I was just going over tomorrows
State Land Board meeting agenda, reading through the sales and exchange section, to see if they were proposing sales to private landowners where we might lose access to public lands, when this article popped up on my news feed.
I am not familiar with the murder associated with the FS employee, but I am familiar with the Newman case, I watched it and got records from the courthouse. Granted, most are not so violent, but we have also seen an increased violence with our public lands with the Bundy case, Malheur and some users/private landowners calling for armed backup by Oath Keepers, militias and such, increasing the threat of violence.
I am going to a meeting in Livingston, on the 31st, where a proposal is being discussed to reroute a trail in the Crazy Mountains. I have not seen a map yet of the proposed reroute, supposedly off of private land to FS public, which I am wondering how that is going to work, since there are 2 diagonal lines of private checkerboard in that area, which means corner crossing. Also, this is a historic trail, is the proposed reroute going to move a trail that has some easy and moderate meadow access and put it on vertical Mountain Goat trail shale land? Remember, the guy that was lost up there last winter, whose body was found this spring was on the Porcupine Lowline and died on the shale parts. This is multiple use access and not everyone can do extreme mountain climbing, but some with age or physical limitations can access the mild to moderate parts. I am mapping the elevations around this trail and making a 3D of the terrain to take with me in case it is needed.
There is also an upcoming land exchange proposal on the southern end of the Crazies, which brings up related concerns that we are possibly going to be losing elk meadows for vertical rocks and mining damaged areas. We just need to pay attention to details and make sure that the public is not losing out on these land exchanges and sales, in addition to the obstructed access issues.