Why are unelected government bureaucrats who have no concern that this is an election year responding to property owner voters concerning issue?
And what's arguably worse is why are citizens willing to talk with unelected officials instead of their elected lawmakers where their property, or any issue, is concerned?
... The Bureau claims it is not they who are declaring the ownership but that settled case law long declared it to be government land.
Property owners need to demand that their federal representatives prove that the land in question was purchased by the feds with the consent of state lawmakers in compliance with the Constitution's Clause 17 of Section 8 of Article, or purchased in compliance with the 5th Amendment's Eminent Domain Clause - or get out of Dodge.
Umm, no, BLM, that is not ownership - ownership is very easy to look up, you go down to the local court house, you pull the deeds, you look at property tax records - it is very easy to determine who owns the land. What you have is called a 'claim.' It is the basis of the START of legal procedures, not the END of legal procedures. You claim the land, and then have to explain to a court exactly why you've chosen not to exercise this claim for nearly a hundred years, why you've abandoned the property, failed to keep it posted and marked, why you've not interceded on all these deeds, why you've not acted in property tax cases or in the cases of easement, bankruptcy and foreclosure.
You have a nice little stepping stone which likely would put you right into the 5th where you have to compensate the property owners if you decide to go further with your claim.
Worst part of all of this is that the billions this whole claim will take will come out of the pockets of our great grandchildren, a considerable amount of economic activity will be curtailed, and the end result will just be you leasing that property for a fraction of what it was worth in private hands to pretty much exactly what it is being used for today.
Ghads, nothing like the feds to do something just to do something, make us pay through the nose for it, and after all is said and done, nothing changes.