Laura, I think this is a long-term battle that wanes and waxes with political winds. As far as getting true information to the public, I suggest that public land activists reach out to reporters directly with simple, basic and accurate information about public lands management.

If a local paper gets a new reporter to cover public lands, someone should make contact with her/him and discuss some of these basic concepts. And since reader comments are always well read, it’s always worth responding and having a civil discussion, like we are doing here.

I would also like to see public lands advocacy groups engage with the public in a more pro-active way. Rather than waiting to react to some controversial issue, activists could continually be reaching out to schools, civic groups, churches, scout troops, etc, to spread the word about our incredible public lands legacy. The Mono Lake Committee used that approach with great success in the battle to save Mono Lake.

It’s also important for citizens to engage in the land-use planning processes I described. When people have a stake in the process, they can sometimes buy into the result, even if they’re not 100 percent happy with it.

I’ve often thought that schools in areas with bit swaths of public lands should devote some time to teaching students about their public lands heritage.

I recently had a long conversation with a Swiss teacher who described to me how they start teaching about participatory democracy during the early years of primary school, with students involved in referendum-type votes right from the start. That helps them later exercise their obligations in a responsible way.

I know that’s kind of an aside, but like with so many other things, I believe education is the key. In the West, especially, where public lands are a big part of the social, cultural, environmental and economic landscapes, schools are really missing something if they don’t talk about that very specifically. I know that doesn’t mesh with national and state educational standards, etc, but I’m sure that civics and science teachers could figure out ways to bring that discussion into their curriculae.

Sorry for the over-long response, but you can see, I have thought about this quite a bit. Probably comes from years of reporting on this topic: http://summitcountyvoice.com/?s=public+lands