Land is only “owned” by State or Federal government to hold it from being subdivided and developed.
Keeping the land as unused land under authority of a government keeps the value of the land extremely low.
Then, one day in the future when elite finance wants to make use of the land, they can easily work up a cozy deal with the government to buy/rent/lease/etc., or negotiate sweet deals for any rights they want to extract natural resources and sell them.
If the land was owned by private entities, a price would have to be negotiated with numerous sellers who would want a return on their land investment, and may have contructed buildings on it or be conducting other operations, or have future plans themselves.
If the land is “government” land, government force can be used to sweep away folks like this ranching family.
Sad to say, but conservation has nothing at all to do with why land is Federalized. It’s a land grab by the elites which use their vassal government to execute their plans.
Yep!