Class war in the American west: the rich landowners blocking access to public lands

Class war in the American west: the rich landowners blocking access to public lands

Bullock wrote: “You don’t have to have a Swiss bank account to spend a day with a fly rod on the river. You don’t have to have friends in high places to explore mountains and trails. You don’t have to have to own a big piece of property to experience some of the best hunting and fishing in the world.”

It’s still mostly true, but those boundaries are being tested every day.

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When I win the powerball (after I'm done paying child support, of course) I'm going to buy a huge chunk of land and only allow hunttalkers on it

JohnCushman said:

When I win the powerball (after I'm done paying child support, of course) I'm going to buy a huge chunk of land and only allow hunttalkers on it

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"Hunttalk is a forum for on your own hunters. Hunters who prefer to hunt without guides, on public lands.

LOL!!! It'll be public to hunttalkers

JohnCushman said:

When I win the powerball (after I'm done paying child support, of course) I'm going to buy a huge chunk of land and only allow hunttalkers on it

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If you've got the "in" on winning John, I'm going to have to start kissing your butt more so I can be one of those fortunate hunttalkers to get access.

Wow..... 4 million acres of PUBLIC land blocked, 2 million in Mt alone

JohnCushman said:

When I win the powerball (after I'm done paying child support, of course) I'm going to buy a huge chunk of land and only allow hunttalkers on it

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Good dream. My is to win the lottery and buy the El Cortez Casino and keep it shitty, they are prettying up Fremont street way too much for those of us who like vegas the old way and El Cortez is the last stand.

Cushman,

I have tried this as my retirement income. I am in every lottery. Won $100 once. Still in it.

I want the big one. Buy a ranch in middle of no where. Get rid of the cows and love the wildlife!

I justify it that it goes to scholarships for New Mexico youth. I got a lot of scholarships in my youth. Do need to pay back. At least 30 years playing the lottery, I think I getting my debt paid off.

I hit it little. Have my little ranch in the middle of nowhere. My land & water is for wildlife. I allow some folks to hunt it. Hit & miss. It helps if the general public hits the surrounding public lands ....lol
It appears I am not well liked by some locals for my stance on access/use of public lands.
F them very much.

Nice article Kat.

I have long thought that too many who come to Montana don't make an attempt to assimilate into our culture, or even understand it. I remember a rumor a few years ago about a state law being proopsed that X amount of landlocked public lands would have to be made public. I wish it were a reality. Because of our checkerboard lands a single private land owner gains all the advantages of land that we all own. I don't begrudge anyone the money, I don't care, and have had my change to chase it and passed. What I do begrudge is them thinking that it is theirs, when it is ours.

The Congressionally mandated consolidation through such as Gallatin Land Swaps and others exchanging federal public lands for tracts of private lands resulted in some of the checkerboard effect being mitigated and contiguous large public land areas for wildlife habitat and corridors, as well as recreational use. But not enough has been accomplished to provide for public access to significantly large numbers of sections still adversely landlocked. The Crazy Mountains issue(s) illustrate the problem clearly.

I was just going over tomorrows State Land Board meeting agenda, reading through the sales and exchange section, to see if they were proposing sales to private landowners where we might lose access to public lands, when this article popped up on my news feed.

I am not familiar with the murder associated with the FS employee, but I am familiar with the Newman case, I watched it and got records from the courthouse. Granted, most are not so violent, but we have also seen an increased violence with our public lands with the Bundy case, Malheur and some users/private landowners calling for armed backup by Oath Keepers, militias and such, increasing the threat of violence.

I am going to a meeting in Livingston, on the 31st, where a proposal is being discussed to reroute a trail in the Crazy Mountains. I have not seen a map yet of the proposed reroute, supposedly off of private land to FS public, which I am wondering how that is going to work, since there are 2 diagonal lines of private checkerboard in that area, which means corner crossing. Also, this is a historic trail, is the proposed reroute going to move a trail that has some easy and moderate meadow access and put it on vertical Mountain Goat trail shale land? Remember, the guy that was lost up there last winter, whose body was found this spring was on the Porcupine Lowline and died on the shale parts. This is multiple use access and not everyone can do extreme mountain climbing, but some with age or physical limitations can access the mild to moderate parts. I am mapping the elevations around this trail and making a 3D of the terrain to take with me in case it is needed.

There is also an upcoming land exchange proposal on the southern end of the Crazies, which brings up related concerns that we are possibly going to be losing elk meadows for vertical rocks and mining damaged areas. We just need to pay attention to details and make sure that the public is not losing out on these land exchanges and sales, in addition to the obstructed access issues.