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Who's responsible for fires?
The landowner. Always has been. Big timber companies like Weyerhaeuser manage their own land, have fire crews, and pay into state fire protection. They don’t rely on the feds. Weyerhaeuser alone owns and manages over 12 million acres now. The USFS manages 193 million acres and their firefighting capacity is responsible for fighting them. Their crews are underfunded and undermanned as we see every summer.
Grazing rights?
Up to the owner. Some leases would expire, some would continue, some renegotiated. Nothing new there. There is no right to run cattle or sheep on public land to carry over.
Public roads?
Still public. Land ownership doesn’t change road status. Forest Service roads are different but the State and County roads stay open.
Revenue: land sales vs use fees?
Hard to say, but land sales likely bring more upfront. Recreation fees barely cover maintenance. Campgrounds are closing in much of the NF because of lack of funds. Same with trails.
And the “USDA sells trees to big companies” thing?
Wrong direction. The real issue is they don’t cut enough. Thanks to decades of fire suppression and lawsuits, public lands are overgrown tinderboxes. Big timber mostly harvests their own land now — they avoid federal red tape like the plague.
Don't get me wrong. There is a need for public land that is managed by the government. I am a user and have visited every NF in Colorado and Utah. But I have always said to enjoy it while you can because closures are inevitable due to budget short falls, user conflicts and ever present lawsuits from certain groups that want to limit access.
The headlines that screamed "250+ Million Acres To Be Sold" were bullshit. The actual number was 3.3 million acres and BLM land was included in that.
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I definitely don't want developers to get a hold of it, and the gov can't be trusted to not abuse power resulting in the people who own it losing access to use it. So basically we'll get screwed no mater what is done with it.
