COPING WITH PREDATORS DOWN-UNDER
- Thread starter The Old Ram-Australia
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greybeard
Herd Master
TOR, the federal (US) Govt owns only about 1/4 of the US land mass...28% to be exact as of 2016..610 million acres. Most of that is managed by Bureau of Land Management and US Corps of Engineers and most of it is out in the western 1/3 of the country.. Another 11 million acres is owned by the Dept of Defense.
Not all of the US Govt holdings are surface holdings either. Some of that 610 million acres is subsurface mineral rights, with the surface being in private hands.
About 60 million acres is in title to the US Govt but is held in trust for the tribes of Native Americans... These Indian lands are not considered to be US Public" lands. Total of all US Federal "owned or controlled" land is around 640 million acres. All the rest of the 2.27 billion acres of US soil is privately owned.
In my state, there is very little federal land. The biggest federal parcels in Texas are Ft Hood (340 sq miles) Army Base, Fort Bliss Army Base, Big Bend National Park, Padre Island National Seashore, and 4 National Forests. There are probably a dozen relatively small National Wildlife Reserves as well. Texas doesn't have much federal land because Texas was a sovereign nation before becoming a US State...it was never a "US Territory" like most of the rest of the West was.
A lot of the red you see in the Appalachian states (Ky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina is made up of federally owned subsurface rights.Coal. There are also several large national parks, National Forests and Civil War Battlegrounds & cemeteries in those states
another view with a better legend:
For those who are curioius about what the feds own in your state, follow the link, scroll down to the applicable state and click the "print/PDF Map" link. You state will open in a separate tab.
https://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/printable/fedlands.html
Not all of the US Govt holdings are surface holdings either. Some of that 610 million acres is subsurface mineral rights, with the surface being in private hands.
About 60 million acres is in title to the US Govt but is held in trust for the tribes of Native Americans... These Indian lands are not considered to be US Public" lands. Total of all US Federal "owned or controlled" land is around 640 million acres. All the rest of the 2.27 billion acres of US soil is privately owned.
In my state, there is very little federal land. The biggest federal parcels in Texas are Ft Hood (340 sq miles) Army Base, Fort Bliss Army Base, Big Bend National Park, Padre Island National Seashore, and 4 National Forests. There are probably a dozen relatively small National Wildlife Reserves as well. Texas doesn't have much federal land because Texas was a sovereign nation before becoming a US State...it was never a "US Territory" like most of the rest of the West was.
A lot of the red you see in the Appalachian states (Ky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina is made up of federally owned subsurface rights.Coal. There are also several large national parks, National Forests and Civil War Battlegrounds & cemeteries in those states
another view with a better legend:
For those who are curioius about what the feds own in your state, follow the link, scroll down to the applicable state and click the "print/PDF Map" link. You state will open in a separate tab.
https://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/printable/fedlands.html
Last edited:
Baymule
Herd Master
Private land in Texas is pretty darn close to sacred. You don't trespass on other's property.
It makes sense to fence and cross fence your property in order to keep the land from being overgrazed. Rotating the pastures keeps the grass in good order. Across the road from us is a 98 acre parcel, adjoining a 100 acre parcel. It is leased for cattle grazing. The cattle are rounded up and taken to other leased lands to rest the grass so it can grow back. Who ever has it leased knows grass.
It makes sense to fence and cross fence your property in order to keep the land from being overgrazed. Rotating the pastures keeps the grass in good order. Across the road from us is a 98 acre parcel, adjoining a 100 acre parcel. It is leased for cattle grazing. The cattle are rounded up and taken to other leased lands to rest the grass so it can grow back. Who ever has it leased knows grass.
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The Old Ram-Australia
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Thank you G B. for that insight .I had a feeling that you would know this sort of stuff and set me on the right path...T.O.R.
