Forbes Magazine - The Best Deal Going: Privatize U.S. Public Lands

[Whiptail]

I am from one of those Blue states that would qualify as "Eastern". The problem I see when I contact my reps about public land issues is that it seems they have their mind made up already. They could care less, because it is not an issue to the larger majority of their constituency. Until we educate people in the Eastern states of how the lands are managed and run in the West vs. the East, I think there will be this on-going issue. Most people I talk to locally are just unaware of the fact that state lands in the west don't always give the similar benefits as state lands in the east where a lot of them allow hunting, camping, access, etc. Therefore many of them don't see the harm in the land going to the states. I feel like more and more people from the "Eastern" portion of the map are becoming educated through the platforms of social media and podcasts like Randy's, Rinella's, Kenyon's, etc. so it will be beneficial in the future to get them to not sit back and actually contact people.

Excluding nonresidents to 2% of the available hunting permits and charging them 29 times more are not inclusive policies. If western states want nonresident support then they should consider including nonresidents.

 

[Irishman]

Big Fin. Thanks for continuing to bring up this issue of privatizing public lands. To me it is the biggest issue that hunters out west should be considering when voting for a candidate in elections. If the public lands get sold off, then they are gone forever. Unlike most other decisions made by politicians, than can be later reversed, the selling off of public lands would be final. Sportsmen's groups, hunting groups, recreational groups, need to push candidates to get firm answers on exactly where they stand on this issue before elections. Looks like here in Montana, we are being represented by a couple of people from the Bozeman area, that we can't count on - Daines and Gianforte. We shouldn't let this happen.

 

[3855WIN]

I would be willing to pay an excise tax similar to Pittman-Robertson to fund public lands management. Impose a modest tax on sleeping bags, tents, climbing gear, mountain bikes, etc. and dedicate those funds to the management of public lands.

I certainly agree.

 

[3855WIN]

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ing-public-lands-bill-withdraw-jason-chaffetz

Looks like efforts have been effective.