Why people east of the Mississippi should be worried about land transfer

[schmalts]

DNR land sales update - February 2017

The Department of Natural Resources is offering seven state-owned parcels of land for public sale through Wednesday, March 15, 2017.

Parcels available for purchase are located in Bayfield, Dane, Dodge, Douglas, Grant, Lincoln, Walworth and Waushara counties, and range from 1.06 to 202.48 acres. All properties are accessible by a state, county/town road or easement.

These parcels have been posted for bid as Auction #17123-70 on www.WisconsinSurplus.com [EXIT DNR]. The bidding process will close Wednesday, March 15, 2017 starting at 10 a.m. It is important to note that one parcel listed for sale is a combination of four separate parcels that were combined for marketing purposes.

In October 2016, the Natural Resources Board approved phase three of land sales, including 86 parcels totaling approximately 3,185 acres. Of these 86 parcels, 33 were landlocked with no legal access from a road and will be marketed to adjoining property owners, while 29 were to be marketed for a government entity (both landlocked and accessible) and 24 of the parcels were accessible for public sale to the general public with restrictions. Counties, cities and townships have a first right to purchase these parcels for the minimum transaction value.

In January 2017, the Natural Resources Board approved three additional parcels for public sale that total 110.90 acres to be added to the DNR land sales. These parcels will be marketed in the future.

For more information regarding the department’s land sale program under Act 20, visit dnr.wi.gov and search keywords "land sales."


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[Slam]

What will become of the funds raised thru these sales? Hopefully utilized to purchase more acreage for public use.

 

[Northwoods Labs]

The Natural Resource board, Cathy Stepp, and others supporting this bill often brought up that a lot of these lands will be first offered to the counties and remain open to the public. My question on this always was, what happens when the counties decide they do not want to buy the land? Does it go straight to being open for public bid? Back to the Natural Resources board for review? Based on the majority of folks on the Natural Resources board I'm thinking they will go back for public bidding.

 

[mdhunter]

Everyone gets wound up about it but federal and state land ownership is a balancing act IMHO. Maryland buys land but from time to time, may sell land if the ownership of the land doesn't fit the original purchase intent.

Do I want public lands sold? No. Am I willing to sell parcels that do not benefit the public so the funds can be reallocated and more land can be acquired? Yes.

Flame away.

 

[longbeard697]

I agree shmalts. We do need to be more concerned an I think the attention to the subject is growing somewhat in the east. I know I've paid more attention to it myself since I joined this forum. I've also contacted my states representatives an stated my opinions to them on this subject. With that said, I can see mdhunters point to. But.... we as outdoorsman in the east need to really keep a watchful eye on this in our area. IMHO, this is not much different than the 2nd amendment issue. What I mean is, we got to be careful not to give the an inch so they can take a mile, or two, or three so on an so on.

 

[shootbrownelk]

As if finding public hunting areas in Wisconsin isn't hard enough, the DNR wants to make it harder. I seriously doubt the State/DNR will use the proceeds to buy more ground. They'll probably just waste it.

 

[ChrisS]

New York gets a bad rap for a lot of things, but I have about 3 million acres of public land protected by constitutional amendment.