June 17, 2008

Who Owns the West?


The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land - nearly 30% of its total territory. These federal lands, which are mainly used as military bases or testing grounds, nature parks and reserves and indian reservations, are managed by different administrations, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Department of Defense, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Bureau of Reclamation or the Tennessee Valley Authority.

This map details the percentage of state territory owned by the federal government. The top 10 list of states with the highest percentage of federally owned land looks like this:

Nevada 84.5%
Alaska 69.1%
Utah 57.4%
Oregon 53.1%
Idaho 50.2%
Arizona 48.1%
California 45.3%
Wyoming 42.3%
New Mexico 41.8%
Colorado 36.6%
Notable is that all these states are in the West.

8 comments:

Lisa said...

Thank you for sharing... jk

linnette said...

What, Lisa...You don't think that is interesting that the Federal Government owns 65 percent of the land west of Denver and only two percent of the land east of Denver?

SoCalT said...

Why is this? Why just the west?

linnette said...

Originally, the federal government's objective was to get the newly acquired land into private hands as quickly as possible. The sale of the land was helpful in retiring debts that accumulated during the Revolutionary War. Toward the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, the goals and objectives of the federal government changed, due to the growing influence in the east of people who bought into the socialist ideal.

Anonymous said...

It is also amazing the area of land the government owns is exactly the shape of the state and is located exactly in the center of each one.

SoCalT said...

Why does the baby widget keep going back to 204 days? I get all excited watching it develop and then it goes back to 204 days.

linnette said...

I don't know. It says 176 days right now. Whoever said that the shape of the area the government owns is the same shape as the state is funny.

Anonymous said...

Drew will take credit for that now.

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