In just 31 hours, Guardian US exceeded its target to support a new series on the threat to America’s public lands.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to the more than 1,000 Guardian readers who made contributions to support This Land is Your Land, our series on the threat to America’s public lands. We launched our fundraising campaign on Monday morning, and hit our $50,000 goal at 1pm Tuesday, just 31 hours after the launch. When this article was published we had exceeded our goal by 20%, with $60,166 pledged. More than 1,000 readers have contributed.

This unexpected generosity enables us to devote extensive resources to this story in the midst of a demanding news cycle, and help to hold the small circle of politicians driving the land transfer movement accountable. In response to the extreme enthusiasm our readers have shown for the project, we are keeping the campaign open for a bit longer, and we continue to welcome contributions.

From New Mexico’s Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks national monument to Idaho’s Boulder-White Clouds, no other country on earth offers anything comparable to America’s 640m acres of public lands. But the quiet sell-off of millions of acres – including national monuments and parks used for hiking, camping, fishing, ranching and hunting – is already happening, with little public visibility.

Land issues are often covered at the local level, but our aim is to pull back and tell the broader story of how this patchwork of regional battles adds up to a national sell-off that could change the American landscape forever.

At a moment of deep political division in this country, the fight for public land is a rare bipartisan cause that scrambles traditional party lines and brings together voters in red and blue states. Our coverage will elevate this diverse set of voices. This week alone, we have written about ranchers in Montana whose livelihood is threatened by land transfer, Native Americans in Arizona who fear uranium mining at the Grand Canyon could contaminate their drinking water, and conservationists in Washington fighting to keep cellphone towers off Mount Rainier. In the coming months, we will tell stories about fishing guides, rock climbers, snowmobilers, and big game hunters.

We will also cover the economic implications of the sell-off, including the threat to the $646bn outdoor recreation industry, which employs 6 million Americans. We will document the financial ties between coal, oil and mining interests, and the politicians backing land transfers. To tell this uniquely visual story, we will use all the innovative tools of the Guardian’s digital journalism, including interactive stories, powerful photography, video, data, social media formats, and of course, strong writing.

The inspiration for This Land is Your Land came directly from you, our readers, and we hope you will continue to contribute story ideas and suggestions. We got the idea for this project after we reported on Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah attempting to sell off 3.3m acres of national land earlier this year: the piece attracted close to a million readers, and generated 61,000 comments on Facebook. That strong reaction from our audience inspired us to pursue the public lands story as a year-long series, and launch this campaign.

The Chaffetz bill also became a powerful example of how public outcry can change policy. When Chaffetz’s proposal sparked a massive backlash from sporting groups and the outdoor recreation industry, he announced a change of heart on Instagram. “I hear you, and HR 621 dies tomorrow,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #keepitpublic.

Feel free to contact us with ideas here.

Thank you again for your support.