Public lands provide a plethora of opportunity
There is no opportunity for productive fishing or hunting if there is no productive habitat in which to sling a line, spot and stalk or swing an over-under. Bottom line.
Public Lands
Protecting America’s Outdoor Heritage
The Value of Public Lands
America is home to 640 million acres of public land, including some of the best habitat for trout and salmon in the world. For many people in the western United States, public lands are a fact of life. They are places where families hike, float and camp; where hunters stalk big game and anglers pursue wild trout; where veterans can find solace in the outdoors. They also provide clean drinking water for communities, forests that store carbon, grazing pasture for ranchers, and raw materials—timber, oil and gas, and minerals—that help fuel the nation’s economy.
Public lands provide access and opportunity to 70 million American hunters and anglers.
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72% of sportsmen and sportswomen in the West rely on public lands for hunting.
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70% of the remaining habitat for native trout in the West is found on public land.
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50% of Blue Ribbon Trout Streams are found within public lands.
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80% of critical habitat for elk and other ungulates is found on public lands.
Outdoor recreation continues to be a major economic force for the United States, generating $1.2 trillion in economic output and supporting five million jobs in 2023.
Public lands are an essential part of our nation’s identity, economy, and outdoor traditions. That’s why defending them, and the places Americans fish and hunt is a priority for Trout Unlimited.
National Monuments and the Antiquities Act: An American Conservation Tool
National monuments are more than just designations on a map—they are public lands that provide world-class hunting and fishing opportunities. Places like Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado, which includes a stretch of the Arkansas River — a Gold Medal trout stream and one of the best trout fisheries in the southern Rockies. Or the recently designated Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California, which is the source of clean, cold water to the Fall River, California’s largest spring-fed river and a famous trophy trout fishery in which a unique strain of native rainbow trout has evolved.
In these locations, locally-driven legislative proposals to conserve these areas languished in Congress for years – sometimes decades – despite overwhelming support from hunters and anglers, local governments, and affected stakeholders. Faced with Congressional inaction, the Antiquities Act provided a path forward to conserve important fish and wildlife habitat and quality opportunities for hunting and fishing.
The Antiquities Act has been one of the most effective conservation tools in American history. Contrary to misconceptions, monument designations are not imposed from the top down; they are built from the ground up, driven by local coalitions of hunters, anglers, Tribes, and business owners. These efforts enjoy broad public support, and 85% of Western voters support creating new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges and Tribal protected areas to protect historic sites or areas for outdoor recreation.
More information on the Antiquities Act, principles for its responsible use, and the fishing and hunting opportunities national monuments offer is available in National Monuments: A Hunting and Fishing Perspective.
Trout Unlimited supports Antiquities Act national monuments that conserve fish and wildlife habitat and provide reasonable access for hunting, fishing, and wildlife management. In the last several years, Trout Unlimited has built local support, resulting in the creation of eight national monuments, including Camp Hale, Rio Grande del Norte, Sáttítla Highlands, and Baaj Nwaajo l’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The result is protection of some of the best hunting and fishing habitat and sporting opportunity in the United States.
Mounting Threats to Public Lands
There is no sporting heritage for anglers and hunters without public land and healthy habitat. America’s public lands and the sporting opportunities they support are under increasing pressure from loss of habitat, resource extraction, drought, rapid growth in outdoor recreation, and other influences. These conservation challenges require us to have all policy tools available to help balance multiple uses on public lands, including the Antiquities Act.
Efforts to sell, dispose, or divest public lands undermine our outdoor traditions and threaten rural economies. These lands belong to all Americans and provide vital access for anglers, hunters, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts, and should not be seized by states or private interests. 65% of western voters oppose giving control of national public lands to states.
Keeping public lands in public hands ensures future generations can experience the same outdoor opportunities we cherish today.
Looking for America
