Three generations of my family have made their living logging and wood products industry, so I feel qualified to comment a little on federal ownership vs private. I think up until about 1970, private ownership was a good thing for small communities, hunters and outdoorsmen had free access to millions of acres of private land which produces the best big game habitat It created a lot of family wage jobs and economic vitality in rural areas. Then, it seems several small seemingly unrelated things began affecting that picture. Radical environmentalism, with it's fake science, the packing of federal court benches with active Sierra Club members,tort law mushroomed into an industry of itself, and the management of the US Forest Service began building it's top heavy bureaucratic structure. In the 1960's it took about 3 foresters to prepare, sell and manage a timber sale. The feds actually made money selling the timber, or they at least broke even. Now it takes about 10 people to do the same thing. Foresters, hydrologists, biologists, archaeologists, cultural advisors, soil scientists, zoologists, and a civil engineer. So, for the last 30 years, it cost the taxpayers more to do a timber sale, by far than it earned. And salvage logging after a fire? The Forest Service takes so long to prepare a sale that the burnt timber is rotten and useless before they can market it. So it rots. Meanwhile, private companies have done their legal logging plans and are hauling it to the mill before the smoke has cleared...literally. Private timberland is MUCH more resistant to catastrophic wildfire than public land. So on the face of it, it sounds like private timberlands are the best bet for outdoorsmen. Well, remember above, the tort law industry? Bubba and his cousin throw in the chainsaw, the beer, the deer rifles and head out on private timberland to get a little meat and a little jag of wood maybe. Well they drink all the beer, run off the road, roll the pickup and Bubba gets killed. Damn. But Mrs Bubba and the three lil' ones are contacted by a nice lawyer fella. You can figure the rest, there ain't a dry eye in the jury box and Mrs Bubba and the lawyer fella split the 6 million, from the evil timber owner. So since about 1970, the timber owner gated off and locked up his holdings to the public access. Can we blame him?
It's an axe that cuts both ways, and I don't know the answer. Public vs private?
