LIVINGSTON, MONTANA — The American outdoorsman — whether an angler floating through a canyon while fishing for brown trout, or a hunter looking for the rubs, fresh scat and tracks where their game of choice is feeding — is often depicted by legacy media as a disparate collection of people spread all across the country.

Their preference to spend their vacation time in a bear camp, gathered around a campfire or standing in ice-cold rushing streams is perplexing to the media’s more refined tastes. It doesn’t get the complex rush of adrenaline and observation, or why it is fulfilling to embrace both simultaneously.

Because of that disconnect, the media underestimated what happens when the powerful attempt to take away the cherished freedom to use America’s beloved and expansive public lands. This was what Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee attempted when he proposed the sale of millions of acres of federal lands in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The reaction to Lee’s proposal was deafening if you were paying attention. The complete wall of opposition was organic, raw and impactful. Lee completely backed down, explained writer and outdoorsman Steven Rinella, whose “MeatEater” platforms have spawned a cultural movement that rarely had anything to do with politics or tribalism, and everything to do with freedom, giving back and the great outdoors.

Lee’s proposal would have required the Bureau of Land Management to sell 1.225 million acres of public property across the American West. Rinella said the proposal alarmed him and millions of outdoorsmen across the country.

“There was a sense of satisfaction to winning that fight,” said Rinella. “There was also a tremendous sense of deja vu because we had been through almost the exact same thing in 2017, and there was almost that exact same response,” he said of the widespread public outcry from hunters, anglers, recreationists and public lands enthusiasts across the country.

“We had voices within our organization and felt like, ‘Man, we’re really out there on this and really exposed on this issue.’ But then I started seeing more and more people come on board, people who were supportive of (President Donald Trump’s) agenda but were not going to let this happen,” Rinella said.

They weren’t the only ones. Outdoor advocacy groups such as Backcountry Hunters & Anglers said their members inspired hundreds of thousands of public land users across the country to call and email their senators and ask that they oppose Lee’s proposal.

The quality of the push was selfless and about individuals coming together to defend their fellow outdoorsmen. Case in point: If Lee’s proposal had come out and had said, “It’ll be this parcel, this parcel, this parcel, this parcel,” and someone had mapped out specifically the 3 million acres, you would’ve then had an element of people looking at that map and saying, “Oh, no, they’re talking about my spot where I camp with my children,” and it would have perhaps taken on a different, more urgent tone.