And here’s my submission

The first time I heard the name Wyss, it was during a staff meeting discussing grant proposals. I was fresh into my new role as Membership Director for a statewide conservation group here in Arizona, and we were reviewing our existing funding sources. The Wyss Foundation figured prominently in our revenue spreadsheets—as it does for many, many public lands groups across the West.

A year later, I found myself working for the Sierra Club on a special project to help defend five recently-designated national monuments that now found themselves under threat from the Bush Administration. While I was already well into my national parks quest, which included nearly all of the existing national monuments, I wasn’t very familiar with the new ones I was charged with advocating for.

That’s because these were managed by the Bureau of Land Management instead of the National Park Service. The BLM, as it’s more commonly known, manages more public lands than any other federal agency—nearly 1/7 of the land mass of the United States. But unfortunately, due to both history and politics and even policy, the BLM doesn’t have a strong tradition of conservation. In fact, the BLM was often jokingly referred to as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining.

Our National Conservation Lands

Bruce Babbitt, a fellow Arizonan and the Secretary of the Interior under President Clinton, had a strategy to change that. When Clinton designated a number of national monuments during his term—starting with the amazing Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument—Babbitt broke with tradition and kept the BLM in charge instead of transferring management to the National Park Service.

If you want BLM to do good things, you have to give them good things to do.

– Bruce Babbitt—countless times—on his strategy to instill a stronger conservation ethic into the BLM

That act began what’s now known as the National Conservation Lands, which comprises about 10% of BLM’s public lands and might be our nation’s last great system of protected public lands. The idea was that if you could help create even incremental change in BLM’s culture, you could have a huge effect on land management across the country.

The Wyss Foundation played a major role in securing and establishing the National Conservation Lands after its establishment. It funded the entirety of my own position, plus those of many of my fellow colleagues in other conservation groups. In my work, I helped launch and develop several local Friends groups for these national monuments. And who funded these small, grassroots groups? You guessed it.

Conservation Lands Foundation

Eventually, this ballooning and historic effort needed a new home, and the Conservation Lands Foundation was born. The Wyss Foundation was instrumental in establishing and funding the group, which boasted an incredible board of directors, including Bruce Babbitt, Stewart Udall, and the heads of many heralded public lands groups. Not long after its launch, I was lucky enough to serve as its Southwest Field Director for a number of years.

The Conservation Lands Foundation, working with a number of other partners, worked to establish critically important policy directives for the Conservation Lands, develop a vibrant network of grassroots advocates and stewards across the West, defend our public lands when necessary, spearhead new national monument designations, and educate policymakers and recreationists on the vision for this new system.

While important and pressing work still remains, it’s hard not to see a bright future for our National Conservation Lands.

Our National Conservation Lands are pretty awesome, and often under-appreciated. I’ve had an excellent time on my quest to visit each of the major areas of the system.

Wyss Campaign for Nature

Not satisfied with this historic conservation success, however, the Wyss Foundation has recently embarked on an incredibly bold new campaign to protect 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030.

Yes, you read that right: 30% by 2030.

And to help make that happen, the Wyss Foundation is committing to donating $1 billion towards the effort. Yes, you also read that right: one billion dollars.

Hansjörg Wyss

And all of that finally leads me to Hansjörg Wyss.

A Swiss native, he fell in love with America’s public lands while working a summer job as a highway surveyor in Colorado while studying at Harvard. He went on to make gobs and gobs of money producing medical devices, before selling is company for more than $20 billion.

Since that time, he’s quietly become one of the most generous philanthropists in the world. While he supports a number of causes, public lands—and what they represent—remain a meaningful part of his life and efforts.

Each investment we make in conservation is an enduring investment in democracy.

Hansjörg Wyss

Through his philanthropy to date, the Wyss Foundation has helped to protect more than 27 million acres across the US. It’s spearheaded countless projects that have resulted in tangible conservation wins. It’s helped to chart a new vision for the nation’s largest land manager, and worked hard to expand the lands included in the National Conservation Lands system. It’s invested in meaningful grassroots organizing, intended to build a network of local advocates and stewards for our public lands.

Through his continued philanthropy, the Wyss Campaign for Nature builds upon the successes and lessons learned of its previous efforts, turning its attention to the rest of the World.

For someone that few have ever heard of, that’s one helluva legacy.

Thank you, Mr. Wyss, for all that you have done for our public lands.

Check out my other posts for the #NatureWritingChallenge

Photo courtesy of Wyss Campaign For Nature.

The post A little known hero in public lands conservation appeared first on rscottjones.

I expect 2019 to be the year that I finally(!) complete some rather large travel quests that have brought me to countless public lands over the years.

This year, I hope to finish my National Parks quest, which has entailed visiting all 418 national park units. I’m starting the year having visited 406 and should finish the remainder by June 28. I’ve been working on this for well over a decade, so well…you may have heard about it at some point.

I also expect to complete two other quests related to our public lands this year. One of those is visiting all 125 national monuments, and the other is visiting all 43 of the “major” units of BLM’s National Conservation Lands. There’s some significant overlap in these three quests, but all together it encompasses 474 specially-protected public land areas across the country.

These quests have been at the center of my travels for most of my adult life, so it’ll be interesting to see how I feel when they’re officially done. They’ve played a huge role in my life—one that cannot be overstated.

One thing I’m curious about is how I’ll go about choosing future public lands adventures. For much of my life, the quests always pushed me to travel to new areas in order to mark off more national parks. Will I continue to prioritize new destinations, or will I be drawn back to some old favorites? Or will my trips to public lands slow in frequency, as I turn my focus towards the international destinations I’ve neglected over the years?

One thing is for certain: I’ll still love public lands.

Beyond destinations, one of my goals this year is to do a better job of documenting our trips—both in terms of posting photos, as well as writing. I’ve done a remarkably poor job of either the last several years.

That’s partly due to an annoying workflow for organizing and posting photos (I’m hoping a new computer will help alleviate that soon), as well as the time consuming nature of writing and editing photos. But it’s also because we tend to prioritize spending more time traveling than setting aside time once we’re home for those tasks. When we get home from a trip, I’m usually trying to catch up on things I missed, before quickly on to the next thing. And a busy travel schedule throughout the year means less time available for post-trip tasks, while simultaneously increasing the number of post-trip tasks. It’s no wonder I’ve done a poor job on it.

But I’ve recently come to see it as a more important part of the travel experience than I had previously given it credit. Writing about something always makes you consider it a bit more deeply, and I suspect that this endeavor will prove to be rewarding.

Since we prioritize travel so much in our lives, it also makes sense for us to do what we can to better preserve those memories.

Over the last few years, I’ve also slowly come to recognize that my travels have meaning for other people. Some find them personally inspiring, while others enjoy them as a momentary mental escape, and still others enjoy learning about the places I visit or the travel strategies I use. And that seems like a worthwhile reason to set aside the time to make it happen.

The post Some 2019 travel goals for #NatureWritingChallenge appeared first on rscottjones.

This week’s topic is the title of this post; though as it turned out, this post is less about #optoutside on Black Friday specifically and maybe more about choosing a life that opts outside regularly. Either way, I think you’ll get my point.

I’ve intentionally abandoned the frantic crowds of Black Friday since 1999, when I first ran across Adbusters.org’s Buy Nothing Day campaign back in college. I’ve since skipped all the crazy sales on all on the crap I really don’t need, choosing instead to either travel during Thanksgiving weekend, spend the day outside recreating, or attending the biennial Territorial Cup game when it’s played at Sun Devil Stadium.

For me, #optoutside wasn’t a new idea—it was just REI finally promoting what a bunch of us had already been doing. If you haven’t been opting outside on Black Fridays, here’s a short list of why you should change that this year.

1. They’re YOUR public lands

No need to buy a damn thing—you already own them!

And they’re among the most amazing places in the world. Spend as much time as you can enjoying them.

2. Memorable experiences > crap you bought on sale

You probably don’t need that thing, anyway. And your family would probably enjoy something a bit more personal as a gift, too, don’t you think? When you’re old and gray, the last thing you’ll remember or care about is that cheap TV you bought on Black Friday. Instead, you’ll remember the things you did and the experiences you had. That day you brought your niece to that cool waterfall and she played in the pool at its base. Or the great sunset you enjoyed during that scenic drive with your girlfriend.

Products become obsolete and worthless, but a funny thing happens with memories—as time passes, your brain remembers them as being even better than they seemed at the time. Memories gain value over time, so they’re a much better investment.

3. Hyper-consumerism blows

When you focus too intensely on what you own, you forget what’s actually important in life. When your self-worth is derived from what you’ve bought, you rob yourself of the uniqueness that makes you you.

Worse is that you’ll never gain any lasting satisfaction by buying stuff. You might get a temporary bump in satisfaction, but there will always be something “better” that comes out that you’ll need to buy to feel the same level of personal worthiness. That’s an awful treadmill to climb onto.

4. The outdoors is good for you

You probably already know this. Yes, you get some exercise. Yes, it’s far better than sitting on the couch or endlessly scrolling through facebook. And yes, it’ll also help you relax and reduce stress.

But beyond those things, it’s also great for deepening relationships. For being present in the moment. Or for new experiences. For contemplation. Or finding common ground. For sharing new places with people you love. Or making new friends.

Basically, for all the things your soul craves.

5. Minimalism & intentionality are sexy

The four most important things you own are your time, your attention, your attitude, and your health. Those four things are the currency of life.

All the stuff you own requires you to spend that currency—you spend your time to make money to buy the stuff, then do the same again to pay to store it somewhere, and then it requires more of your time and attention to manage and use it. We don’t think about it very often, but the cost for our stuff can be a lot higher than you’d expect.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy anything, ever—I’m just saying that you should carefully and deliberately consider what things you decide to own. Maybe you don’t need a need new 4k TV because you’d rather save that money to travel, or maybe you don’t need to spend as much of your limited time consuming content from it.

The point here isn’t to shame you into a life of owning nothing or to be overly preachy. It’s just to have the conversation with yourself about what you really want and what things should earn your attention. Being intentional and deliberate with your life helps ensure that you’re living the life you actually want, as opposed to the one that so many people seem to just default their way into.

Being present and intentional in life? Well, that’s sexy af.

Not convinced?

Well then, fuck it—just #optoutside for the ‘Gram instead.

The post Best reasons to #OptOutside on public lands this Black Friday appeared first on rscottjones.