Last month, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner penned a thoughtful op-ed in the Wall Street Journal advocating the use of excess federal land to address the nation’s housing crisis. President Donald Trump has long argued for using federal lands for this purpose. That’s especially true when it comes to the American West, where federal lands dominate.

Last week, however, Patagonia’s CEO Ryan Gellert decried the Secretaries’ proposal as “risky,” “specious,” and one that threatens “dismantling and destroying the places we’ve loved for generations.” Patagonia sells high-end outdoor clothing and gear. Gellert also opposes using federal lands to discover, develop, and deliver energy resources owned by the people. He fails to understand the balanced approach that Congress, to which the Constitution entrusts sole authority for “property belonging to the United States,” has embraced in its treatment of federal lands. Consider, for example, the Congress that created Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first and greatest, and also enacted the General Mining Law, which, initiated by private citizens, will permit Trump to pursue the development of “critical mineral deposits.”