Why? Don’t you appreciate being to travel in over 80% of your state? I’m in Nevada, grew up in Idaho and Alaska, lived in Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico. I truly love and appreciate the public lands. Can you imagine if they were transferred to private ownership, fenced off, etc.? Incredible loss.
I live surrounded by millions of acres of national forest. They won’t allow fire wood cutting any more, nor Christmas tree cutting. They put up barriers so we can’t drive down to the big creek to collect stones any more (as though a few people every now and then would deplete the creek) even though those stones come down from the mountains. They warn hikers about all the MX dope growers in the mountains who are dangerous. They keep closing down or eradicating dirt roads since they don’t want people driving on them.
It’s “look but don’t touch”. Surrounded by millions of acres of land, and most people here live in poverty.
The state should be in control, not the fedgov. Then the state will be beholden to the citizens of the state (or should be), local control, counties should have a say or part go to state and part to county. People who live here want to see natural beauty but we also want to earn a living. Forests can be managed for resources and not over cut or ruined by bad logging practices.