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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
Any thoughts as to why?
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beyond what spectre919 has already answered, i'd offer a couple more...the Federal Government "owns" most of Wyoming...if you have never lived with the BLM or Forest Service as a neighbor, it would be hard to understand how frustrating and enraging it can be...beyond Joe Citizen thinking that your cattle pasture is his overnight campground, there are serious issues involving land use that an easterner or anyone else not encumbered with dealing with bureaucrats would find impossible...example...in most of the western US, subsurface rights are not owned by the person who has title to the surface...in many areas, the Feds own the ground beneath your foundation...this conundrum is subject to all sorts of misinterpretation, particularly if you have an "eco-friendly" (read anti-American) administration in the White House like the recent Democratic folks...during one faux pas press briefing, a local BLM guru brought forth the notion that land owners may have to have a federal permit to build fences, plow fields etc., as those activities encroach into the public domain...living next to land owned by the US of A makes this sort of nonsense very prevalent (aforementioned bureaucrat was moved to a safe location before her neck could be stretched...and the comment was disavowed by the WJC administration, although this person was lauded upon hiring for her environmental fervor)...
in short, the Feds are the 800 pound gorilla...
roads that have been commonly used for 100+ years wind up in "Wilderness" areas and locals have to fight tooth and nail to keep them opened...San Juan County, Utah has been at war with the BLM for as long as i can remember over this issue...basically, the Feds wanted to close a county road, altering a 20 mile trip (one-way) for groceries, medical care, etc., to a nearly 75 mile one way trip for the same, all to preserve Indian ruins in the land nearby...now i have no complaint about preserving pre-Colombian artifacts, but the truth be known, there were insufficient BLM rangers to do the job, so why block a road...?
i could go on, but most westerners, particularly rural westerners, have a strong distrust of the Federal government...and Wyoming is a very rural state...
and the wind blows in Wyoming because Nebraska sucks...
