When is enough enough?
If
you look at the entire United States you'll find that more than
one-third of all land is owned by the State or Federal government. It
does not include highways. Most of that is park land and wilderness. There are some
states that are nearly all owned by the combined state and federal
government like Alaska at 90%, Nevada 81% and Utah at 70%. Most of Idaho,
Wyoming and Arizona are public land.
Even California is 42% public land and that doesn't include private land set aside in land trusts.
Personally, I think that nearly all the beautiful and important biological land was public land a long time ago. Adding more public land is the prerogative of rich self-serving people who are the prime users of public land, especially inaccessible public land.
I see no justification for more public land. I see plenty of justification for reducing the amount of public land, and increasing the usage of public land for commercial purposes.
If hunters, hikers and the rest of the outdoors loving population (myself included) can't find enough places to go in the giant sprawling system we have already...they are too lazy.
Do we need more land for the lazy among us?
Even California is 42% public land and that doesn't include private land set aside in land trusts.
Personally, I think that nearly all the beautiful and important biological land was public land a long time ago. Adding more public land is the prerogative of rich self-serving people who are the prime users of public land, especially inaccessible public land.
I see no justification for more public land. I see plenty of justification for reducing the amount of public land, and increasing the usage of public land for commercial purposes.
If hunters, hikers and the rest of the outdoors loving population (myself included) can't find enough places to go in the giant sprawling system we have already...they are too lazy.
Do we need more land for the lazy among us?