Saw the title and immediately knew what was up lol. I work for the BLM for the moment and while I can say that a lot of the land is pretty barren, some of it is absolutely gorgeous and highly underrated. But because of land status shenanigans, the best bits are often impossible for the public to access which is a real shame. A fun note about the rock collecting part is that when I asked our geologist if I could collect stuff, he answered in measurements quantified in buckets
@@sloth0jr our land here in Colorado is especially fragmented due to old mining claims and ranches. We have these amazing bits of land in the Rockies which would be great for camping or hiking that just can’t be accessed due to private or state lands blocking them :(
I feel like it shouldn't be legal to block access to such lands. That's not a thing in like...any of the West. (I say this as a US expat living in Canada, and discovering there's way more lax trespass laws elsewhere; you can't fence off the access to public lands, and you also can't just get shot or arrested for simply being in private lands. They can ask you to leave, but that's about it as long as you agree and don't come back.) Side note: US95 is beautiful at sunrise. As well as at 2 a.m. when you can see EVERYTHING.
this land be easy to fix tho if America would just add water pipelines up in mexicos mountains the land would basically repair itself and can solve these hurricanes
A couple years ago I drove from the Salt Lake City area to Reno NV via highway 50, which is nicknamed "The loneliest road in America", and it was a surreal experience. I loved every minute of it. Throughout the trip we would sometimes drive 20-30 minute stretches (at 80 mph mind you) without seeing another car. Whenever we would occasionally stop to stretch, the silence was incredible. The landscape, although quite barren, was beautiful. We drove the same route back, but this time we drove through the night. The stars that you could see way out there in the middle of nowhere were something else. The moon hadn't risen yet, and at one point I pulled over and turned off our lights just to look at the starts and it literally made me gasp. It was almost scary to see the vastness of the milky way stretching across the whole sky so brightly. The feeling of isolation and solitude was unlike anything I've ever experienced. I plan to recreate the trip sometime and I would highly recommend visiting the more desolate parts of the country if you get the chance.
@@johnchedsey1306I did a loop around Death Valley and across NV last year. On hwy 50, there were a few crazy looking outposts visible several miles out in the desert. Surely, Mad Max is out there.
It's changing very fast. Space is full of satellites 🛰 now. 1,000s more are on the way from almost every country on earth. Starlink alone has over 7,000 up so far. They are trying to camouflage them. But still.... It's an absolute full on technological space race with no end in sight.
Note on the wild horses and burros: The absolutely hilarious implication here is that you can, in fact, get a free government horse. After the prison labor breaks them, they're then available *for free* to go home with any rando that signs up. You have to take care of it for a year, and then the government will hand over legal ownership of your new communism horse.
Ohhhhhhhhhkay. There may be free meds available for you, my MAGA friend. Commie meds to soothe that jangled brain of yours. Check your local county health department.
As someone who grew up around horses, let me assure you that there is no such thing as a “free” horse. While buying one may cost next to nothing, feeding and caring for them is REALLY expensive. “Eat like a horse” is more than just a figure of speech. If that horse needs to see a doctor, the vet is going to charge quite a bit more than your doctor would (because it’s probably a house call) and there is no health insurance for horses.
I grew up out west and love BLM land. I used it all the time. Hiking, off-roading, target practice, and many other outdoor activities were all easily accessible to everyone. I now live in Virginia and there is no public land, at all. It’s all private property. There’s no exploring. There’s no off-roading. There’s no hiking. If you want to do anything, you have to either own the land or pay the owner to use it.
Same here in Illinois. I live near Chicago, and literally couldn’t dream of owning an off-road machine with a trailer setup. Gives a different kind of insight on the urban dirt bike riders everybody loves to hate.
@@jay-t1030 Small staff = "We can't talk to anyone or come to your thing we don't have the resources haha" Always a pleasure to burst an FDR-delusionist bubble. Hey while we're at it have you ever actually tried calling animal control? If you try it and then post the number of WEEKS it will take them to dispatch a truck I will give you a cookie shaped like FDR.
Here in Nevada, I feel like we love the BLM. I always hear it talked about in a proud way. We have like 50 million acres of blm land and it’s like we have the biggest back yard of any state
No cattle fencing , unlike the east coast and Texas and midwest, can't even offroad I'm tired of hearing about how country it is out there, yal are trapped in Cattle fenced up paved prisons
Yeah, the basic rule is "Don't ruin shit". Having the NPS that fully protects, the FS that semi-protects and the BLM that manages sustainable use are all important parts of a whole. we need each one. He doesn't call it out directly but the "entitled ranchers" who think public land belongs to them are one of the worst problems for the BLM. Mining companies being greedy is expected, they at least still don't act like they own the land usually.
@@NatureDerekYea, corporations are like "oh cmon! but i was here first :(" The entitled farmers go "im an american, i've been able to use this land for centuries, who are you to tell me what to do"
I love how those self proclaimed "strong independent" ranchers tend to end up being the biggest moochers, whining if they don't get the subsidies they need to survive and claiming land that isn't theirs. Fun Fact: The patriarch of the Bundy clan, Cliven, claimed that their land had been in their family for several generations. It turned out that Cliven's parents bought the land several years after he was born.
@@bigGullyVremember the ranchers having a stand off on that bridge with the feds over grazing ? Bundy owed over a million in grazing fees so the feds confiscated his cattle. Then his even more brain dead son and friends took over that bird sanctuary (or whatever it was) in Oregon and one got killed
"many of these pastures are near prisons" - me thinking that its a comparison and not a location description: :O "inmates train and work with them to eventually be adopted".... :D
As a person who has worked for the BLM for 3 years now, it’s great to see my work be recognized! I’m a seasonal who repairs trails, and does some other small projects on BLM and forest service land.
Ty. I hiked the PCT and greatly respect and appreciate your work. Everyone who voted for trump can share a little bit of responsibility for you losing your job due to his policies.
The tragedy of the commons was less of a "not enough forage to sustain them" problem and more a "new climate that nobody has experience with" problem. The western US is what range scientist Allan Savory calls a Brittle Environment. The US settlers were used to Europe and the Eastern US where it rains regularly and you just graze then give it a break and it grows right back. In brittle environments, being grazed is important or the vegetation will die off, but since the growing season is so short it needs grazed quickly, then left to rest until next year when it's had time to re-grow. This is basically mimicking the huge buffalo herd migration that used to happen before the US settlers arrived.
Thank you for your comment, which also implies active land embrittlement, not just by people whinging for a Canute. Post Covid, with following droughts, the impediments to safe grazing must be considerable. Foodstuffs that must be edited for marketability may explain why fewer foodstuffs reach supermarket display cases.
This also ties into the idea that we historically, and still today, measure climate based on the average of recorded data without much consideration of extreme events. That's what a "100 year flood" or other event means. It's not something that has been observed every hundred years. It's something to be expected every 100 years on average based on the model. If you only have 100 years of actual recorded data and you have a 100 year event 3 years in a row it could be that the model was wrong and it's a 1 in 33 year event, or it could be that it is a 1 in 100 event and there hasn't been one in the 200 years before you started measuring. Regardless, IMO the entire field of conservation and environmental management needs to do a better job of acknowledging this, and that or observed actual data is too thin to really make assumptions about frequency distribution or what extremes really look like.
Thank you! It bothers me when people misrepresent commons. Typically the people can learn to manage land for the long haul if they know the land and have a stake in it.
@@trenomas1 It's really impressive seeing people get like 10x increases in vegetation using Allan Savory's methods out west. There's a lot of land out there that is not producing near what it should be.
well, the problem with acronyms is that Black Lives Matter also uses the acronym BLM, so you must be careful to be clear when using the acronym. So, yes, this is the BLM everybody is talking about, but the topic of discussion could be either. It's always safer to not use the acronym if you can.
I think more videos like this would be beneficial to most people who don't actually understand the federal land management agencies. USFS, NPS, BLM, FWS, etc. most people know but have no idea of what they do outside of recreation and maybe grazing. Great video that does not take one side of the argument for/against the agency.
Agreed, as somebody on the east coast this was very informative and helpful to understand an agency I don't think I've heard of, aside from lists of federal agencies.
Except he completely ignored the most important and actual constitutional position, that these agencies have no authority to exist or hold these lands in the first place.
@@KevinVanGelderthat's just not a winning argument in congress or in court. The executive branch constitutionally has the responsibility to execute the (very vague) laws of the land.
I grew up in the "rural" west and spent much of my childhood exploring on the BLM and Forest Service roads in the area. Imagine my confusion when I read that a group had painted "BLM" on the street in front of the White House... and literally my first thought was, "What does the Bureau of Land Management have to do with that?" 😆
Also fun fact: the land operated by Egypt is much smaller than Egypt, because I doubt they have an agency taking care of the non-Nile and non-coastal parts of Egypt.
Nah this is actually one of the coolest things I’ve learned about the government in soooo fucking long. Thank god stuff like this still exists in America.
That is one glaring issue with this video. It implies that tribal lands were *chosen* when they were *forced*. Tons of BLM land would probably be tribal (see Navajo and Hopi reservations) if the native americans were allowed any choice in their land.
@@jeffreychandler8418 Wendover has a history of completely ignoring indigenous populations and their history, and when they do mention them they're painted as the aggressors. For example, they started their video about mass shootings in Australia off with the line "European settlers arrived on an untamed continent, pushed across vast wilderness, through hostile indigenous populations, and established, then doggedly defended, a few narrow bands of civilization." which is just filled with pretty blatant white supremacy and racism
@@justanotherguy6359most African-Americans are not African. Do you say any other dumb things, which you think are clever? I'm eager to be enlightened.
18:29 the sign says "Marshall Law" like it's a law named after a guy named marshall, and it's endlessly amusing to me that they put that on a sign and nobody corrected them.
Marshall Law is an American fighter of Chinese descent who was introduced in the original Tekken game and I wonder why the BLM imposed him on the People of the Western states.
I randomly had to pause the video at this exact time stamp and then came back to resume the video a few minutes later but wanted to check the comments a little first and I saw this comment, crazy coincidence lol
The logistics here remind me of how a small airport in Wisconsin becomes the busiest airport in the world with >3,000 operations a day for one week a year. You should do a video!
Welfare ranchers are some of the most self-entitled crybabies out there. It's too bad that they have so much power over the management of vast amounts of public land.
"What do you mean I can't just let my cattle graze wherever they wander to even if they completely destroy the landscape that I don't own, manage, operate, pay for, care about"
Ranchers "it's about my rights to land use! Gov "it's not your land and never has been..." Ranchers "but it's public and so I have the right to use it!" Gov "correct, everybody has the right to use it. so provided the public at large does not specifically decide on a use for it, see you representative about that, you totally can use it. just sign here and pay this incredibly small fee to help cover the resources you are essentially buying from every other American" Ranchers "...but my rights?!?!" Gov "... I literally don't know how this could be easier..."
@@OCinneideYou realize the BLM doesn't plant, manage or do anything to the grass? And yet they charge to use it, often at rates that aren't worth it. Also, no they don't destroy the landscape. They've been ranching in these areas for almost 200 years. The landscape you see is the landscape that has already been shaped by ranching. I find it funny that city people who never go to these areas have any opinions on it at all
Former born and raised Alaskan here. I had good relations with BLM and NPS as a hunter and mountaineer. Complex politics, that whole mess; who owns the creek shore, the creek bed, or the water flowing through it. I also took a Natural Resources class as a HS elective. Again, very interesting stuff, and interesting video.
around here, the Bureau of Land Management works with the Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife, Parks and Recreation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (for the Colville Confederated Tribes specifically), and the myriad of volunteer Fire Departments to manage the land, so it doesn't go completely untended, but it's still by far not enough people to manage the sheer quantity of barely-useable scrubland that surrounds us out here.
As a pretty frequent camper and hiker, I know the BLM as just one of the federal agencies that owns land I camp and hike on. I had no idea there was any controversy about them at all.
I'm moving just outside of Winnemucca had no idea burning man would be so close I thought it was in CA for some reason. Yes it was actually some of the cheapest land I found anywhere but a big caveat is that it's illegal to haul water and you have to install a well and septic before you can live there permanently.
It's a common misperception it's in California. Winnemucca is like a 3-hour drive to Gerlach, which is the closest town to Burning Man. Even if you never go to the burn, you should definitely check out the Black Rock Desert. It's truly one of America's most unique environments. I found it by going to BM, and I fell in love with it. It's so hostile to life, but so insanely beautiful. Just make sure you don't drive on it wet! ;)
really really really old school burning man (like 20+ years ago) was in CA, but the site they used there wasn't big enough for their growing popularity so they moved to Black Rock. IIRC
@@NatureDerek from 1986-1990 it was on Baker Beach in San Francisco. It moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990 as part of The cacophony society zone trip #4: Bad Day at Black Rock. The cacophony society was a outsider experience collective that has roots going back to a prior secret society called the suicide club which formed in the early 70s, if not before. Their zone trips were adventures into perilous places, they explored (broke in in the middle of the night) the BART tunnels as they were under construction under San Francisco Bay, for example. Burning Man's history is quite fascinating as the extremeness of the event has a long history. No In the right mind would visit the Black Rock Desert and decide this is a great place for a temporary 80,000 person city! It's grown and morphed from very humble beginnings.
I totally disagree that this is our “worst” land. Public land is more necessary than ever, and it’s great for wildlife, hunters, anglers, hikers, and anyone who loves clean water and clean air. I’d like to see you tackle more public lands issues like corner crossing and Utah’s lawsuit. There’s millions of acres of public land that the public can’t access, and Utah’s lawsuit could set a terrible new precedent for federal land management.
As Sam said, its the 'worst land' by virtue of allocation. The BLM handles the land that all the other federal agencies didnt want which makes it 'useless' but it is not useless as Sam also points out. Did you even watch the video?
@@juanquireyes6703 It's not the most useless land though. He's defining use by commercial value, which is stupid. A field in kansas can only do 1 thing, a mountain in Wyoming supports many recreational activities and many biomes. The comparison doesn't make sense any way you slice it but he's having troubles getting over 1m views recently so it's back to the clickbait.
"Multiple use and sustained yield" usually means allowing massive cattle-overgrazing. It's a brittle-ecology desert so it really should read "sustainable yield" for starters.
YOU are the landowner! These acres do so much to support a sense of openness, freedom, and possibility of the American West. It’s a unique asset to living here. Treat it well and protect YOUR access to that land! All the following generations of American Westerners will thank you just like I thank my fore fathers everyday as I look out on an open landscape. I am a Public Land Owner and so is every citizen of this great country.
If you try to please everyone, you please nobody. Ranchers have a pretty sweet deal: cheap grazing on public land drives up the value of their private land due to grazing rights.
Technically the land there is often not bad, since it had to be at or near some seriousnindustry or such to even get contaminated in the first place. Presumably cleaned up and fully restored superfund sites would be decently sought after, as the 'only' issue with them is the man made contamination
@@reappermen Uhhhh, no. Not even close. There are still thousands of active superfund sites and they're typically just shitty industrial land adjacent to an area zoned for that purpose. The title of this video sucks, like most of his other ones.
Storytime: A guy named Dan Love was in charge of the Nevada BLM land for a while, so he oversaw the standoff with the Bundys and handled Burning Man. He was fired for gross misconduct after a probe found that he asked an employee to delete emails that might get him in trouble and he used his position to get Burning Man tickets for family and friends, as well as have BLM agents drive them around during the event One year, he added a requirement to the Burning Man permit that BLM agents needed to be provided with 24 hour access to laundry, showers, and a freezer constantly stocked with ice cream and choco-tacos...yes, they specifically asked for Choco Tacos. The facilities would have cost Burning Man about $1M, but the requirement was dropped after the doc was "leaked" and a Nevada senator intervened
Speaking of the Central Pacific, if you haven't already, you should do a story on the old railroad land grants. Fun fact: When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it was still owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad (now Burlington Northern Santa Fe) via the land grant to its predecessor the Northern Pacific Railroad.
As a lifelong off-roader and explorer from a family of off-roaders and explorers, we almost revere BLM land. So many trails, mapped and unmapped, so much history, and so much to see. The worst part about my move to Washington State is it's lack of BLM.
Black Rock City Airport (88NV) is right at the Burning Man site. It's a private airstrip, owned by BLM, and is leased to Black Rock City, LLC. Prior authorization and preregistration is required to use it, so it is only open during Burning Man. It has three dirt runways that are described as being in "fair" condition. There is no fuel or any other services except for air ambulance and charter. Right next to it on the chart (Klamath Falls sectional) is a big caution notice that states, "High Power Model Rocket Activity SFC - BEYOND 100,000 FT AGL." Yowzers! Interesting things going on in that corner of Nevada.
The model rocket activity far predates Burning Man. I think there have been model rocket meetups and festivals on the playa at least since the 1960's and probably before that.
can you make a similar video on the forest service and the fringe of anti government ppl that hate us. never thought i’d get yelled at in a supermarket for being a firefighter
Ranchers need to get over themselves. They shouldn't get to just take over the land to put profits in their own pockets. And stop EXTORTING resources from the only places left safe.
To be fair ranching isn't a very profitable business if you can't graze on large scale at a much reduced cost. And they're true Americans for trying to take what they can get. The capitalist mindset is deeply ingrained
Especially when all of the bundy's and related knuckledraggers flagrantly violated laws at the expense of others and even their *own* goals. Like oh boohoo you couldn't illegally graze on a USFWS refuge. Poor babies.
How much do you want to pay for beef? Serious question, this effective subsidy makes your food cheaper either directly, or in an uncountable number of indirect ways.
BLM land is a car campers best friend. I'm typing this comment from my laptop which is connected via mobile hotspot while boondocking on BLM land in NM.
If it's really the "worst land", then maybe somebody can tell all the Silicon Valley people who've moved to the Reno area over the last ten years, so they can leave and take their shitty ideas with them.
What many people don't know is that Burning Man involved itself in the process to create the conservation area. They wanted to make sure nobody else could hold a festival there, thus only one festival a year is allowed. If any other group chooses to gather there they can't be organized and they must spread out.
@HyenaEmpyema AND they have a wall and border patrol. If they catch you BLM charges you a fine, THEN if you still want to get on you have to pay even higher ticket prices, if there are any.
BLM should lease the land to cattle ranchers and farmers for a decent price and make the lessor responsible for reclaimation. Exactly how the mining industry is regulated. It shouldn't be sold. EVER. We've already sold too much land to the Chinese and other foreign countries.
As a farmer, we culturally spend our existence improving the land… We are in a perpetual state of war with ranchers who spend their existence extracting from the land… This is a story as old as Cain and Abel Farmers built Mesopotamia… The horse riders of Central Asia came in and destroyed half of what we built before we inevitably absorbed them into our societies… The same is true in China, Egypt, the Roman Empire, and even now today on the Great Plains and in the west
Eh, both can be unsustainable. Grazing generally impacts the land less as animals return nutrients to the land by, well, pissing and shitting on it. Arable farming requires more careful management to avoid nutrient and topsoil depletion.
It's cool that Burning Man is allowed to happen there. Im glad there's enforcement for the clean up afterward. Hearing about how they judge if the area is cleaned up well enough gives me anxiety as a taxpayer.
Cleaning up after Burning Man is serious business... they have an army of people who spend more than a month going over the entire area - literally - with fine-tooth combs. The reason 2023 was so bad was because a lot of the debris was buried in mud and wouldn't become visible again until the playa thoroughly dried out.
This should not be a thing. The government should only be in charge of parks. They shouldn’t have any control over grazing land. It’s always been the government against people trying to make a living
The Colorado River is a topic that has been done to death already. Meanwhile the dire situation of the drying Rio Grande goes almost unmentioned. It looks almost unrecognizable in Albuquerque this year. Elephant Butte, the "Lake Mead of the Rio Grande", is only at 6% full at the time of this comment!
I work for the forest to say revered is a big stretch. Its pronounced forest circus, we dont get any support from washington and due to environmental bureaucracy, we have been turned into a reactive agency instead of a proactive agency.
I worked with two BLM LE Ranger officers last year in California. One actually went to deal with the Burning Man mess. Each of them were assigned several counties to run (these are massive counties)
USACE manages relatively little of the nation's waterways, BOR manages a lot more including the largest dams in the country (Hoover, Glen Canyon, Grand Coulee). Therefore, a video about the USACE would probably mostly focus on other aspects of their work (which, to be clear, I think would be a fascinating video)
The premise of this video is completely wrong. This is some of the most VALUABLE land in the entire world. Why do you think the US government is holding on to it??!!
Essentially, the government owns all the land and residents are allowed to rent it in the form of “property taxes.” We are allowed to improve the land but the rent (property tax) will likely increase. Maybe this view is wrong, but it doesn’t seem like it when the property tax bill shows up in the mail.
I live in West Central WY. My tiny little middle of nowhere town is literally surrounded by millions of contiguous acres of BLM land, which in turn is surrounded on 3 sides by millions more acres of National Forest and NPS. The BLM management issue seems to strike very close to home here, you did a great job of touching on a lot of the hot button issues that effect land that starts just 2 streets away from me. This will be a great video to send to my Midwest and east coast friends who have no idea what BLM even is aside from that "other group" with the same initials.
ein Beitrag des Freitages, 1. November 2024 Hello from the State of Schleswig-Holstein, the Northernmost state of the Federal Republic of Germany. The State of Idaho has a former gouverneur, Leroy Otter ("Butch"), born on 3rd May 1942. Leroy Otter (Republican Party, ID) was 12 years in office, until a mandatory term limit, from the Idaho´s constitution, stopped him! Idaho seems to be THE stronghold, of the Republican Parties! I do not know, why he and me have equal family names! In the Province of Saskatchewan, was a provincial election, on Monday, 28th October 2024. Saskatchewan has the highest percentage of descent from Germany, to somewhere outside Germany! Manitoba is in the second place! ° elected (61): Saskatchewan Party 35 [libertarians and conservatives]; National Democratic Party 26 [social democrats] I can Imagine a potential "North American Federation", which would split up from the United States of America! "NAF´s" Federal politics, could reduce the percent of the "federal land", per member state! Alaska (Cascadian part); Yukon (Cascadian part); British Columbia (Cascadian part); Point Roberts [now in WA]; American Indian State of Cascadia [now in Northern CA]; State of the Navajo Reservation [now in 4 states] ; Portland at the Pacific Ocean [now in OR]; Seattle [now in WA]; Washington State; West Oregon; East Oregon; Jefferson; Idaho; Wyoming; Deseret [Utah]; Nevada; Kansas; North Dakota; South Dakota; Arizona; New Mexico; West Oklahoma; Secoyuah [now in Eastern Oklahoma]; "City State of San Francisco" [now in CA]; "Los Angeles State" [now in CA]; some states, made up from most of California [including Baja California (now in MX)] 5 states formed in Texas [e. g. Austin; Dallas; Houston; San Antonio; El Paso] Would this be wild rodeo? Howdy?
Lol @ 3:17 "They likely claimed the land through the rights..." Translation: there is no evidence that they didn't just show up and steal it from whoever was there before.
Worst land my ass. The agency that manages much of America's best land Now that I have listened to the whole video I see you agree with me. Here's to preserving public lands.
I live in Salt Lake City and grew up in Wyoming, so my entire life I have been surrounded by BLM land. This was a great watch and I'm happy to see a large creator bringing some attention to the topic.
It's an immoral handout when the government gives you food stamps to feed your children, but it's a God-given right for your livestock to feed themselves on government property.
And when the cattle overgraze it to the point of unsustainability, it's suddenly a HUUUGE problem when you're told you have to ease off or stop. I bet these ranchers consider themself "conservationists" too.
It's public land. I don't know know how ranchers think that there owed something from the public. I see all the time how much damage their cattle do to the riparian environments of the Colorado plateau. It's beautiful and fragile and needs to be conserved for wildlife and for the enjoyment of the "public." The ranchers scream "It's our way of life" like they're immune from changing times. Do they think that the typewriter industry should have their way of life preserved or the wagon makers or T.V. repairman or any of the other industries that have become obsolete by technology and better less wasteful techniques also be subsidized by the public. They will say " Do you want to pay more for your steak?" Yes, yes I will. Graze them on their own private land. I'd rather eat steak less often if I can hike through the canyons without stepping in cowpies and enjoying a river bank that hasn't been thoroughly fouled by free range cattle.
It is the story of history. Ranchers, and herders are some of the biggest moochers. Farmers have to settle and develop the land. Build infrastructure, build canals and aquaducts, and manage the land. Ranchers and herders never had to. They would just move their animals to better land and if that was already inhabited... well its not like the farmers are using the grass and streams. If they are, well its only a little bit. And if the farmers disagree well, they better not touch the animals or else me and the boys have to take care of them. Those types of people are used to forcing their way on others. Because they don't need to develop and manage the land. Their way of life is reliant on taking from others. So when they are used to a privilege, they feel like its a right. Farmers in the US do this with subsidies. The US government subsidizes farmers. They are reliant on this. I personally think it should be stopped. Farmers need to grow more profitable produce and not corn and wheat. If prices go up, that is fine imho.
THIS! The riparian zones are incredible valuable and are often targeted most directly for grazing or new land development. It's horrible to see these essential habitats get destroyed, leaving local wildlife with increasingly fewer options.
The drive between LA and Vegas was made easier by the free camping on BLM land. When I got tired, I pulled off to the side of the road and set up a tent, which was very convenient.
This was a well made and thoughtful video. I would like for you to have discussed, even briefly, the issues with states rights, federal management of land that many states argue should be state land and why that debate is heated.
I thought this Burningman event was just a random event that pops up suddenly, I was fascinated to discover how many processes, organizations and government paper works are necessary to make this event happen
It was originally. As I understand it, the original Burning man festivals were impromptu gatherings whcih took place on a much smaller scale on some beach in California. (Los Angeles area? I'm not sure) it quickly grew to a size that couldn't reasonably continue on public beaches, so they moved it to the Black Rock Desert.
@@andrewalexander9492 Indeed. I used to go to Burning Man back in the 90's when rules were much more lax. And let me tell 'ya... rules are a good thing. People were getting seriously hurt and even killed - mostly due to people driving too fast in the camp - and it was clear to the organizers that the event had become too big, unruly, and chaotic, and that some limits were needed so that the event didn't kill itself. Those rules ended up being a very good thing, and, though there was a lot of grumbling at the time, most people realized that they were necessary.
My earliest exposure to the BLM was when I first joined the Boy Scouts. We were hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, but every day, we had to drive for what felt like an hour to and from where we were actually camping in New Mexico. Why? We were camping in BLM land, which was far far cheaper than renting a campsite at the foot of the mountains. We even got to exercise some mineral rights while we were there, too; we visited a selenite and alabaster deposit and were just allowed to take whatever we wanted.
I think the thumbnail might be wrong, esp in California? It seems to include many of the National Forests (Dept of Agriculture) and National Parks as BLM land “that nobody wants”. For example, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Sequioia/Kings Canyon, the entire Sierra Nevada, the Big Sur area, Angeles and Los Padres NFs…
I'm quite glad the BLM exists and keeps capitalism from swallowing up the last of our beautiful and relatively-untouched land. The happiest time of my life was the four months I lived out of my vehicle down in the southwest on almost exclusively BLM land. It was amazing!
“Radical right wing ranchers” What a joke. If you aren’t carrying a copy of mao’s little red book and walking around with a butt plug in, you’re “radical right wing”
Thanks for making this video-- I share the same sentiment you shared at the end. I am from Summit County, and agree that this 100% needs to be talked about more. Thank you Wendover!
Wow, it's incredible that you all managed to come together so quickly, to decide and agree on what message to convey for all of you. Most. Incredible. Accomplishment. Ever.
One of your best, and most important videos. I don't live in the USA but the problem is similar in many parts of the world, where private entities want to exploit land that is managed by a government agency, and it creates a lot of problems when permits are not granted or there is a change in legislation that brings it up to today's standard.
Obviously a lot of people want to land or they wouldn't be fighting over it. it is an enormous amount of land. Making up a large percentage of the western states off limits to the same for most forms of development. Well being given away for free for a very select few to a very select few.
Saw the title and immediately knew what was up lol.
I work for the BLM for the moment and while I can say that a lot of the land is pretty barren, some of it is absolutely gorgeous and highly underrated. But because of land status shenanigans, the best bits are often impossible for the public to access which is a real shame.
A fun note about the rock collecting part is that when I asked our geologist if I could collect stuff, he answered in measurements quantified in buckets
Yeah, I always get infuriated when I see the checkerboard ownership on maps.
all good as long as they are metric buckets
@@sloth0jr our land here in Colorado is especially fragmented due to old mining claims and ranches. We have these amazing bits of land in the Rockies which would be great for camping or hiking that just can’t be accessed due to private or state lands blocking them :(
As always Americans will use anything except SI units
I feel like it shouldn't be legal to block access to such lands. That's not a thing in like...any of the West. (I say this as a US expat living in Canada, and discovering there's way more lax trespass laws elsewhere; you can't fence off the access to public lands, and you also can't just get shot or arrested for simply being in private lands. They can ask you to leave, but that's about it as long as you agree and don't come back.)
Side note: US95 is beautiful at sunrise. As well as at 2 a.m. when you can see EVERYTHING.
Finding footage of Burning Man where nobody has their boobies out was probably tough.
7:18 That BLM ranger was having a head start, showing off his manatety roll. 🤮
@@albear972 That's a salmon-colored shirt.
@@imveryangryitsnotbutter Quite apart from the clip from Close Encounters!
this land be easy to fix tho if America would just add water pipelines up in mexicos mountains the land would basically repair itself and can solve these hurricanes
It probably smells like piss and heroin out there too, my condolences to the camera crew
A couple years ago I drove from the Salt Lake City area to Reno NV via highway 50, which is nicknamed "The loneliest road in America", and it was a surreal experience. I loved every minute of it. Throughout the trip we would sometimes drive 20-30 minute stretches (at 80 mph mind you) without seeing another car. Whenever we would occasionally stop to stretch, the silence was incredible. The landscape, although quite barren, was beautiful.
We drove the same route back, but this time we drove through the night. The stars that you could see way out there in the middle of nowhere were something else. The moon hadn't risen yet, and at one point I pulled over and turned off our lights just to look at the starts and it literally made me gasp. It was almost scary to see the vastness of the milky way stretching across the whole sky so brightly. The feeling of isolation and solitude was unlike anything I've ever experienced.
I plan to recreate the trip sometime and I would highly recommend visiting the more desolate parts of the country if you get the chance.
Northern Nevada is the "Dark Skies" destination for anyone who wants to sky gaze. The stars are amazing here!!
I love highway 50 and Nevada's general emptiness. Isn't it just such a unique experience?
@@johnchedsey1306I did a loop around Death Valley and across NV last year. On hwy 50, there were a few crazy looking outposts visible several miles out in the desert. Surely, Mad Max is out there.
It's changing very fast. Space is full of satellites 🛰 now.
1,000s more are on the way from almost every country on earth. Starlink alone has over 7,000 up so far. They are trying to camouflage them.
But still....
It's an absolute full on technological space race with no end in sight.
Who's Ya DIDDY ❔❓
Note on the wild horses and burros: The absolutely hilarious implication here is that you can, in fact, get a free government horse.
After the prison labor breaks them, they're then available *for free* to go home with any rando that signs up. You have to take care of it for a year, and then the government will hand over legal ownership of your new communism horse.
..."communism horse"... 🤣🤣🤣
@@piuthemagicmanwhat
Ohhhhhhhhhkay. There may be free meds available for you, my MAGA friend. Commie meds to soothe that jangled brain of yours. Check your local county health department.
What does one need to get the horses as a no us citzen
As someone who grew up around horses, let me assure you that there is no such thing as a “free” horse. While buying one may cost next to nothing, feeding and caring for them is REALLY expensive. “Eat like a horse” is more than just a figure of speech. If that horse needs to see a doctor, the vet is going to charge quite a bit more than your doctor would (because it’s probably a house call) and there is no health insurance for horses.
I grew up out west and love BLM land. I used it all the time. Hiking, off-roading, target practice, and many other outdoor activities were all easily accessible to everyone. I now live in Virginia and there is no public land, at all. It’s all private property. There’s no exploring. There’s no off-roading. There’s no hiking. If you want to do anything, you have to either own the land or pay the owner to use it.
Dystopian ... but yet reality.
Always took those things for granted.
That’s so crazy!!! My brain can’t understand that!
It’s just your sovereignty being stripped is all good.
Same here in Illinois. I live near Chicago, and literally couldn’t dream of owning an off-road machine with a trailer setup. Gives a different kind of insight on the urban dirt bike riders everybody loves to hate.
@@Konnersakithere’s plenty of public lands in Illinois for hunting but off-roading is admittedly limited. Head to Wisconsin!
29 year BLM employee here. Excellent job.
Thank you for your service!
Thank you for what you do, brother!
@@EngineeredFemale he dont do nothing
grifter
Why is such "undesirable land" in a conservation district?
ah yes that agency has so much land but the smallest office possible
*the most land. It’s the biggest federal land management agency.
CGP Grey made a video about federal land years ago.
FBI : Open Up
Small offices == smaller operating cost.
@@jay-t1030 Small staff = "We can't talk to anyone or come to your thing we don't have the resources haha"
Always a pleasure to burst an FDR-delusionist bubble. Hey while we're at it have you ever actually tried calling animal control? If you try it and then post the number of WEEKS it will take them to dispatch a truck I will give you a cookie shaped like FDR.
Here in Nevada, I feel like we love the BLM. I always hear it talked about in a proud way. We have like 50 million acres of blm land and it’s like we have the biggest back yard of any state
Do you live in an urban or rural area?
Exactly. BLM land is one of the best parts of Nevada.
That's because most people aren't over-armed entitled karens who think public land is their personal fiefdom
New Mexico has a large amount of BLM land as well.
We like the land. NOT the BLM
I love all the BLM land around me. Never anyone out there. Almost no use restrictions.
No cattle fencing , unlike the east coast and Texas and midwest, can't even offroad I'm tired of hearing about how country it is out there, yal are trapped in Cattle fenced up paved prisons
Yeah, the basic rule is "Don't ruin shit". Having the NPS that fully protects, the FS that semi-protects and the BLM that manages sustainable use are all important parts of a whole. we need each one.
He doesn't call it out directly but the "entitled ranchers" who think public land belongs to them are one of the worst problems for the BLM. Mining companies being greedy is expected, they at least still don't act like they own the land usually.
Never Say Never 😎 Justin Bieber
@@NatureDerekYea, corporations are like "oh cmon! but i was here first :("
The entitled farmers go "im an american, i've been able to use this land for centuries, who are you to tell me what to do"
@@phrog2579 what do corporations have to do with entitled ranchers stealing public lands?
I love how those self proclaimed "strong independent" ranchers tend to end up being the biggest moochers, whining if they don't get the subsidies they need to survive and claiming land that isn't theirs.
Fun Fact: The patriarch of the Bundy clan, Cliven, claimed that their land had been in their family for several generations. It turned out that Cliven's parents bought the land several years after he was born.
Who's the Bundy Clan? They don't get a lot of press over here, east of the Mississippi.
@@bigGullyVremember the ranchers having a stand off on that bridge with the feds over grazing ? Bundy owed over a million in grazing fees so the feds confiscated his cattle. Then his even more brain dead son and friends took over that bird sanctuary (or whatever it was) in Oregon and one got killed
@@bigGullyV a family of parasites. Related to leeches but taller
That's how capitalists function. They want socialism for themselves and rugged Capitalism for you.
Did you watch the video? @@bigGullyV
"many of these pastures are near prisons" - me thinking that its a comparison and not a location description: :O
"inmates train and work with them to eventually be adopted".... :D
Me too I thought the horses were inmates and I had to rewind a few times to hear it right
@@InternetUser999Well, from their p.o.v., they are 🤷♂️
Who's Ya DIDDY ❓
I know, that made me smile too. Sounds like an awesome programme for all involved.
Adopt an inmate - now that's rehabilitation.
As a person who has worked for the BLM for 3 years now, it’s great to see my work be recognized! I’m a seasonal who repairs trails, and does some other small projects on BLM and forest service land.
Thanks! Your work is appreciated.
Thanks! It’s probably one of the more uniquely cool things in the US.
Ty. I hiked the PCT and greatly respect and appreciate your work. Everyone who voted for trump can share a little bit of responsibility for you losing your job due to his policies.
@ yeah :(
@@AcrylicGoblin lol
The tragedy of the commons was less of a "not enough forage to sustain them" problem and more a "new climate that nobody has experience with" problem. The western US is what range scientist Allan Savory calls a Brittle Environment. The US settlers were used to Europe and the Eastern US where it rains regularly and you just graze then give it a break and it grows right back.
In brittle environments, being grazed is important or the vegetation will die off, but since the growing season is so short it needs grazed quickly, then left to rest until next year when it's had time to re-grow. This is basically mimicking the huge buffalo herd migration that used to happen before the US settlers arrived.
It has created favorable conditions for invasive species, some like halogeton are poisonous to most animals
Thank you for your comment, which also implies active land embrittlement, not just by people whinging for a Canute. Post Covid, with following droughts, the impediments to safe grazing must be considerable. Foodstuffs that must be edited for marketability may explain why fewer foodstuffs reach supermarket display cases.
This also ties into the idea that we historically, and still today, measure climate based on the average of recorded data without much consideration of extreme events. That's what a "100 year flood" or other event means. It's not something that has been observed every hundred years. It's something to be expected every 100 years on average based on the model. If you only have 100 years of actual recorded data and you have a 100 year event 3 years in a row it could be that the model was wrong and it's a 1 in 33 year event, or it could be that it is a 1 in 100 event and there hasn't been one in the 200 years before you started measuring. Regardless, IMO the entire field of conservation and environmental management needs to do a better job of acknowledging this, and that or observed actual data is too thin to really make assumptions about frequency distribution or what extremes really look like.
Thank you! It bothers me when people misrepresent commons. Typically the people can learn to manage land for the long haul if they know the land and have a stake in it.
@@trenomas1 It's really impressive seeing people get like 10x increases in vegetation using Allan Savory's methods out west. There's a lot of land out there that is not producing near what it should be.
So this is that BLM everybody is always talking about?
well, the problem with acronyms is that Black Lives Matter also uses the acronym BLM, so you must be careful to be clear when using the acronym. So, yes, this is the BLM everybody is talking about, but the topic of discussion could be either. It's always safer to not use the acronym if you can.
@@mapgeek6bro we appreciate the information but I feel like the original comment was joking
@@mapgeek6you must be fun at parties
@@mapgeek6r/wooosh
Bruh it was a joke
I think more videos like this would be beneficial to most people who don't actually understand the federal land management agencies. USFS, NPS, BLM, FWS, etc. most people know but have no idea of what they do outside of recreation and maybe grazing.
Great video that does not take one side of the argument for/against the agency.
Agreed. More like this
Agreed, as somebody on the east coast this was very informative and helpful to understand an agency I don't think I've heard of, aside from lists of federal agencies.
Yes, the entire Federal government and the alphabet agencies do a pretty poor job of outreach or explaining why they exist.
Except he completely ignored the most important and actual constitutional position, that these agencies have no authority to exist or hold these lands in the first place.
@@KevinVanGelderthat's just not a winning argument in congress or in court. The executive branch constitutionally has the responsibility to execute the (very vague) laws of the land.
I grew up in the "rural" west and spent much of my childhood exploring on the BLM and Forest Service roads in the area. Imagine my confusion when I read that a group had painted "BLM" on the street in front of the White House... and literally my first thought was, "What does the Bureau of Land Management have to do with that?" 😆
And when we invite city friends out to see the beautiful country, it’s often the same. “What does Black Lives Matter want out here?”
I had that same experience! I couldn’t understand what the BLM could have done to make so many people so angry! I got educated real quick
Fun fact. If the land operated by BLM were its own country it would be about the size of Egypt.
If I operated my own country gay sex would be mandatory
@@rangarolls6018 Preach brother
@@rangarolls6018 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Also fun fact: the land operated by Egypt is much smaller than Egypt, because I doubt they have an agency taking care of the non-Nile and non-coastal parts of Egypt.
fed gov controls 640 million acres....Half should be put into a lottery back to the tax payers..
Nah this is actually one of the coolest things I’ve learned about the government in soooo fucking long. Thank god stuff like this still exists in America.
"The land nobody wants"
Native Americans: bruh
That is one glaring issue with this video. It implies that tribal lands were *chosen* when they were *forced*. Tons of BLM land would probably be tribal (see Navajo and Hopi reservations) if the native americans were allowed any choice in their land.
It's funny how we call the land useless. It's land, if you can't figure out what to do with it you're probably the useless one.
Nobody wants what they can't afford to maintain.
@@jeffreychandler8418 Wendover has a history of completely ignoring indigenous populations and their history, and when they do mention them they're painted as the aggressors.
For example, they started their video about mass shootings in Australia off with the line "European settlers arrived on an untamed continent, pushed across vast wilderness, through hostile indigenous populations, and established, then doggedly defended, a few narrow bands of civilization." which is just filled with pretty blatant white supremacy and racism
@@justanotherguy6359most African-Americans are not African.
Do you say any other dumb things, which you think are clever? I'm eager to be enlightened.
Some nerd: the climates changing and its dry could you not collapse the local biosphere?
Rancher: HALP IM BEING OPPRESSED BY THE WEATHER.
And then these guys vote Republican even though they’re on the front lines of climate change.
18:29 the sign says "Marshall Law" like it's a law named after a guy named marshall, and it's endlessly amusing to me that they put that on a sign and nobody corrected them.
"well my name is Ted Marshall, I make the laws around here. I don't like the bee ell emm because they said my marshall laws aren't real laws" lmao
The nevada bundys are not the brightest bunch. Only they can get mad at the BLM for them not being able to illegally graze on FWS land.
Marshall Law is an American fighter of Chinese descent who was introduced in the original Tekken game and I wonder why the BLM imposed him on the People of the Western states.
18:49 "Make the militia to go home!!!" A lot of those signs were pretty poorly written
I randomly had to pause the video at this exact time stamp and then came back to resume the video a few minutes later but wanted to check the comments a little first and I saw this comment, crazy coincidence lol
The logistics here remind me of how a small airport in Wisconsin becomes the busiest airport in the world with >3,000 operations a day for one week a year. You should do a video!
How come?
@@livwake EAA Airventure
Oshkosh?
Hell yeah, it's time for a Wendover airplane video!
I'm going to guess due to it being by a town named The North Pole or something else famous???
The Hammonds were mad the government was taking away their welfare 😂
Nope..You only heard half the story....
The government lied to you. Big surprise.
Welfare ranchers are some of the most self-entitled crybabies out there. It's too bad that they have so much power over the management of vast amounts of public land.
@@davehughesfarm7983can you tell us the other half?
Ranchers complaining about not getting handouts has always sounded crazy to me.
The BLM always has the unenviable tasks.
ranchers are the reason all the bison were slaughtered and the native people were displaced to begin with
"What do you mean I can't just let my cattle graze wherever they wander to even if they completely destroy the landscape that I don't own, manage, operate, pay for, care about"
"What is common between the greatest number of men is given the least care."
Ranchers "it's about my rights to land use!
Gov "it's not your land and never has been..."
Ranchers "but it's public and so I have the right to use it!"
Gov "correct, everybody has the right to use it. so provided the public at large does not specifically decide on a use for it, see you representative about that, you totally can use it. just sign here and pay this incredibly small fee to help cover the resources you are essentially buying from every other American"
Ranchers "...but my rights?!?!"
Gov "... I literally don't know how this could be easier..."
@@OCinneideYou realize the BLM doesn't plant, manage or do anything to the grass? And yet they charge to use it, often at rates that aren't worth it. Also, no they don't destroy the landscape. They've been ranching in these areas for almost 200 years. The landscape you see is the landscape that has already been shaped by ranching. I find it funny that city people who never go to these areas have any opinions on it at all
Former born and raised Alaskan here. I had good relations with BLM and NPS as a hunter and mountaineer. Complex politics, that whole mess; who owns the creek shore, the creek bed, or the water flowing through it. I also took a Natural Resources class as a HS elective. Again, very interesting stuff, and interesting video.
around here, the Bureau of Land Management works with the Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife, Parks and Recreation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (for the Colville Confederated Tribes specifically), and the myriad of volunteer Fire Departments to manage the land, so it doesn't go completely untended, but it's still by far not enough people to manage the sheer quantity of barely-useable scrubland that surrounds us out here.
and note, that's by the CCT, which is one of the more looked after "desolate" lands (atleast from my work with them).
As a pretty frequent camper and hiker, I know the BLM as just one of the federal agencies that owns land I camp and hike on. I had no idea there was any controversy about them at all.
I'm moving just outside of Winnemucca had no idea burning man would be so close I thought it was in CA for some reason. Yes it was actually some of the cheapest land I found anywhere but a big caveat is that it's illegal to haul water and you have to install a well and septic before you can live there permanently.
It's a common misperception it's in California. Winnemucca is like a 3-hour drive to Gerlach, which is the closest town to Burning Man. Even if you never go to the burn, you should definitely check out the Black Rock Desert. It's truly one of America's most unique environments. I found it by going to BM, and I fell in love with it. It's so hostile to life, but so insanely beautiful. Just make sure you don't drive on it wet! ;)
really really really old school burning man (like 20+ years ago) was in CA, but the site they used there wasn't big enough for their growing popularity so they moved to Black Rock. IIRC
@@NatureDerek from 1986-1990 it was on Baker Beach in San Francisco. It moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990 as part of The cacophony society zone trip #4: Bad Day at Black Rock. The cacophony society was a outsider experience collective that has roots going back to a prior secret society called the suicide club which formed in the early 70s, if not before. Their zone trips were adventures into perilous places, they explored (broke in in the middle of the night) the BART tunnels as they were under construction under San Francisco Bay, for example.
Burning Man's history is quite fascinating as the extremeness of the event has a long history. No In the right mind would visit the Black Rock Desert and decide this is a great place for a temporary 80,000 person city! It's grown and morphed from very humble beginnings.
I totally disagree that this is our “worst” land. Public land is more necessary than ever, and it’s great for wildlife, hunters, anglers, hikers, and anyone who loves clean water and clean air.
I’d like to see you tackle more public lands issues like corner crossing and Utah’s lawsuit. There’s millions of acres of public land that the public can’t access, and Utah’s lawsuit could set a terrible new precedent for federal land management.
As Sam said, its the 'worst land' by virtue of allocation. The BLM handles the land that all the other federal agencies didnt want which makes it 'useless' but it is not useless as Sam also points out. Did you even watch the video?
@@mosesracal6758 Point is the video title is clickbait, more evidence of the enshittification of TH-cam (as happens to so much of the internet.)
@@TheDanEdwards It's not. He literally said its the most useless land, but not completely useless. Ergo, title is correct.
Who's Ya DIDDY ❓
@@juanquireyes6703 It's not the most useless land though. He's defining use by commercial value, which is stupid. A field in kansas can only do 1 thing, a mountain in Wyoming supports many recreational activities and many biomes. The comparison doesn't make sense any way you slice it but he's having troubles getting over 1m views recently so it's back to the clickbait.
"Multiple use and sustained yield" usually means allowing massive cattle-overgrazing. It's a brittle-ecology desert so it really should read "sustainable yield" for starters.
Omg...I finally get why I sometimes see land for sale that's in 160 or 320 acre plots. That must go all the way back to the Homestead Act.
1/4 and 1/2 sections...Most out west is in sections..640 acres.
Well today I learned that the libertarian antigovernmental rancher crowed is extremely entitled
At least they’re doing something useful.
You should talk to Ammon bundy to get the real story.
@@davehughesfarm7983I can't believe people just eat up this propaganda about real hardworking Americans. Disgusting.
@@raam1666 Hear hear!
@@raam1666can you blame someone for one for not sympathizing with ranchers starting an armed stand off over grazing rights?
YOU are the landowner! These acres do so much to support a sense of openness, freedom, and possibility of the American West. It’s a unique asset to living here. Treat it well and protect YOUR access to that land! All the following generations of American Westerners will thank you just like I thank my fore fathers everyday as I look out on an open landscape. I am a Public Land Owner and so is every citizen of this great country.
Until a few politicians figure out a way to tell you no
Had me cracking up when you basically said "whataya gunna do aboudit?" for civilian complaints against DoD land. LMAO
I’m Nevada born and raised, and your videos teach people more about Nevada than our schools do
It’s a desert bro what are they supposed to teach? The history of casinos and suburban sprawl?
If you try to please everyone, you please nobody.
Ranchers have a pretty sweet deal: cheap grazing on public land drives up the value of their private land due to grazing rights.
I'd have thought the agency that manages the worst land would be the EPA, managing all the superfund sites...
A lot of the real barren scrubland out there is worth even less than superfund sites, in a price-per-acre sense.
Technically the land there is often not bad, since it had to be at or near some seriousnindustry or such to even get contaminated in the first place. Presumably cleaned up and fully restored superfund sites would be decently sought after, as the 'only' issue with them is the man made contamination
@@reappermen Uhhhh, no. Not even close. There are still thousands of active superfund sites and they're typically just shitty industrial land adjacent to an area zoned for that purpose. The title of this video sucks, like most of his other ones.
Storytime: A guy named Dan Love was in charge of the Nevada BLM land for a while, so he oversaw the standoff with the Bundys and handled Burning Man.
He was fired for gross misconduct after a probe found that he asked an employee to delete emails that might get him in trouble and he used his position to get Burning Man tickets for family and friends, as well as have BLM agents drive them around during the event
One year, he added a requirement to the Burning Man permit that BLM agents needed to be provided with 24 hour access to laundry, showers, and a freezer constantly stocked with ice cream and choco-tacos...yes, they specifically asked for Choco Tacos. The facilities would have cost Burning Man about $1M, but the requirement was dropped after the doc was "leaked" and a Nevada senator intervened
I remember that pos.
As a Utahn, it's not that "nobody wants" 86% of our goddamn state - it's that it was stolen.
WE WANT AND NEED the land.
Speaking of the Central Pacific, if you haven't already, you should do a story on the old railroad land grants. Fun fact: When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it was still owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad (now Burlington Northern Santa Fe) via the land grant to its predecessor the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Great 27 min video I already watched even though it’s only been released 3 minutes ago!
Thanks for subscribing to Nebula, where it's released earlier than TH-cam!
As a lifelong off-roader and explorer from a family of off-roaders and explorers, we almost revere BLM land. So many trails, mapped and unmapped, so much history, and so much to see. The worst part about my move to Washington State is it's lack of BLM.
Yeah it sucks that land is arable and desirable. They tried for many decades to give away land that became BLM.
Black Rock City Airport (88NV) is right at the Burning Man site. It's a private airstrip, owned by BLM, and is leased to Black Rock City, LLC. Prior authorization and preregistration is required to use it, so it is only open during Burning Man. It has three dirt runways that are described as being in "fair" condition. There is no fuel or any other services except for air ambulance and charter. Right next to it on the chart (Klamath Falls sectional) is a big caution notice that states, "High Power Model Rocket Activity SFC - BEYOND 100,000 FT AGL." Yowzers! Interesting things going on in that corner of Nevada.
The model rocket activity far predates Burning Man. I think there have been model rocket meetups and festivals on the playa at least since the 1960's and probably before that.
can you make a similar video on the forest service and the fringe of anti government ppl that hate us. never thought i’d get yelled at in a supermarket for being a firefighter
Ranchers need to get over themselves. They shouldn't get to just take over the land to put profits in their own pockets. And stop EXTORTING resources from the only places left safe.
To be fair ranching isn't a very profitable business if you can't graze on large scale at a much reduced cost. And they're true Americans for trying to take what they can get. The capitalist mindset is deeply ingrained
Especially when all of the bundy's and related knuckledraggers flagrantly violated laws at the expense of others and even their *own* goals. Like oh boohoo you couldn't illegally graze on a USFWS refuge. Poor babies.
How much do you want to pay for beef? Serious question, this effective subsidy makes your food cheaper either directly, or in an uncountable number of indirect ways.
@@leandersearle5094 Most beef comes from a factory and a lot of it gets sold overseas. The cost belongs to the public, the profit, the ranchers.
@@djinn666 1) Where does the factory get the beef? 2) Without that supply, the beef you buy would be more expensive.
Im a huge supporter of agriculture and ranching but those ranchers are being greedy as heck. Shame on them.
BLM land is a car campers best friend. I'm typing this comment from my laptop which is connected via mobile hotspot while boondocking on BLM land in NM.
6:20 greatest ranger uniform ever. Just a desert nomad with a federal badge
If it's really the "worst land", then maybe somebody can tell all the Silicon Valley people who've moved to the Reno area over the last ten years, so they can leave and take their shitty ideas with them.
What many people don't know is that Burning Man involved itself in the process to create the conservation area. They wanted to make sure nobody else could hold a festival there, thus only one festival a year is allowed. If any other group chooses to gather there they can't be organized and they must spread out.
And they charge $600/ticket but ban YOU from using money out there. Lol
@HyenaEmpyema AND they have a wall and border patrol. If they catch you BLM charges you a fine, THEN if you still want to get on you have to pay even higher ticket prices, if there are any.
BLM should lease the land to cattle ranchers and farmers for a decent price and make the lessor responsible for reclaimation. Exactly how the mining industry is regulated.
It shouldn't be sold. EVER. We've already sold too much land to the Chinese and other foreign countries.
As a farmer, we culturally spend our existence improving the land… We are in a perpetual state of war with ranchers who spend their existence extracting from the land… This is a story as old as Cain and Abel
Farmers built Mesopotamia… The horse riders of Central Asia came in and destroyed half of what we built before we inevitably absorbed them into our societies… The same is true in China, Egypt, the Roman Empire, and even now today on the Great Plains and in the west
Eh, both can be unsustainable. Grazing generally impacts the land less as animals return nutrients to the land by, well, pissing and shitting on it. Arable farming requires more careful management to avoid nutrient and topsoil depletion.
But the farmer and the cowman should be friends!
(I'm sure you've never heard this comment before.)
bull crap.. I am a farmer and rancher... Most stuff being farmed now in the heartland should be in pasture.
@@davehughesfarm7983 you want to destroy what farmers have built... you are a cultural ranch and the enemy of god and my people 😆
It's cool that Burning Man is allowed to happen there. Im glad there's enforcement for the clean up afterward. Hearing about how they judge if the area is cleaned up well enough gives me anxiety as a taxpayer.
Cleaning up after Burning Man is serious business... they have an army of people who spend more than a month going over the entire area - literally - with fine-tooth combs. The reason 2023 was so bad was because a lot of the debris was buried in mud and wouldn't become visible again until the playa thoroughly dried out.
18:25 Nothing says "protect the desert tortoise" quite like "let's conduct nuclear weapons testing on this land"
This should not be a thing. The government should only be in charge of parks. They shouldn’t have any control over grazing land. It’s always been the government against people trying to make a living
The mountain ranges in CA create a shadow of little rain on the other side. No water no people.
The Colorado River is a topic that has been done to death already. Meanwhile the dire situation of the drying Rio Grande goes almost unmentioned. It looks almost unrecognizable in Albuquerque this year. Elephant Butte, the "Lake Mead of the Rio Grande", is only at 6% full at the time of this comment!
I'm in Cruces. Couldn't believe how low Butte was. And they let the river run soooo long this year.
@@rthreat0895 And everyone is getting rather fond of our chile, they're gonna have to start paying attention soon!
Imagine land being so poor quality even the indigenous people don't want it back.
It's probably less to do with wanting it or not and more to do with having the resources required to manage it
"The land nobody wants" have they tried asking if anyone wants it?
I work for the forest to say revered is a big stretch. Its pronounced forest circus, we dont get any support from washington and due to environmental bureaucracy, we have been turned into a reactive agency instead of a proactive agency.
The BLM has a tough job, but it's also a fantastic agency
Ah yes, the federal Department of Parks and Recreation. Leslie Knope would be proud!
The government should not own 1 square foot of land, it should all be auctioned off to private individuals.
You Sir are based
I worked with two BLM LE Ranger officers last year in California. One actually went to deal with the Burning Man mess. Each of them were assigned several counties to run (these are massive counties)
I think they should paint the actual land the same colors and design as that map.
Most of BLM is already that color in the Southwest in the fall!
So wild horses get free birth control but I can't?
🤦♂️
Abstinence - Free and 100% effective birth control when applied since Adam and Eve!
Do the Army Corp of Engineer's management of federal water next!
USACE manages relatively little of the nation's waterways, BOR manages a lot more including the largest dams in the country (Hoover, Glen Canyon, Grand Coulee). Therefore, a video about the USACE would probably mostly focus on other aspects of their work (which, to be clear, I think would be a fascinating video)
He literally just released a video on that last week.
The premise of this video is completely wrong. This is some of the most VALUABLE land in the entire world. Why do you think the US government is holding on to it??!!
Essentially, the government owns all the land and residents are allowed to rent it in the form of “property taxes.” We are allowed to improve the land but the rent (property tax) will likely increase. Maybe this view is wrong, but it doesn’t seem like it when the property tax bill shows up in the mail.
Very awesome video and released yesterday on Nevada Day too, 160 years ago Nevada joined the Union! Keep up the amazing work!
I live in West Central WY. My tiny little middle of nowhere town is literally surrounded by millions of contiguous acres of BLM land, which in turn is surrounded on 3 sides by millions more acres of National Forest and NPS. The BLM management issue seems to strike very close to home here, you did a great job of touching on a lot of the hot button issues that effect land that starts just 2 streets away from me. This will be a great video to send to my Midwest and east coast friends who have no idea what BLM even is aside from that "other group" with the same initials.
ein Beitrag des Freitages, 1. November 2024
Hello from the State of Schleswig-Holstein, the Northernmost state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The State of Idaho has a former gouverneur, Leroy Otter ("Butch"), born on 3rd May 1942.
Leroy Otter (Republican Party, ID) was 12 years in office, until a mandatory term limit, from the Idaho´s constitution, stopped him!
Idaho seems to be THE stronghold, of the Republican Parties!
I do not know, why he and me have equal family names!
In the Province of Saskatchewan, was a provincial election, on Monday, 28th October 2024.
Saskatchewan has the highest percentage of descent from Germany, to somewhere outside Germany!
Manitoba is in the second place!
° elected (61): Saskatchewan Party 35 [libertarians and conservatives]; National Democratic Party 26 [social democrats]
I can Imagine a potential "North American Federation", which would split up from the United States of America!
"NAF´s" Federal politics, could reduce the percent of the "federal land", per member state!
Alaska (Cascadian part); Yukon (Cascadian part); British Columbia (Cascadian part);
Point Roberts [now in WA];
American Indian State of Cascadia [now in Northern CA]; State of the Navajo Reservation [now in 4 states] ;
Portland at the Pacific Ocean [now in OR]; Seattle [now in WA];
Washington State; West Oregon; East Oregon; Jefferson; Idaho; Wyoming; Deseret [Utah]; Nevada; Kansas;
North Dakota; South Dakota;
Arizona; New Mexico; West Oklahoma; Secoyuah [now in Eastern Oklahoma];
"City State of San Francisco" [now in CA];
"Los Angeles State" [now in CA];
some states, made up from most of California [including Baja California (now in MX)]
5 states formed in Texas [e. g. Austin; Dallas; Houston; San Antonio; El Paso]
Would this be wild rodeo?
Howdy?
@maikotter9945 wut?
Lol @ 3:17 "They likely claimed the land through the rights..." Translation: there is no evidence that they didn't just show up and steal it from whoever was there before.
Valid point and i'd say probable
Worst land my ass.
The agency that manages much of America's best land
Now that I have listened to the whole video I see you agree with me.
Here's to preserving public lands.
I live in Salt Lake City and grew up in Wyoming, so my entire life I have been surrounded by BLM land. This was a great watch and I'm happy to see a large creator bringing some attention to the topic.
It's an immoral handout when the government gives you food stamps to feed your children, but it's a God-given right for your livestock to feed themselves on government property.
Typical right-wingers.
And when the cattle overgraze it to the point of unsustainability, it's suddenly a HUUUGE problem when you're told you have to ease off or stop. I bet these ranchers consider themself "conservationists" too.
Great, the matter is settled then. We stop handouts for everyone.
@@en0n126idk about that last part. I think most ranchers just want to be able to graze their cattle, and are upset when they can’t lol.
The government isn’t planting that grass for grazing bro. They also aren’t selling the land.
It's public land. I don't know know how ranchers think that there owed something from the public. I see all the time how much damage their cattle do to the riparian environments of the Colorado plateau. It's beautiful and fragile and needs to be conserved for wildlife and for the enjoyment of the "public." The ranchers scream "It's our way of life" like they're immune from changing times. Do they think that the typewriter industry should have their way of life preserved or the wagon makers or T.V. repairman or any of the other industries that have become obsolete by technology and better less wasteful techniques also be subsidized by the public. They will say " Do you want to pay more for your steak?" Yes, yes I will. Graze them on their own private land. I'd rather eat steak less often if I can hike through the canyons without stepping in cowpies and enjoying a river bank that hasn't been thoroughly fouled by free range cattle.
you don't understand. laws, rules, and regulations are designed for other people. not them.
It is the story of history. Ranchers, and herders are some of the biggest moochers. Farmers have to settle and develop the land. Build infrastructure, build canals and aquaducts, and manage the land. Ranchers and herders never had to. They would just move their animals to better land and if that was already inhabited... well its not like the farmers are using the grass and streams. If they are, well its only a little bit. And if the farmers disagree well, they better not touch the animals or else me and the boys have to take care of them. Those types of people are used to forcing their way on others. Because they don't need to develop and manage the land. Their way of life is reliant on taking from others. So when they are used to a privilege, they feel like its a right. Farmers in the US do this with subsidies. The US government subsidizes farmers. They are reliant on this. I personally think it should be stopped. Farmers need to grow more profitable produce and not corn and wheat. If prices go up, that is fine imho.
To be fair, people probably won't pay more for their steak, they'll switch to more grain fed beef or import beef from south of the border.
THIS! The riparian zones are incredible valuable and are often targeted most directly for grazing or new land development. It's horrible to see these essential habitats get destroyed, leaving local wildlife with increasingly fewer options.
you are blind
The drive between LA and Vegas was made easier by the free camping on BLM land. When I got tired, I pulled off to the side of the road and set up a tent, which was very convenient.
This was a well made and thoughtful video. I would like for you to have discussed, even briefly, the issues with states rights, federal management of land that many states argue should be state land and why that debate is heated.
"BLM BlackRock field office" is quite the sentence.
America's worst land??? We have enough developed land. Keep America's wild native land, wild and native.
Or just build underground below it
You gonna pay for that?@@Bobby_T_
I thought this Burningman event was just a random event that pops up suddenly, I was fascinated to discover how many processes, organizations and government paper works are necessary to make this event happen
It was originally. As I understand it, the original Burning man festivals were impromptu gatherings whcih took place on a much smaller scale on some beach in California. (Los Angeles area? I'm not sure) it quickly grew to a size that couldn't reasonably continue on public beaches, so they moved it to the Black Rock Desert.
@andrewalexander9492 thank you for the information bro
@@andrewalexander9492 Indeed. I used to go to Burning Man back in the 90's when rules were much more lax. And let me tell 'ya... rules are a good thing. People were getting seriously hurt and even killed - mostly due to people driving too fast in the camp - and it was clear to the organizers that the event had become too big, unruly, and chaotic, and that some limits were needed so that the event didn't kill itself. Those rules ended up being a very good thing, and, though there was a lot of grumbling at the time, most people realized that they were necessary.
Just some random guys grinding @00:33
So? What’s wrong with that?
Shame squad chiming in
Wooooo baby gogogo 🍆💦xo
Holding my breath for "the logistics of burning man" on Nebula
My earliest exposure to the BLM was when I first joined the Boy Scouts. We were hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, but every day, we had to drive for what felt like an hour to and from where we were actually camping in New Mexico. Why? We were camping in BLM land, which was far far cheaper than renting a campsite at the foot of the mountains. We even got to exercise some mineral rights while we were there, too; we visited a selenite and alabaster deposit and were just allowed to take whatever we wanted.
I think the thumbnail might be wrong, esp in California? It seems to include many of the National Forests (Dept of Agriculture) and National Parks as BLM land “that nobody wants”. For example, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Sequioia/Kings Canyon, the entire Sierra Nevada, the Big Sur area, Angeles and Los Padres NFs…
It looks like all federal land is highlighted in the thumbnail, idk maybe it was to get people’s attention?
yeah I'm looking at that map like wtf? A lot of that land is some of the most desirable in the world
It's clickbait
Sounds like a lot of land needs to be handed back to the individual states.
Yes
Lottery back to people would be a boom...Buy sell trade your acres if you won.
Amen!
I'm quite glad the BLM exists and keeps capitalism from swallowing up the last of our beautiful and relatively-untouched land. The happiest time of my life was the four months I lived out of my vehicle down in the southwest on almost exclusively BLM land. It was amazing!
“Radical right wing ranchers”
What a joke. If you aren’t carrying a copy of mao’s little red book and walking around with a butt plug in, you’re “radical right wing”
Thanks for making this video-- I share the same sentiment you shared at the end. I am from Summit County, and agree that this 100% needs to be talked about more. Thank you Wendover!
This sounds a lot like the Department of Agriculture. They also get a raft of responsibility. Might make a good video as well
We Nevadans appreciate the shoutout episode and that you said the state name correctly
Wow, it's incredible that you all managed to come together so quickly, to decide and agree on what message to convey for all of you.
Most. Incredible. Accomplishment. Ever.
Does anyone know the road at 19:04? Cool af
That's "the Hogback" by Calf Creek Falls
@parajared 😂 great name, cheers
As a Nevadan, THANK YOU for insinuating that the "wild" horses are actually feral and the 1976 act is to blame for the mismanagement of the population
Fellow nevadan here. Wild horses went extinct in America 20,000 years ago during the last ice age. We simply reintroduced them back .
I’m very grateful for BLM and their great and free dispersed camping land
ah, so Qatar is a unit of measurement
Anything but a kilometer is a unit of measurement, sir.
One of your best, and most important videos. I don't live in the USA but the problem is similar in many parts of the world, where private entities want to exploit land that is managed by a government agency, and it creates a lot of problems when permits are not granted or there is a change in legislation that brings it up to today's standard.
it is not an obscure agency to everyone who lives near to an area they administer
It's not the WORST land, it's lacks water which makes it unsuitable for agriculture.
Well, that and horrible soil chemistry and texture and awful weather.
That horse rehabilitation prison works program is gold!
BLM ain't that small or obscure. It ain't that popular either. But just the wildfire responsibility is pretty massive.
Obviously a lot of people want to land or they wouldn't be fighting over it.
it is an enormous amount of land. Making up a large percentage of the western states off limits to the same for most forms of development. Well being given away for free for a very select few to a very select few.
Biggest fire fighting operation in the world is the usfs and blm.