I use Google often to research topics that interest me: public lands use, climate change, cooking, camping, travel and more! I never tire of researching something new and following links and threads that lead to interesting tidbits.

I found that any Google search brings up articles from the past as well as the present. More than once, I was reading an article that I thought was current only to be disappointed to discover it was 10 years old and out-of-date. I have learned to double-check dates before I read something (although some news sources now leave dates off some articles).

Yesterday I thought that I had once again clicked on an old article. The headline: “The Senate just passed the decade’s biggest public lands package. Here’s what’s in it.” Yeah right! Since Tr*** took office, our public lands have been taken back (Bear’s Ears, Grand Staircase, Escalante) and put up for lease to the extraction industries for coal, gas, and other resources. Many western politicians (especially in Utah) want federal lands to become state-owned so they can rape and pillage even more. For someone like me, who came of age under the influence of Edward Abbey and earlier conservationists like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir, these past two years have been a nightmare. So, I double-checked the date of the article I mentioned and was surprised to find it was Feb 12, 2019. Then I double-checked the source because I do see all kinds of fake news out there. Washington Post! Awesome!

I read and reread the article, blinking my eyes to make sure that I was not dreaming as I read the following:

“The bipartisan measure would create more than 1.3 million acres of wilderness out West, add three national park units and expand eight others.”

and,

“It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development and conservation,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

and…

It’s a paradoxical win for conservation at a time when President Trump has promoted development on public lands and scaled back safeguards established by his predecessors.

Can you see why I thought I was dreaming? These are amazing words in this era. If you have any interest in public lands please take a look at the article. It has maps and lists of public lands affected.  I am especially excited about new protections in North Cascades National Park in Washington, where I spent a few weeks last summer after my Alaska trip. I was so smitten with that area, and it was there where I hatched my plan to relocate my home base to Washington!

Note: the wide support for protection of public lands is partially due to an unusual alliance between hardcore hunters from the conservative western states and more liberal conservationists, two groups who cherish our public lands.