Policy Corner: Public Lands and Elections

May 11, 2026


At Tuleyome, we support Public Lands Advocacy, Conservation, Stewardship and Education. Our commitment to these three pillars of action means that we must encourage our supporters to vote and to invest the time to learn how candidates for public office view public lands and public access to those lands. 


Public lands are a central part of our national heritage and have been so since the very founding of the Republic. The first shots of the American Revolution were fired on public land (the Lexington Common) in 1775. The practice of managing lands for the common welfare is itself tens of thousands of years old and is central to the traditions of indigenous people across all of the Americas. The relatively novel notion of private ownership of land has become prevalent in our society, but that in no way should blind us to the centrality of public land to the health and welfare of all.


And yet there are those who would turn every scrap of public land over to private ownership for exploitation if they could. Efforts to privatize public lands or give Federal lands to states, where political pressure to privatize is stronger, have taken on a new urgency. They represent a significant threat to the public’s right to enjoy public lands. These efforts represent an existential threat to nature, wildlife and the land itself, as exploitation of the national legacy for private gain becomes the dominant ideology of certain elements in our society. 


Fortunately, as citizens, we have the opportunity to educate ourselves about who supports public lands and the public’s right to benefit from public lands. If you want to be a public lands voter, here are the three questions you need to ask everyone who is asking you for your vote:

  1. Do you support keeping public lands in federal public ownership, and will you oppose efforts to transfer them to state or private control?
  2. What specific actions will you take to improve public access for hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation?
  3. What is your plan to ensure that public lands are managed for a balance of conservation, restoration, recreation and responsible energy development?


Public lands, which include our national forests, lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation, as well as the national park system, are managed for all Americans. Proposals to sell or transfer these reduce public access and jeopardize wildlife habitat. 


Ask for a clear commitment to keeping land access public rather than transferring it to state-level management. Ask what your representatives will do to eliminate private land bottlenecks. Ask for concrete plans to improve trails, access points, and habitat connectivity.


Public lands are at the center of the climate crisis debate and many voters prefer conservation and renewable energy over increased oil and gas drilling. We support a balanced approach that prioritizes habitat protection and sustainable use, rather than maximizing extraction. This is the kind of long-term legacy that we owe to the people whose land we appropriated. It’s a legacy we owe to the generations of Americans before us who fought to establish the rule of law and the values of republican government. Public lands are the embodiment of the notion that we are a nation of equal citizens, indivisible, and not servants to the economic interests that extract private profit from public resources while socializing private losses on public accounts.


If you want to be a public lands voter, take the time to educate yourself by visiting https://www.tuleyome.org/ and then ask those who want your vote the hard questions about where they stand on public lands. 


Then, Vote! 


Register to Vote here: https://registertovote.ca.gov/


The last day to register to vote for the June 2, 2026, Primary Election is May 18, 2026.


Find your district and voters guide here: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections 


Voting by mail in California is safe and secure and really easy to do. You can track the status of your ballot here: https://california.ballottrax.net/voter/ 


Craig Perrin

Tuleyome Volunteer Board Member

RECENT ARTICLES

Women's Equality Day 2026

By Kristie Ehrhardt • August 26, 2026
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution - granting women the right to vote - was certified on August 26, 1920. In commemoration of this, in 1973 Congress designated August 26 as "Women's Equality Day" to remind us of the heroic women who advanced the Women's Suffrage movement. In recognition of Women's Equality Day, Tuleyome is highlighting three women who are dedicated to conservation: Sheila Pratt (Cache Creek Conservancy), Corky Quirk (NorCal Bats and Yolo Basin Foundation), and Cathy Little (Yolo Habitat Conservancy). Please share in a round of applause for our friends for their passion and dedication to conservation.

Women's Equality Day 2026 - Cathy Little

By Kristie Ehrhardt • August 25, 2026
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution - granting women the right to vote - was certified on August 26, 1920. In commemoration of this, in 1973 Congress designated August 26 as "Women's Equality Day" to remind us of the heroic women who advanced the Women's Suffrage movement. In recognition of Women's Equality Day, Tuleyome is highlighting three women who are dedicated to conservation: Corky Quirk (NorCal Bats and Yolo Basin Foundation), Sheila Pratt (Cache Creek Conservancy) and Cathy Little (Yolo Habitat Conservancy). Hear about Cathy's journey below and learn about Sheila here and Corky here. Please share in a round of applause for our friends for their passion and dedication to conservation. I received my Bachelor’s Degree at UC Davis in Plant Biology and immediately moved into environmental consulting when I graduated. For the next few years, I had the opportunity to botanize and see lands throughout California. I was working on large river projects and became interested in restoration of riparian habitat and decided to go back to school and get my master’s degree at Chico State. I continued working on restoration projects and started to be more interested in conservation work. I spent the last 16 years working for the Center of Natural Lands Management where I directly managed and acquired lands with listed species and sensitive habitats and led the northern California group. Recently I made a career move to the Yolo Habitat Conservancy where I am now contributing to conservation work in my local County. Through growing up in California I have been able to spend a large amount of time in vast beautiful wilderness areas, but have also witnessed conversion of many lands to development. I have always had a draw to natural lands and observing the amazing intricate ecosystems that they support. When I was working in environmental consulting on designing, building, and monitoring restoration sites, I saw these lands being transferred to entities that managed them in perpetuity, and I knew that I wanted to be part of the effort. I have spent most of my career now doing just that. Throughout my time working in conservation, I have had so many long-term field ecologists inspire me to continue doing this work. Watching others work tirelessly over many years to manage and protect natural lands, and collaborate and share their knowledge, has been so motivating. There is nothing more enjoyable than spending a day in the field with other ecologists and sharing enthusiasm about some small moment of observation, and always learning some new tidbit of information about a certain species or behavior or management tool. My advice to young women starting their career in the environmental/conservation/non-profit sector would be to just get out there and start gaining experience in whatever seems interesting and then collaborate and talk to as many people to learn about all the different opportunities. There are so many aspects of conservation and environmental work and the more time you spend working in it, the more you will be able to figure out how you want to contribute to the community as a whole. I would suggest taking as many opportunities as you can and working with as many different people as possible. Listening to people’s backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can be valuable in navigating your path. I would recommend always advocating for yourself, being open and honest about your abilities, and committing to and communicating your beliefs regarding your work.

Women's Equality Day 2026 - Corky Quirk

By Kristie Ehrhardt • August 25, 2026
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution - granting women the right to vote - was certified on August 26, 1920. In commemoration of this, in 1973 Congress designated August 26 as "Women's Equality Day" to remind us of the heroic women who advanced the Women's Suffrage movement. In recognition of Women's Equality Day, Tuleyome is highlighting three women who are dedicated to conservation: Corky Quirk (NorCal Bats and Yolo Basin Foundation), Sheila Pratt (Cache Creek Conservancy) and Cathy Little (Yolo Habitat Conservancy). Hear about Corky's journey below and learn about Cathy here and Sheila here. Please share in a round of applause for our friends for their passion and dedication to conservation. I came to bats late. I have been involved with outdoor recreation and environmental education most of my life. I have a BS in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Environmental Education from Humboldt State. But, it was learning about them at the Yolo Basin Foundation (YBF) where I found my love for bats. When I started at YBF, there was a woman who we contracted to do 3 programs a summer and I started volunteering for her organization in 2004. I was inspired to work in the conservation/preservation/ecology sector because my parents loved nature. We did many trips to State and National Parks where we camped and hiked. Over the years I have met many people who work in the conservation field and have encouraged me. I greatly enjoy sharing knowledge with the various bat biologists from environmental consultants, to the State to the US government agencies. There are two projects that I am most proud of. I started NorCal Bats in 2006 and now see almost 40,000 people each year to educate them about bats from schools, libraries, garden clubs, festivals, campgrounds and more. I'm also very proud of how popular the Yolo Basin Foundation Bat Talk and Tour program has become. When I took over the program in 2006 we did about 3 nights a summer, now we are conducting about 70. Some of the most profound moments and memories for me are of all the people who have learned about bats both through the Yolo Basin Foundation's Bat Talk and Tour programs and the presentations through NorCal Bats. I don’t have a specific favorite memory but I am proud of the number of times people come to me and say that they were hesitant or afraid of bats, and no longer are due to the presentation. Periodically, when I take the bats to schools through NorCal Bats, I'll have a student who is very fearful. Sometimes they hide under a desk or sit very close to the teacher. I'm most proud when they overcome that fear, ask questions and especially if they say that the bat is cute.