America has a conservation legacy unmatched anywhere in the world. Nearly 30% of the land in the United States – the National Parks, National Forests, wild rivers, wilderness, and other public lands – are owned by her citizens. See how over the past 400 years leaders, writers, artists, and photographers have changed the way many Americans think about the land – from something that should be conquered to something to be protected and preserved for future generations.
 
“We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.”
— Wallace Stegner