{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 56 \u2014 Hal Herring on the movement to privatize America\u2019s public lands","description":"This week, Patagonia Films premiered the documentary feature Public Trust at the 17th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. The film examines how private interests, especially extractive industries, are attempting to undermine America\u2019s public lands legacy. The film focuses on three specific conflicts at Utah\u2019s Bears Ears National Monument, Minnesota\u2019s Boundary Waters Wilderness, and northeastern Alaska\u2019s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The film prominently features Hal Herring, an award-winning journalist and Montana resident who has spent more than two decades working in, and writing about, public lands in the American West. Herring tells Montana Free Press editor-in-chief John S. Adams, \u201cWe should understand that there is a movement afoot to privatize the American public lands, and we should know what those [lands] are before we come down on one side or another in that debate. And we should know who\u2019s driving that debate, and what is at stake for us, and our children and grandchildren.\u201d The public lands issue has become a rallying point for the Democratic Party in the American West. But while Herring supports the concept of public lands, he\u2019s also sometimes critical of Democratic approaches to the issue, noting that sweeping changes such as the Bill Clinton-era roadless rule and Barack Obama\u2019s Bears Ears National Monument designation have been undertaken without making the case to citizens. As Herring tells Adams, \u201cI\u2019m convinced that we can not leave environmental and conservation eggs in the basket of one party.\u201d He pushes back on ideological public-lands stances taken by Democrats and Republicans alike, saying the parties \u201cneed to horse trade.\u201d He also suggests that the issue presents a unique opportunity for conservative political candidates, saying he\u2019s \u201cwaiting for a kind of quiet revolution in conservative America to come to solving environmental problems in the future.\u201d Herring and Adams also discuss the history of the American public lands movement, from the aftermath of the Mexican-American War through the privatization ideology promoted by President Ronald Reagan, which continues to resonate. Herring\u2019s conversation with Adams was recorded on the eve of the film\u2019s public premiere. The Montana Lowdown podcast is a weekly publication of Montana Free Press. ","author_name":"Montana Lowdown","author_url":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org","html":"