When the government owns public land an amazing thing happens. The public isn't allowed to use it.
BLM are bastards. There's an agency that needs a total overhaul.
What are you babbling about? The public has been using that land since 1908 as a Wildlife Refuge. People have been free to visit and make use of it for fishing, hunting, hiking and other outdoor activities for all of that time. They didn't stop having use of it until some random armed men showed up for a protest. The taxpayer owned land is totally controlled by the US Congress. It is elected officials who make the final determination as to how our property is used. Obviously, the taxpayers for over a hundred years have been in favor of using it as open and preserved natural undeveloped space to be held for future generations to enjoy. Your comment that the public isn't allowed to use the wildlife refuge is false and misleading. One of the buildings taken over by the criminals there now is the visitor center. The place where until they showed up, people stopped to get maps and guides for participating in refuge activities. You know, doing what you say isn't done, using the taxpayer owned and funded property.
No, they have NOT been using "that land" since 1908 as a refuge. The blm has added SIGNIFICANTLY to it, after the feds regulated the use of surrounding property to the point where people can no longer afford to live there...then they gobble that land up too.
Under Clinton, they were going to make Steens Mountain a MONUMENT which would put it totally off limits for people who have managed it for GENERATIONS and who hunt on it to feed their children. The BLM repeatedly would call for studies and community input, which they would then ignore and do whatever the **** they wanted.
The community and the feds came together in a joined effort to manage Steens Mountain...and then the BLM IGNORED the legislation that they created TOGETHER. They broke the laws that they crafted with the landowners and locals, and proceded to do whatever the **** they wanted to the landowners, including fencing them off their own land.