.
The surface rights to those grasslands is owned by the ranching families that have worked the land since before the US was created by our founding document, The Declaration of Independence.
The BLM has no rights thereon.
“The surface rights to those grasslands is owned by the ranching families that have worked the land since before the US was created by our founding document, The Declaration of Independence.”
There are very strong arguments for this view.
But one should not fall into the idea that out of 640 million acres — 28% of the country — they are all grasslands.
There is a vast diversity of terrain throughout the country.
And there lots of federal lands in the East, not only in the West.