Author: Alexander (Alex) Bickers

Alex Bickers is a conservation professional and volunteer Content Creator & Program Assistant for Get Outdoors Arizona, where he helps research and create newsletter content, business spotlights, and stories that connect people to the outdoors. His background includes supervisory roles at animal sanctuaries and zoos, contributing to high standards of animal welfare and conservation. Alex is dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild lands.

Lately, wildlife conservationists from all across the United States have been saying the same thing: We need to protect our public lands.  It's no surprise that this call to action is happening now, as we've been seeing wave after wave of political attacks on our public lands and their protections.  But as all these wildlife-focused organizations rally to conserve these lands, you might ask: What does all this actually have to do with wildlife?  

Two of the biggest threats to wildlife in the United States are habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation.  Habitat destruction is when a natural environment is altered in a way that no longer allows the native wildlife to live there.  Mountain lions can't live in cities, bighorn sheep can't live on farmland, and otters can't live in polluted rivers.  As human development expands and people unsustainably extract natural resources, viable wildlife habitat shrinks.

When habitat isn't totally destroyed, it is fragmented.  Habitat fragmentation is the division of wildlife habitat into smaller, separated pieces of habitat.  Habitat fragmentation requires animals to cross busy roads or human civilization in order to get to other parts of their habitat for mates or resources- if they can even get there at all.  It isolates their range into smaller, unconnected pieces of land that may be impossible or dangerous to reach.  As a result, not only are animals more limited in space and resources, but animal populations are split apart into smaller groups that may not have enough individuals and genetic diversity to thrive.

Public lands (such as National Parks, National Forests, National Monuments, and BLM Lands) prevent large amounts of connected land from becoming urbanized, thereby protecting crucial wildlife habitat and migration corridors from being destroyed.  They make up some of the largest continuous pieces of wildlife habitat in the country, and they provide protections for wildlife that simply would not exist if the land were free to be sold off, drained of resources, and developed.  Some types of public lands even take it a step further, offering total protection of the natural landscape: The Wilderness Act of 1964 established Wilderness Areas that must remain completely preserved as they would be without human presence.  

So taking all that into account, it's easy to see how these lands provide important wildlife habitat.  But when it comes to public lands and how they benefit wildlife, there is still one final piece to this puzzle, and that's the human element.  Think about this: What creates a conservationist?  What makes people care enough about wildlife to want to conserve it?  Public lands allow people to connect with nature by immersing themselves in it; they give people the opportunity to enjoy outdoor recreation in natural areas that they would otherwise not have access to.  Public lands are where someone might see their first desert tortoise and spark a lifelong interest, or where a child might hunt their first deer and end up later becoming a wildlife biologist.  The bond with nature that people form on these lands follows them for life and gets passed down through generations.

Like everyone keeps saying, public lands belong to all of us, and we have a right to enjoy the lands that make this country one of a kind.  But if that's not enough reason to care, just remember: Public lands are not just for us.  They're for our wildlife as well.