What Is at Stake in the BLM vs. Bundy Showdown

Gary North - April 16, 2014

Let's begin with a map.

Here are some explanations.

The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) -- nearly 30% of its total territory. These federal lands are used as military bases or testing grounds, nature parks and reserves and Indian reservations, or are leased to the private sector for commercial exploitation (e.g. forestry, mining, agriculture). They 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%

You can find this here.

The Bundy family is grazing its cattle on federal lands for free. It refuses to pay. This is a property rights case on the surface.

We need to get beneath the surface. The real problem can be seen on the maps. The federal government exercises ownership over land that it should not own.

If the federal government auctioned off this land to the highest bidders, using the money exclusively for paying off the federal debt, the nation would be a lot better off. But the government refuses to do this.

My hope is that this showdown in Nevada will raise this question: "If a private owner controlled access to the land, would the Bundy family work out a deal?" I think it would.

The BLM has lost the first round: in the media. It thought it could steal Bundy's cattle and get away with it. The plan has backfired. The BLM has backed off in the name of protecting the public from violence. But when has that ever stopped the Feds? The BLM has backed off because it has become the villain in a range war. It has received enormous coverage. The public is generally on Bundy's side.

This is one of those situations where those of us who like small civil government can take control of this issue. The issue is best seen in the maps.

The BLM will want revenge. YouTube will make this more difficult for the BLM to achieve.

Harry Reid says, "It's not over."

I hope he is right. It's great PR for liberty.

Will the BLM raid Bundy's home? It may. There are signs that it will. But the day of invisible raids is over. YouTube enables voters to impose counter-measures. The bureaucrats fear bad publicity, and a raid on Bundy's home will produce overwhelmingly bad publicity for the BLM.

This is likely to escalate. If the ranchers avoid violence and use YouTube instead, they will win.