*Special thanks to Professor Tom Powers, University of Montana

Myth 1 * Only commercial relationships with public lands are proper, important and encourage understanding and respect for the land. *

There are myriad other uses of public lands, all legitimate, and many that produce greater understanding and respect for ecosystems than extractive uses.

• Environmental activists. To defend ecosystems, they must know in considerable detail the ecology of the landscapes and watersheds they seek to protect, often to a greater extent than resource users and agency managers.
• Hunters and anglers: most of them are very serious about their sport, and knowledgeable about their favorite prey species and their habitat.
• Wildlife biologists; ecologists; geologists; forest and marine scientists; hydrologists; and botanists make their living studying and reporting on ecosystem health on public lands.
• Land managers. They seek to balance diverse uses on public lands.
• Adventure recreationists. Their lives depend on understanding and respecting natural systems.
• Environmental educators and their students. Ecosystems damaged from extractive uses have missing pieces and (like a textbook with missing pages) offer less than a complete picture for students of ecology.
• The rapidly growing ecotourism and educational tourism industries.
• The public, both locals and visitors, enjoy, celebrate, and revere pristine natural areas.

This list is endless. As time passes, and the economy and society change, the ways we relate to natural systems will evolve. Our relationship with nature is not frozen in time to be only what happens to be the current or last set of commercial ventures on public lands. We can end relationships with public lands (especially damaging ones) when find we prefer other, better uses of these lands.

Myth 2 * Environmentalists' only goal is to end traditional uses on public lands that they disapprove of, advocating protection for species and landscapes simply to drive industry off the land. *

Environmental protection is about protecting biodiversity and landscapes, scenic beauty and recreational opportunities--legitimate concerns for environmentalists and the public. But environmental protection yields many more benefits than these.

• Air that is safe to breath.
• Water that is safe to drink, irrigate crops, and support healthy fisheries.
• Climate stabilization, including the prevention of global warming.
• Protection of the human autoimmune system and the integrity of the body's basic life functions from chemical and biological agents.
• Stable ecosystems that can safely absorb waste, control floods, reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires, reduce erosion and buffer the damage that invasive species might otherwise cause to natural systems and agricultural production.
• Protecting the scientific information (including genetic materials and compounds important to medicine) embedded in natural systems that have not been significantly modified by human activities.
• Prevent ongoing and accelerating extinction of other forms of life.