Awesome! Sounds like someone finally listened to what the RIGHT people had to say. Smells like victory!
It would be interesting to know exactly what land they were looking to sell off. The way the laws are written right now, there are millions of acres that are basically not accessible to the public. Much of the land you cannot access because there are no public roads that provide access. If the road is not public, then you can be ticketed for driving on it while trying to access the land. You cannot legally travel from one piece of checkerboard to the next as the only area that touches is an area that is too small to walk through. There are private land owners that own the other two properties in those corners. If your lucky, you can get permission from landowners but a lot of them are asking for trespass fees to be able to use their land to access the public land. There are areas like around the big horn mountains that have thousands and thousands of acres of public land that is not accessible because all the trails to the public land run through public land and the government no longer maintains the roads. Therefore they are no longer accessible by the public. I'm not necessarily in favor of selling off those lands, but honestly they are just being wasted right now. I would be in favor of some regulation changes that gives public access back to those lands.
Just hope he doesn't "re-package" it and try to sell it to us under another name or hidden deep in some legalese mumbo jumbo.
Interesting how he claims a bill introduced on 1/24/17 was "introduced several years ago", and he manages to blame Bill Clinton? What? So much for falling on your own sword. That guy is as slimy as they come.
True, however many landowners maintain the roads, fences and still pay for all the grazing leases. But the biggest key is that this bill would have been a way to get a, "foot in the door" making future transfers much, much simpler.
I don't fault the landowners one bit for not allowing people to use their property to access the public lands, especially the way the system is set up right now. If the government will no longer maintain those roads than the public shouldn't have access to them. It's just a silly system that we have right now. I can't think of one good use for the checkerboard land as it sits right now. I guess I'm just on the fence about it. I don't want to lose public access land for any reason whatsoever. I just think there's got to be a better way to utilize the millions of acres that are completely inaccessible to the average public land hunter.
