California is home to 15 million acres of a kind of land most people have never heard of. These lands span deserts, grasslands, oak woodlands, and coastal rainforests. They’re free or very inexpensive to visit, and they’re almost never crowded. But what are these mythical wonderlands?

These are the largely overlooked lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, and you can go and see them.

Josh Jackson, author of The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California’s Public Lands, took me to see one of these places he refers to as Forgotten Lands. While we were there, we discussed the history of BLM lands, nature behind a velvet rope and not behind a velvet rope, current threats to the land, how we can find and access BLM lands, and how connecting with these places can change not only how we look at nature far from home, but also how we see the living world in our own backyards.

Links:

Get Josh’s book, The Enduring Wild.

Speak up for California’s public lands with CalWild.

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month.

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠.

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠.

Get podcast Merch.

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Tidy tips photo by Josh Jackson