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Approximately 30 percent of the nation’s land is owned by the public. In the 11 contiguous states west of the 100th meridian, approximately 50 percent is owned by the federal government, including 80 percent of Nevada. About two-thirds of the land in Alaska is owned by the federal government. Even the east and Midwest, however, have large areas of publicly owned land, particularly Louisiana (20 percent), New Hampshire (13 percent), Florida (10 percent), Michigan (10 percent) and Virginia (7 percent). Although most of these public lands are owned by the federal government, many states also have large parks and state forests; and most coastal wetlands below mean high water are owned by the state.
 The nation’s publicly owned lands are put to a variety of uses. About 80 million acres are managed by the Park Service for the "enjoyment of future generations." Over 95 million acres, much of which is in Alaska, is part of the Wilderness Preservation System of roadless areas that Congress directed should remain "untrammeled by man." Another 84 million acres are part of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Refuge system. About 200 million acres, (9 percent of the nation) is part of the National Forest system, and the Bureau of Land Management holds approximately 260 million acres. Commercial grazing is an important use on 100 million acres of National Forest land and 160 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The diversity of National Parks and other public lands mirrors the diversity of the nation from which these lands are drawn. As a result, global warming will have the same types of impacts on these lands as occur in areas that are not owned by the government. Sea level rise will tend to erode and inundate the beaches of the National Seashores and the wetlands of various National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks in coastal areas. Regional climate change combined with the fertilizing effect of CO2 in the atmosphere will have the same effect on forests within National Parks and National Forests as occur in other forests. The intensification of evaporation and precipitation will tend to increase the frequency during which Wild and Scenic Rivers  experience either extreme floods or extremely low flows of water.
Nevertheless, the impacts of climate change on public lands differ from the implications elsewhere in two fundamental respects. First, they are often unique. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Everglades, and many other National Parks were created because previous generations reached a national consensus that it was important to preserve these unusual areas in their natural state forever. Blackwater, Edmund Forsythe (formerly Brigantine), Audubon, and other National Wildlife Refuges were once typical of the natural environments in their respective regions, but today these refuges provide unique habit within their regions because the surrounding areas have been subjected to agricultural and urban development. EPA, in cooperation with the National Park Service, has prepared a series of case studies on the potential impacts of climate change on selected national parks and other wildlands in the western mountains and plains, the Great Lakes region, the Chesapeake Bay area, and South Florida.
Second, the importance and public ownership of these areas may present unique opportunities for ensuring their survival as climate changes. As temperatures warm, the natural northward migration of many ecosystems may be blocked by highways and urban development; and many scientific studies have concluded that terrestrial species will require the creation of special migration corridors. Because the federal government often owns much of the land surrounding western National Parks, Refuges, and Wilderness areas, it may be possible to create such corridors without interfering with private uses of land. In coastal areas, many states will find it difficult to enact the land-use planning necessary to ensure the landward migration of coastal ecosystems as sea level rises; but the unique legal status and greater financial power of federal land managers may enable landward migration of National Wildlife Refuges.
 Finally, many decision makers have difficulty addressing long-term issues like global warming. Many land use planners and other environmental managers, for example, feel that they can not justify acting today simply to save an ecosystem that would otherwise be eliminated one hundred years hence. That perspective, however, is less applicable to federal protected areas. The reason that the National Park System was created in the first place was that the President and Congress decided that the Nation’s policy would be that some unique natural areas would remain pristine for all succeeding generations. Thus, in the case of National Parks and other protected areas, plans to ensure their continued viability as the earth warms are simply continuations of a policy that has been in force since the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.
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