Debates over how America’s public lands should be managed are as old as the system itself, dating back to the early 1900s when President Teddy Roosevelt pioneered our current system. Disagreements have often centered on the balance between energy or resource development and protecting wild places for recreation and wildlife. I and thousands of other American citizens have fought for decades to defend our most treasured wild places—those areas with exceptional characteristics that provide the greatest value when simply left untouched. In countless battles over the years, grassroots groups and local people, all united by the fundamental idea that our federal public lands belong to all Americans and represent a core part of our country’s heritage have worked to defend these magnificent places.

The fact is, a resounding majority of Americans support the protection of our public lands. In a 2016 Harvard Kennedy School study, more than 93% of respondents across the country said it’s important that historical sites, public lands, and national parks be protected for current and future generations.

But recently, ideas are resurfacing that seek to undermine our public lands. These efforts use misleading appeals for “states’ rights” and flawed economic information to remove protections from some of our most special places in order to extract short-term profit. Backed by powerful fossil fuel and extractive industry interests, this systematic, well-organized and multifaceted movement began at the state level and now enjoys support at the highest level of government.

Removing protection for our public lands and turning this land over to private interests for private profit would amount to theft from the American people. These public lands are our legacy. Please don’t stand by and watch this legacy be taken away from us, our children and our children’s children.