BuzzH
Well-known member
I worked with Christine Peterson on this article she recently wrote for HCN, I think its a pretty good one that explains some of the complexity regarding inaccessible public lands and how difficult the solutions may be:
In mid-2016, a state of Wyoming website ran a notice detailing a proposed land exchange. Not many people bother to read such postings, and even fewer were likely to understand what the trade entailed on the ground.
But Buzz Hettick did, and he was alarmed: The swap would have closed off access to 4,000 acres of prime elk-hunting land in a rugged stretch of southeast Wyoming. If it went through, the cut-off land would have joined the approximately 3 million acres of public land in Wyoming that are already inaccessible to the public. That’s an area roughly one and a half times the size of Yellowstone National Park, broken into little islands that are technically public but available only to those with permission to cross the surrounding private land.
The landowner said no one used that land anyway. The state wanted to acquire property with timber or possible outfitter leases it could sell to help pay for schools. But the outdoor recreation community went berserk.
Hettick, who is a volunteer for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a sportsmen’s advocacy group, spends hours every week chasing tips about trades where sportsmen lose access to large chunks of land. When he heard about this proposed deal, he and a couple of others began calling, emailing and reaching out via social media to the state’s hunting and fishing community. They sparked a wave of angry calls and emails to the land board, along with an online petition that garnered thousands of signatures. And they were successful; the state’s land board ultimately denied the trade.
Hettick said the experience reminded the local outdoor community: Pay attention, or lose public land.
Wyoming is not the only state with public land surrounded by private land, but a recent report commissioned by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership showed that it has a disproportionate amount — one-third of the landlocked acreage in the entire Western U.S. How it got that way is complex: part industrialization and homesteading, part land swaps and road closures, part climate quirk. The fight for public access is an ongoing one, led largely by dedicated outdoor enthusiasts determined to read every land trade proposal, knock on landowners’ doors and petition in the halls of Congress.
“It’s up to each individual outdoorsman, a hunter, angler, backpacker, hiker, mountain biker, I don’t care who it is, it’s up to them to let us know,” Hettick said. “I’m done losing places to hunt and fish and recreate. I just am.”
Entire article here:
https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.2/public-lands-why-wyomings-public-lands-are-locked-up?fbclid=IwAR3IYXP6yr55nHsfE0l5eN4w2giYqKyi3BEjTzzN7OqDLOTRsEkGmFE-_dY
In mid-2016, a state of Wyoming website ran a notice detailing a proposed land exchange. Not many people bother to read such postings, and even fewer were likely to understand what the trade entailed on the ground.
But Buzz Hettick did, and he was alarmed: The swap would have closed off access to 4,000 acres of prime elk-hunting land in a rugged stretch of southeast Wyoming. If it went through, the cut-off land would have joined the approximately 3 million acres of public land in Wyoming that are already inaccessible to the public. That’s an area roughly one and a half times the size of Yellowstone National Park, broken into little islands that are technically public but available only to those with permission to cross the surrounding private land.
The landowner said no one used that land anyway. The state wanted to acquire property with timber or possible outfitter leases it could sell to help pay for schools. But the outdoor recreation community went berserk.
Hettick, who is a volunteer for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a sportsmen’s advocacy group, spends hours every week chasing tips about trades where sportsmen lose access to large chunks of land. When he heard about this proposed deal, he and a couple of others began calling, emailing and reaching out via social media to the state’s hunting and fishing community. They sparked a wave of angry calls and emails to the land board, along with an online petition that garnered thousands of signatures. And they were successful; the state’s land board ultimately denied the trade.
Hettick said the experience reminded the local outdoor community: Pay attention, or lose public land.
Wyoming is not the only state with public land surrounded by private land, but a recent report commissioned by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership showed that it has a disproportionate amount — one-third of the landlocked acreage in the entire Western U.S. How it got that way is complex: part industrialization and homesteading, part land swaps and road closures, part climate quirk. The fight for public access is an ongoing one, led largely by dedicated outdoor enthusiasts determined to read every land trade proposal, knock on landowners’ doors and petition in the halls of Congress.
“It’s up to each individual outdoorsman, a hunter, angler, backpacker, hiker, mountain biker, I don’t care who it is, it’s up to them to let us know,” Hettick said. “I’m done losing places to hunt and fish and recreate. I just am.”
Entire article here:
https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.2/public-lands-why-wyomings-public-lands-are-locked-up?fbclid=IwAR3IYXP6yr55nHsfE0l5eN4w2giYqKyi3BEjTzzN7OqDLOTRsEkGmFE-_dY
