I grew up in Michigan where public lands played an equal if not more important role in my childhood, and especially in my young adult life, when I lived and worked in the wilds of northern Michigan. The west is blessed with abundant public lands - the kind that you don't have to fight for a reservation to use. However, as the author eludes, the people "back east" need this escape the most; to the point that they'll leave their friends and family to seek it out. All I'm saying is that it is there for you, as long as you are represented (by out DC folks) and that we, as a country, leave some land protected. If you don't find it in your neck of the woods, we're fighting to hold it down here in Montana.
Who can share a story of how public lands were important to them?