of acres in California. In Kiley’s district, large swaths of public lands in the Mono Basin and Eastern Sierras are managed by the BLM and valued for recreation, wildlife habitat, water resources, tourism, and cultural sites — including Mono Lake, Saddlebag Lake, June Lake, and Bodie Hills. These lands are meant to be managed for multiple uses and long-term public benefit – not short-term profit.
Yet these public lands are facing mounting threats. The nomination of Steve Pearce to lead the BLM is one example of the direction some in Washington want to take – prioritizing expanded drilling and mining, weakening longstanding environmental safeguards, and even the proposed sale or transfer of national public lands. Pearce has previously supported legislation that would have authorized the disposal of public lands and has questioned whether the federal government should retain ownership of large swaths of them at all.
Our public lands near Lake Tahoe, in the eastern Sierras, across Rep Kiley’s district are also under pressure from climate change and wildfire risk.
Rep. Kevin Kiley has an opportunity to do the right thing for his constituents and stand firmly on the side of public lands in his district, which are some of the most marvelous in the world.
But as a member of the Public Lands Caucus, he voted in favor of resolutions to strip protections and management from public lands, including for the watershed of the popular Boundary Waters Wilderness in northern Minnesota. The House will likely soon consider a similar resolution to repeal the management plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. These actions could open the door to rolling back plans and protections for other monuments, wilderness areas, and other conserved lands in California and across the country.
This is not a partisan issue. Public lands enjoy broad bipartisan support across political lines. Folks deeply oppose these sell offs and want to see local business and culture prioritized over corporate profits.
We need Rep Kiley to take a strong stand for our public lands. We need him to help stop these threats before they come to places we cherish in California. Our public lands are not expendable. Once access is lost, it is rarely restored. This moment calls for leadership that protects what belongs to all of us.
Miranda Scalzo
Kings Beach
