texas billionaires bar hunters from Potlatch Land

[JLS]

locked up is locked up, regardless of one's political views.

one thing is for sure, the idea that there's "room for everybody in the west" and private lands being open to everyone is definitely a dying ideal.  just sickens me that so many are indifferent or even supportive of closing access to the public.

It makes me incredibly sad to see this.

An effect of population growth.  Keep adding more and more people and not adding land, more will get locked up.

I believe it has a lot more to do with attitudes and egos than it does population.

It has more to do with investing amassed wealth. If I had billions of $s, I'd buy up a lot of land, too.

So would I.  And I would also let people hunt it, because I believe in the ideology of public access to a public resource.

Edit:  I've had the privilege of hunting multi generational ranches where they still valued the ideology of sharing with your neighbors.  I've also had the privilege of hunting on a billionaire's ranch, who also learned (it wasn't immediate) the value of sharing with your neighbors, and the goodwill and sense of community that it builds.

Unfortunately, many landowners (both individual and corporate) have lost sight of the intrinsic worth of access to a shared public resource.

[pianoman9701]

I would open it up too.

[Wenatcheejay]

The people are not powerless and all states that are seeing this trend need to wake up to realities--

Re-write the property tax breaks that timberland gets , making sure top tax break includes public access.  Look at the Great Lakes states for a model.
Use all legal means, including eminent domain, to get access through private land to public land
Require any fee-for-entry system to follow the same rules as other recreation businesses meaning disabled access rules, sanitation, wheelchair accessible gates etc.
Non-timber or ag income must pay the same tax rates (B&O) as other recreation businesses pay
Reassert that the public owns the wildlife, period.  No special tags, damage tags, landowner tags unless the public is allowed on.
The public also owns the rivers and lakes.  Make sure (such as Montana has done) that the public has access to navigable waters. 
Convert some private logging roads that have been used by the public for decades to actual public roads if they access public lands, trails, or waters.


None of this is against property rights, it is just creating a level playing field and removing the special treatments timberland gets, or at least tying the special treatment to public benefits more directly.

Yes.

[NumaJohn]

Yes, fireweed! Thanks for providing a concrete strategy.

I understand that private property owners have (and should have) great latitude regarding what they do with their property, but there comes a point where greed becomes insufferable. People like Teddy R. had the means to hunt their entire lives under a European model, but he and his colleagues chose a different path for us, and I remain grateful.

John

[Bean Counter]

There are plenty of ways states can fight for hunters access for the common man that don't have to resort to selling our souls to the Devil, ie the federal government, to get a free place to hunt. If eminent domain wont work, a state could tax the living S* out of a property owner that wont grant access, to the point where G&F could use the funds to buy back other lands for public access 

As much as I hate to see public access lost, its far more ideal than the Federal government sinking its disgusting fangs into something that can and should be figured out by the states.