It’s not all about selling the land. It’s about managing it. The Feds to a piss poor job of it and then charge us for it. The people closest to it do a better job.
Those who use the land and rely on it to make a living are generally far better stewards of that land than those who draw a paycheck to just 'guard' it. Often the former have been on the land for generations and have the knowledge of it accumulated by multiple generations of observation, as opposed to someone who just got there with a belly full of theories and no practical experience.