Bozeman, Mont. — The Statue of Liberty stands on a piece of federal land, but “federal” doesn’t mean it belongs to Washington. This piece of real estate, 15 precious acres known as Liberty Island, lies in Upper New York Bay just west of the state line between New York and New Jersey, but it doesn’t belong to New Jersey. Liberty Island is part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, created in increments by three American presidents (beginning with Calvin Coolidge in 1924) using their authority under the Antiquities Act. The National Park Service administers it, but it doesn’t belong to that agency. It belongs to a schoolteacher in Vermont, a coal miner in West Virginia, a waitress in Las Vegas, a tattooist in San Francisco, and to you, and to me, and to every other American citizen.

Liberty Island is public land.

Those facts are worth remembering now amid the postelection clamor about shrinking the federal government and — among other constrictions — its role in land stewardship. Sell off the federal lands, some critics urge, or give them away to the states! Unload, transfer to local control, privatize! The 2016 Republican platform instructs Congress to divest “certain federally controlled public lands” to the states, without specifying which lands, and to amend the Antiquities Act, giving Congress and the states veto power over designation of national monuments.

The loudest individual voice in this argument belongs to Representative Rob Bishop, Republican of Utah and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, who recently called on Donald J. Trump to abolish national monuments (most notably, Grand Staircase-Escalante, in Utah) created by Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton.

Whether a president has the power to abolish a national monument that was declared by one of his predecessors is questionable. Legal scholars I’ve consulted say, not likely, though a final determination would happen in the courts. Whether this incoming president may want to try it is also uncertain. Back in January, Mr. Trump told Field & Stream magazine that he opposed divesting such holdings because “I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do.” That particular resolve, if it holds firm, deserves our approval and support. Public lands under federal management, including not just national monuments but also national forests, national parks, national wildlife refuges and other entities, deliver enormous value, of several sorts, to the communal and individual lives of Americans.