Why We Will Not (Should Not) Sell the Public Lands: Changing Conceptions of Private Property

Whether the remaining western public lands will remain permanently in federal ownership is one of the sporadic staples of American politics. A quiescent issue for some years, it recently reappeared as page one news' following a proposal by the Reagan Administration to sell approximately thirty-five million acres of mostly Bureau of Land Management, and some National Forest, land. The almost frenzied responses to the land sale announcements of last summer faded into the background, however, as it became clear that even the most likely pro-sale constitutencies-political leaders and land users in the West-are skeptical about current "privatization" proposals.