"Why Wyoming’s public lands are locked up" in High Country News

[RoadStar66]

"Why Wyoming’s public lands are locked up" in High Country News

[font=minion-pro, serif]“It’s a simple decision (made) by the county commissioners,”[/font]

https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.2/public-lands-why-wyomings-public-lands-are-locked-up

 

[owl]

This is happening all over the west. Farmers and ranchers have been fighting the government over closures for years. Look at the Bundys.

 

[cyndi]

I'm not sure if this thread isn't a political because I can't read the article. Please keep your responses apolitical

 

[rvwandering]

To summarize the article:
Wyoming has a lot of small plots of public land that can not be accessed by the public - 1/3 of the landlocked acreage in the western states. This happened when the land was surveyed and divided into 1-mile square sections. Some of the squares went to homesteaders, others went to the railroads. Fifteen different agencies of the federal and state governments manage all of the squares that are not private property but many are surrounded by private land. The article deals with what happens when a private landowner petitions the state to exchange public land for private land or when the owner asks the county to abandon a public right of way through their land. Both actions can result in loss of access to the public land.

This has nothing to do with the federal government or the Bundy standoff which came about because the Bundys did not have the correct permits and were not paying the fees for grazing their cattle on BLM land.

 

[BinDerSmokDat]

+1 to rvwandering on the summation and identifying the real issues with the Bundys.

 

[lenny flank]

Some of the squares went to homesteaders, others went to the railroads. Fifteen different agencies of the federal and state governments manage all of the squares that are not private property but many are surrounded by private land. 

As I understand it, this problem exists all over the West, and is the result of the Homestead Act way back in the 19th century. All of this surveyed land was supposed to be sold, but for one reason or another not all of it was purchased, which is why the federales still own it.
If it were contiguous it could at least be made into a park. But it's scattered all over the damn place.