Keep Public Lands in Public Hands

Like all other rights, it’s only a right if you’re willing to fight for it
The “land Rustlers” are attempting to take a more fundamental rights away in turn our public lands into a commodity from which they can profit. Greed never sleeps and is often disguised with good intention. America is well known for its wide open to public spaces endless mountain ranges, famous lakes and rivers, and abundant fish and wildlife. A campaign flyer send out by one of the top front running presidential candidates would have you believe that if elected he will right an historic wrong.

The flyer reads “President Obama and the federal government have been stealing Nevada land under the disguise of establishing national monuments for years. Now, 85% of all land in Nevada is owned by the federal government. That’s not right. If I am elected president, I will end this land grab and give Nevadans back control of their land.”

Some Nevadans claims that long ago the federal government seize land they did not belong to them and that it should be returned to the state. That is a very convenient, and very incorrect reading of western U.S. history. The fact is almost all western states were once Federal Territories. Land purchased by the U.S. Treasury. Where do the U.S. Treasury acquire the funds to buy the land? It acquired funds from taxing the people, Americans, all taxpayers or in other words the “public,” and therefore it is public land. And said land was governed according to a fee title by the Federal government until statehood. Therefor the land was purchased by all Americans, for all Americans, from France, Great Britain and Russia or seized from Spain, Mexico or Indian nations.