It's ironic that much of the anti big gubmint lobby is very much in favor of property rights while finding it extremely convenient to say public land belongs to the people.....and THEY are the people.
Boondockers, trekkers, and back country lovers understand agencies like the NFS and BLM. We know that in many places, without public land stewardship, closed roads, locked gates and no trespassing signs become the norm.
So do
some ranchers.
A lifelong friend has a beef ranch in CO. He puts 300 market cows up on NFS land for summer grazing. I've been there for round-up and the cows come in looking fit and fed. It cost him (in 2014) $400@mo for 300 head, a bit over a grand a grand for the summer. He thinks it's an okay deal, even considering the cost of moving them. If he had to own and service the debt and taxes on that much pasture or lease it at commercial rates, it would be another thing pulling him under. The NFS provides range management oversight, water quality monitoring, infrastructure: roads, bridges, cattle guards, culverts, loading areas (just as they provide similar infrastructure for logging and extraction industries)
IMO, the Bundy's are being played but they also have their own opportunist agenda so they're okay with it. They're being played by the so-called 'astro-turf' (read grass roots) organizations, *********, PACs, et al, because slippery rascals like the Koch brothers and other extraction industry rogues covertly support them in their long awaited wish to reap profits and have the tax payer help them out.
Total federal appropriations for the combined USFS and BLM grazing programs in fiscal year 2014 were $143.6 million, while grazing fee receipts were only $18.5 million.
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org...grazing/pdfs/CostsAndConsequences_01-2015.pdf , and the gap for timber and extraction industry is much wider. They are
already getting a good deal, grazng fee accounting is a token, an honor system, but of course they want it even sweeter. The fox wants to run the hen house.
Fact Check – The Bundy Ranch Cattle & The BLM
http://www.factandmyth.com/conspiracy-theory/cliven-bundys-cattle-and-the-federal-land-grab