The greatest triumph of conservative thought and practice in the United States can be found in our federal public lands. In no other country in the world do a nation’s citizens have the right to freely enjoy its natural resources, as do Americans.

The American model of public lands stands proudly in contrast to the European aristocratic system where land and wildlife are largely off-limits to regular citizens. Setting aside the image of men in tights, the legend of Robin Hood is a cautionary tale for us. Game was considered the prerogative of the Crown, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, the archetypal antagonist, was charged with keeping ordinary citizens out of the forest.

More than a century ago – President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, the father of the U.S. Forest Service – took bold and decisive action to reserve millions of acres of forests and land by which every American today benefits. Pinchot described the mission of public lands conservation as “…the foresighted utilization, preservation and renewal of forests, waters, lands and minerals, for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time.”

In America, our federal lands serve the nation, not the privileged few. President Roosevelt once pointed out that the coming generations of yet-to-be born Americans outnumber those of us here today. With certitude, he proclaimed, “Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of our nation.”

Some leaders are pushing – even legislating – to turn that conservative ideal on its head, and make public lands serve well-connected special interests. Most recently, the House of Representatives Natural Resource Committee passed H.R. 3650, the “State National Forest Management Act” which, if signed into law, would require the federal government to deed over up to 2,000,000 acres of public lands per state. This bill and similar ones in the legislative pipeline are wholly disproportionate responses to legitimate concerns about how federal public lands are managed.

Whether it is misapplication of anti-terrorism statutes to enforce forest rules or the mind-numbing bureaucratic process that makes decision making a multi-year epic, we can and should better manage our lands for the widest possible benefit. Production agriculture, mining, timber, and recreation are legal and acceptable uses of our public lands, but we often cast one against the other creating a false narrative of good versus evil. Local stakeholders and communities provide important voices, which should be balanced with the national interest.

Despite the shortcomings of federal management, current polling on the issue offers a plain and consistent message. In its annual Conservation in the West poll, Colorado College reported 68 percent of westerners view public lands as belonging to all Americans, not just the residents of a specific state. Seventy-five percent of those polled say a candidate’s support for public lands is an important factor in making their decision in the voting booth.

We understand that some elected officials are reacting to parochial interests and demands. However, failure to understand the bigger picture will have ramifications from sea-to-shining sea. In May, National Wildlife Federation polled Ohio voters and found 84 percent of that state’s voters believe it is very important to keep national public lands in federal hands. 83 percent oppose any effort by Congress to pass laws to allow federal public lands to be sold or transferred to local or private use. Extrapolate that data to other Eastern swing states like Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire, and it becomes quite clear that a candidate or party’s platform position on public lands will impact the national political landscape.

Given the strong public support for federal ownership of federal lands, it is perplexing why any candidate would support ceding ownership to local or private interests. Our sentiment, and that of conservatives everywhere, was aptly painted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984:

“What is a conservative after all but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live-our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our plains and meadows and forests. This is our patrimony. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it to them either as we found it or better than we found it.”

Theodore Roosevelt IV is the great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt; Trammell S. Crow is the founder of Earth Day Texas; and Rob Sisson is president of ConservAmerica.