There should not be a federal road or park. You take it over and maintain it.
You're entitled to your opinion. Indeed, I share it.
But, unfortunately, that doesn't cut any ice right now.
You’re right, the individual states should take over the land and take care of it.
But the Fed’s will have none of that!
Nationwide the Fed’s have gone crazy the last couple of years closing public land to public access... and it has very little to do with anything but control. They still allow loggers to open those roads up to log, but you sure can’t go in there to recreate in any form but walking.
I’ve been in National Forests in about 20-30 states in the last two years... and everywhere the Fed’s have gone crazy.
If they even bother to hold the required public hearings, they just ignore the public anyway. They have an agenda, and to hell with the public! They are going to do what they want to do....
In Idaho this past summer I wanted to travel this nice gravel road over the mountains to Montana... but the Fed’s closed it 2 years ago to ‘improve the bear habitat’! That road was still listed on the National Forest maps for the area, and they hadn’t gotten around to publish the REQUIRED MVUM (motorized vehicle usage maps) for that area... even though they were required to do so by a 2006 lawsuit. They claimed they didn’t have the funds to publish the maps, but they did have the funds to close the road... sheesh!
So while I understand that you don’t want to pay to maintain roads in another state, the people in that other state are NOT being afforded the opportunity to take over that road themselves.
And we all are being required to pay to maintain roads in other states... mostly by federal gas taxes, but also with general taxes. For example, the Interstate highway system - which was built by the Feds to be military roads - and they being ‘military’ roads is how they imposed them on the states.
Not that they are the last word, but the Wikipedia entry excerpts below are fairly accurate as far as I am aware. These are Federal lands - owned by the Feds and managed by the Feds for public use of their resources. Out West here, the fact that the Feds have commandeered so much of the land, and then refuse the taxpayers access to the intended use of the land is a big deal.
“National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas focuses on timber harvesting, livestock grazing, water, wildlife, and recreation. Unlike national parks and other federal lands managed by the National Park Service, commercial use of national forests is permitted, and in many cases encouraged. National Forests are categorized by the World Commission on Protected Areas as IUCN Category VI (Managed Resource Protected Area).
“The National Forest System was created by the Land Revision Act of 1891.
“In the United States there are 155 National Forests containing almost 190 million acres (297,000 mi²/769 000 km²) of land. These lands comprise 8.5 percent of the total land area of the United States, an area about the size of Texas. Some 87 percent of National Forest land lies west of the Mississippi River; Alaska alone accounts for 12 percent of all National Forest land.”
I agree. But it will take forever to get the feds off our backs!