By: Erin Benedict
In his book “The Great Good Place,” sociologist Ray Oldenburg introduced us to the concept of the “third place.” This isn’t your work or home; it’s another spot where you meet with friends, talk and relax.
Oldenburg argues these places are essential to our mental health and community building. As social creatures, we need these places where we can unwind from life’s stressors and connect with other humans.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, these places were usually bars and coffee shops, and yeah, we have those in Montana too — thank goodness! But here we have another place that I don’t remember people in Pennsylvania talking about: Our public lands.
I didn’t know much about Montana’s public lands when I moved here with my first pair of Walmart hiking boots in 2008. I can’t say I remember the first time those boots touched the trail, but I do know that the following years on these trails would shape my life.
It was at countless Forest Service cabins where I sat around the fire with friends, skied and hiked. It was on Sphinx Mountain where I went on a group hike with friends and high-fived my now-husband at the top when actual electricity passed between our hands (a signal of connection, yes, but also a sign that it was time to start heading back down).
It was on trails around Bozeman that I would hike with friends after work and laugh and talk and create the greatest friendships of my life. On those same trails, I would later walk with my unborn son growing inside me as I mourned the death of my mother and grandmother in the same week.
Public land is my third place, and I would venture to guess it is a third place for a lot of other Montanans.
That’s what we are protecting, a third place that is open and welcoming to all no matter how much money you have or whether you’re wearing high-end hiking boots or a discount pair pulled from a Walmart shelf. Because, if our public land goes away, it likely won’t come back.
Unlike a bar or coffee shop that shuts down, this land, if sold, won’t be reopened.
Right now, there are multiple threats to our public lands.
The Trump administration has cut funding for national parks and public lands agencies. These cuts not only make it harder for agencies like the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service to protect and manage these lands, but they also threaten the experiences we have enjoyed and hope our children will get to enjoy too.
A lot of eyes are on a lawsuit playing out in Utah where the state has attempted to seize control of 18.5 million acres of federally managed public lands. The U.S. Supreme Court has put the brakes on this lawsuit, but now the conversation has come to Helena, where some Montana lawmakers are backing LC 2912, a resolution that support’s Utah’s lawsuit.
It’s a slippery slope. If public land is transferred to state control, it becomes subject to state law. States could then be incentivized to sell these lands to generate revenue.
If public land is sold to private entities, it is likely public access will be shut off. The land could be developed to build condos or luxury resorts, and our long-enjoyed third places — where we hunt and fish with our buddies, hike with our friends and camp with our kids — could be gone.
The time is now to get noisy about what we want as Montanans.
Call your local representatives in Helena. Call the offices of Sen. Daines, Sen. Sheehy, Rep. Zinke and Rep. Downing and let them know that protecting public lands is right for Montanans today and in the future.
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