Anthroperator

The Idaho constitution requires the state to mange state public land for “long term financial return.” What that means is a 5th generation Teton ranching family will get the boot from their lease when well connected billionaires ask the Idaho Land Board to sell, like what happened with this Tetons Driggs 160 case. The Mike Lee thing failed, so the next move in the playbook is transferring public land to the states who will then say “we can make more money off this land so we are selling it off.” They’re saying he won’t build a subdivision here, but there’s nothing stopping him as it’s private land now. The billionaire who bought the parcel is a New York movie producer and tech investor with a lot of financial interests in AI and data centers. He lives full time in Pittsburgh. When we carve up the American West like this, and make something that once was public private, the possibility for development of open land increases. What made conservation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem possible as one of the only fully intact ecosystems left in America was the scale and connectivity of public land for seasonal migrations of elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and bison. Herds follow green waves of grass with the season. Suburban development has stopped these migrations almost everywhere else. Public land prevents fragmentation into housing developments that would end these migrations too. Ranchers are a big part of this as ranch lands are often some of the most productive low elevation habitat for herds or they fall along migration corridors. Ranches maintain these large open spaces that allow migration to continue. If the buyer keeps the land undeveloped, that would be great, but now that it’s private and the 5th gen family who had a grazing lease there into the 2030s is gone, there’s no guarantee. Another part of America sold off to the highest bidder because the line must go up.

do you ever wonder if you might be actually retarded but everyone around you has been gaslighting you about it your whole life?