Chuck S
07-14-2009, 12:40 PM
On the Checkerboarding of public lands in the west, the land owners found a Federal judge to say it's illegal to cross corners to reach the hundreds of thousands of landlocked BLM land in the our states. The checkerboard pattern was adopted to allow the railroad to have land where they could cut wood for their steam engines. It runs ten miles or so back from any main line tracks that were in existence in the west during this area and remains to this day, largely intact. By crossing the corners on this checkerboard pattern you could access this "so-called, public" land. As it stand now the ranchers get to lease it at a tax payer, subsidized rate and yet keep those self same tax payers from getting any use of it. That's just one instance of the Slimy politics mentioned above. The BLM could inact rules that disallowed the rancher's lease options unless he agreed to public access. The BLM in concert with other Fed agencies could enact rules that would allow light aircraft drop hunts on land locked parcels but in all cases these land locked, checkerboard parcels and other land locked parcels in effect belong to the rancher!
Along with the checkerboard BLM fiasco there's another slimy bit of politics going on. This involves road closures of roads that head into USFS lands bordering private ranches. Especially where the ranch has leased to an outfitter. I started noticing this with the massive road closures caused by the so-called "environmentalists," during the Clinton administration. Seems as if roads toward the interior of the USFS land was being left open while roads headed out toward the bordering ranches were closed.
Another thought on road closures: While in a rare, very few instances, they are closed seasonally to protect calving areas, etc the majority are arbitrary with the usual excuses of, "roads are bad for wildlife," or, " we have budget problems," etc" Anyone who has visited several towns around the west, including the beautiful Air Force Academy realize that it's not roads doing the harm. Dozens of trophy deer mixed in with their large herd of Mulies are to be found all over that place and many others. So it troubles me when roads and no wildlife are equated. The same goes for Elk as far as some towns and parks go. With the graying of the USA comes a growing statistical percentage of infirmities that keep many of us from making the long pack trips, hikes, etc. Given a growing population and especially the aging one, it's sheer lunacy to concentrate all traffic and camping along select corridors in the forests as this causes overuse and may other problems. Open old roads, mind poor logging or any use practices and let folks enjoy the forests and wild lands.
As far as budget problems go, have you noticed that when they close a road, they often erect a gate, bulldoze a dam across it or use huge logs, moved by a front end loader to close the access? Want to bet they spend as much on these so-called closings as they
would have on doing a bit of maintenance and leaving them open.
Lastly, on the ranchers. I've found many to be considerate, fine folks and not all fall into the profit driven, politics playing ones that so often make the black list of hunters, campers, anglers and others. Same goes for some Outfitters and Guides. We must be careful to not lump the clean wash in with the filthy rags.
Good Hunting
Chuck S
Along with the checkerboard BLM fiasco there's another slimy bit of politics going on. This involves road closures of roads that head into USFS lands bordering private ranches. Especially where the ranch has leased to an outfitter. I started noticing this with the massive road closures caused by the so-called "environmentalists," during the Clinton administration. Seems as if roads toward the interior of the USFS land was being left open while roads headed out toward the bordering ranches were closed.
Another thought on road closures: While in a rare, very few instances, they are closed seasonally to protect calving areas, etc the majority are arbitrary with the usual excuses of, "roads are bad for wildlife," or, " we have budget problems," etc" Anyone who has visited several towns around the west, including the beautiful Air Force Academy realize that it's not roads doing the harm. Dozens of trophy deer mixed in with their large herd of Mulies are to be found all over that place and many others. So it troubles me when roads and no wildlife are equated. The same goes for Elk as far as some towns and parks go. With the graying of the USA comes a growing statistical percentage of infirmities that keep many of us from making the long pack trips, hikes, etc. Given a growing population and especially the aging one, it's sheer lunacy to concentrate all traffic and camping along select corridors in the forests as this causes overuse and may other problems. Open old roads, mind poor logging or any use practices and let folks enjoy the forests and wild lands.
As far as budget problems go, have you noticed that when they close a road, they often erect a gate, bulldoze a dam across it or use huge logs, moved by a front end loader to close the access? Want to bet they spend as much on these so-called closings as they
would have on doing a bit of maintenance and leaving them open.
Lastly, on the ranchers. I've found many to be considerate, fine folks and not all fall into the profit driven, politics playing ones that so often make the black list of hunters, campers, anglers and others. Same goes for some Outfitters and Guides. We must be careful to not lump the clean wash in with the filthy rags.
Good Hunting
Chuck S