Public lands are Americans’ birthright. It’s our duty to defend them against new landgrabs

How one couple helped save vast areas of wilderness in the 1940s - and provided a map for protecting them today

This is your land we are talking about," the controversial, firebrand historian and conservationist Bernard DeVoto wrote in 1947, paraphrasing Woody Guthrie's fresh folk classic.

Bernard and his stylish, sharp-witted wife, Avis DeVoto, had returned from an epic road trip across the Lewis and Clark trail, crossing the states of the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. On their way, they researched America's wild, public lands and philosophized about the spiritual connection between the freedom of movement they allowed and the freedom of thought they inspired.