America is a breathtakingly beautiful country. From the Rockies to the Appalachian Trail, from the Grand Canyon to Acadia, its majesty is all around. If you’ve never had your breath taken away by America’s natural beauty, you haven’t been looking very hard.
America has led the world in the preservation of natural spaces for all of its people to experience and has long been the envy of the world in this regard. Every American holds equal ownership of these places and has a fundamental right to enjoy them. These natural resources should be left in a pristine condition for our children and children’s children to enjoy. Visits to and memories of our natural monuments should tie generations together.
Additionally, our waterways are an integral part of our ecosystem, and they’re interconnected in a way that makes it difficult to protect one without protecting all of them. These waterways are necessary for farming and drinking water, and damaging them harms us all.
The creation and protection of public land has historically been a bipartisan ideal. In recent years, some industry groups have used financial and political power to influence elected officials against the greater public interest. This misguided effort must be stopped and protections must be put in place to prevent public lands from being usurped for private benefit.
Problems to be Solved
- checkProtections of America’s public lands, water, and natural monuments have been eroded in recent years, threatening their preservation for future generations.
- Our forefathers were visionary in the establishment of national parks and public lands. Today, the almighty dollar is overrunning our ability to preserve their legacy. We owe it to our descendants to maintain and preserve natural resources and lands for public benefit.
Goals
- checkProtect and grow America’s public lands and waters, and natural monuments, for future generations
As President I will...
- Maintain protections for currently designated public lands and monuments and explore the designation of new lands when and where possible during my tenure.
- Appoint a Secretary of the Interior who pledges to not return publicly held land back to private hands without my express approval.
- Oppose turning federally held land over to states, preventing the sale or for-profit extraction of lands by state governments.
- Restore protection to much of the 13m+ acres of land stripped of it during the tenure of the current administration.
- Reinstate federal water protections ended under the current administration.
- Expand the Every Kid in a Park initiative to provide funding for school trips to natural monuments and public lands, thus instilling a love and reverence for these treasures to future generations.