Why a Public Lands Debate?
Under a system of public ownership, politicians, bureaucrats and special interest groups determine, through political-bureaucratic processes, how resources will be used. Debate and tension characterize this ownership system. And, from time to time, the bureaucratic-political processes that accompany public resource use decisions break down, particularly when changes in demands and/or resource supplies occur. Breakdowns, of course, lead to open conflict. At present, open conflict between commercial and noncommercial users of the public lands exists. It is the result of factors which have dramatically reduced the political access of the commercial users and also the quantity of public lands that are available for commercial uses. To bring the picture into focus, we use events associated with the allocation and use of the 155 million acres of federally owned grazing lands. As an indicator of reduced access to the political-bureaucratic processes, we only need to mention that ranchers comp
