I know to many not living in the west, it is hard to visualize some concerns that will come with local control of Federal lands currently open to public accesss. On the surface, it all sounds good. And if not for crazy elected officials and the manner in which some people take "possessive interest" in these public lands, it would probably be less of an issue.
Below is a very good piece that serves as a great example of a local government, a county, using public land access as a prybar for their own agenda. Whether you agree with the agenda of the local County Commissioners, or not, the bigger issue is whether or not the County Commission should be allowed to take action on behalf of private parties, in this case public land grazers, that changes public access for all citizens.
In this case, the County sold a piece of land for "$10 and other valuable consideration" to a private party that then allowed the public access via that road to be controlled by the private party. As such, the group the County Commissioner is PO'd at, Western Watersheds, can no longer access the public lands without getting permission.
This is a very well written piece that is worth the time to read. Should a County Commission use its powers to carry out an agenda of one group, public land grazers, to combat the agenda of another group, WW, with public access being the football that gets kicked around?
We always hear the State/Local rights crowd talking about free markets and how government should not interfere, etc. Is this not government interference or misuse of government power on behalf of one interest, to the detriment of others? Maybe government interference only matters when it is the other side doing it.
http://www.wyofile.com/county-keeps-public-out-of-public-land/
There are tons of roads in the west that lead to public lands where counties get talked into abandoning the road or a claim is made against the county to close the road under some obscure legal premise. Maybe this is normal practice in Wyoming.
I am not familiar with other states, but in Montana, anyone can close a road and it is up to the County to prove it is not a public road, even if it has had public traffic for decades. In many rural Montana Counties, the person closing the road has close relationships to the County Commissioners. The Counties are not overflowing with cash, so the Commissioners use finances as a reason to not contest the road closure, even if the public has been using the road since it was built. Given they often have close ties with the party closing the road, you can easily see that it raises questions about how complicit the County might be in helping a close friend lock off public access for his own benefit. It is a way that some parties who have no use for public access, or who want to control the public lands behind the gate, go about getting their way.
It is this kind of stuff that we deal with way too often in the west that leads many western hunters to see how little interest state and local officials have in maintaining public access. I wish it was different, but if you are in favor of state take over of all these lands, this is just one more reality you probably have not dealt with in your travels. I, and I suspect many others who hunt the rural west, have had to deal with this issue of road closures for reasons that are hard to argue are in the best interest of the public.
Hopefully this article connects the dots showing trends that go on below the radar that impact your ability to access your public lands.
Below is a very good piece that serves as a great example of a local government, a county, using public land access as a prybar for their own agenda. Whether you agree with the agenda of the local County Commissioners, or not, the bigger issue is whether or not the County Commission should be allowed to take action on behalf of private parties, in this case public land grazers, that changes public access for all citizens.
In this case, the County sold a piece of land for "$10 and other valuable consideration" to a private party that then allowed the public access via that road to be controlled by the private party. As such, the group the County Commissioner is PO'd at, Western Watersheds, can no longer access the public lands without getting permission.
This is a very well written piece that is worth the time to read. Should a County Commission use its powers to carry out an agenda of one group, public land grazers, to combat the agenda of another group, WW, with public access being the football that gets kicked around?
We always hear the State/Local rights crowd talking about free markets and how government should not interfere, etc. Is this not government interference or misuse of government power on behalf of one interest, to the detriment of others? Maybe government interference only matters when it is the other side doing it.
http://www.wyofile.com/county-keeps-public-out-of-public-land/
There are tons of roads in the west that lead to public lands where counties get talked into abandoning the road or a claim is made against the county to close the road under some obscure legal premise. Maybe this is normal practice in Wyoming.
I am not familiar with other states, but in Montana, anyone can close a road and it is up to the County to prove it is not a public road, even if it has had public traffic for decades. In many rural Montana Counties, the person closing the road has close relationships to the County Commissioners. The Counties are not overflowing with cash, so the Commissioners use finances as a reason to not contest the road closure, even if the public has been using the road since it was built. Given they often have close ties with the party closing the road, you can easily see that it raises questions about how complicit the County might be in helping a close friend lock off public access for his own benefit. It is a way that some parties who have no use for public access, or who want to control the public lands behind the gate, go about getting their way.
It is this kind of stuff that we deal with way too often in the west that leads many western hunters to see how little interest state and local officials have in maintaining public access. I wish it was different, but if you are in favor of state take over of all these lands, this is just one more reality you probably have not dealt with in your travels. I, and I suspect many others who hunt the rural west, have had to deal with this issue of road closures for reasons that are hard to argue are in the best interest of the public.
Hopefully this article connects the dots showing trends that go on below the radar that impact your ability to access your public lands.