Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The truth, like it or not

Never been to Lake Fork.

My children will own "my land".

That's how we feel about it. Unfortunately, they were a patriotic lot.

I think you should have to drop a quarter in all your neighbor's toll boxes to drive out of your neighborhood, then pay some chinese corporation to drive on their major access roads and highways they own so you can get your sixpack and lotto ticket at quickymart.

Kent

I read it and it was a laundry list of all the negative what-ifs were states to take over the lands.

I agree, the federal government has no business owning land unless it involves their constitutional responsibilities such as military bases.

You can bemoan what might happen if the feds don't own this land for the collective "us" or "we". But the reality is, the federal ownership of land stifles local economies, and allows the feds to control far more than the land that they "own".

I am glad you have enjoyed public land use over the years, but your concerns about "what-if?" are not justification for making those of us who live in the west and whose livelihoods are impacted by the fed government's heavy handed management have to suffer under government's thumb which is typically directed by environmentalists funded by do-gooders from the coast.

A quote from your link...


[/quote=]This would also result in a proliferation of locked gates and no-trespassing signs in places that have been open to the public and used for generations. [/quote]

If you think the BLM & U.S. Forest service haven't put up locked gates & closed off huge parcels of land from easy access, you haven't been getting out much in the past 35 years.


I can't say that I'd trust my state to do otherwise, because in the past, they've done the same thing with the local state lands.

Auburn Recreation area... http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=502

American river parkway... http://www.regionalparks.saccounty.net/Parks/Pages/AmericanRiverParkway.aspx

This...but we seem to have forgotten.

If the Government owns the land then the people or tax payers are the real owners and should be able to use it at their own choosing without Government interference

Until some tax doesn't get paid.

Add: About 86% of Arizona is government land in one way or another. No property taxes paid and in a number of areas no access for civilians or non-gov't employees. That's the way it is and has been for a long time. It's not like Conn. or Texas or Calif.

Of course it has property taxes. I pay them.

I understand. I was just meaning to gripe about the state's right to take your property. That's always bothered me.
One of those 'it may not be right but it's so' things.

Please do not take this as a snide remark, rather as a serious inquiry:

Please explain, in this case as I know there are many others, what the suffering is under a government thumb as it relates to these lands.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins isn't it?

I would take it as an incredibly STUPID remark, disingenuous and a diversion....If so suggest again that you look for another site perhaps more in tune with your "Article"

....If it IS sincere, than the suggestion that you don't get out much is reinforced, and you need to go educate yourself .

Lose-lose scenario, either way, Ted.

GTC

Having been born and raised in the East I understand where you are coming from, the Western lands should be preserved even if it means Westerners have to live in poverty to provide a playground for the Eastern poor rich to come and play.

Unfortunately, the Feds and environmentalists mismanagement of the Western lands the lands aren't even fit to be playgrounds any more.

DITTOS!

I will briefly touch on one particular case.

When the Charles M Russell wildlife refuge was first suggested, as part of the deal, local ranchers who own land there and lesed land were guaranteed to have access to the lake for livestock water. Water was to available for that purpose regardless of whatever else happens. Fast forward now and the USFWS is working hard to exclude livestock from all parts of the refuge. Their mismanagement of the refuge has created a haven for noxious weeds and coyotes that continually hamper local producers.

I could go into great depth how there are oftentimes a fresh college grad put in charge of an allotment or the management of a parcel that has no freakin idea what goes on in the real world who suddenly has power that is often wielded with little to no recourse for us public peasants.

Many federal managers seem to put local concerns and needs far behind those of the enviro-whackos.

LOL, I just drove to the top of one of our many Colorado ski resorts this weekend. Drove right up the slopes where skiers from all over the world will be spending millions in a few weeks.

The reason I could drive up those slopes is.......they're all on federal land.

Read some of the posts in the elk hunting section by all of the guys who come out here to hunt public land for the price of a tag and their expendables. They hunt public land and it's their dollars that keep guides, outfitters, hotels, and mom-and-pop grocery stores in business.

And it wouldn't happen without the public land here.

I agree. These public lands add MULTI BILLIONS to local communities across Colorado. In addition, if these lands would to become private tomorrow hunters would add a 0 and more to the cost of their tags. Chew on that for a while.

It's not the system that's wrong or the original intent... it's what's morphed from mismanagement and liberal agendizing... or to be blunt, people (chitheads) happened.

Kent