>>1237986Between federal and state management, there are already several acres of governmentally managed public land (defined as forested, outdoor recreational use, or wilderness) for every man, woman, and child in the US. IT exists in every state in the Union. This doesn't even include waterways or local parks or governmentally held developed property, and only about 1 in 8 Americans has set foot on those lands in the previous 5 years. Plenty of room for hunting, fishing, camping, and other recreation, and I'm glad of it. In addition, there is a nearly equivalent amount of privately held forested or wilderness land NOT including land specifically reserved for agricultural purposes. (In other words, even the land held by private logging firms doesn't figure into that, as that's a designated agricultural use.)
I'm a big fan of as much wilderness, forested, wooded, plains, desert, or otherwise undeveloped outdoor area as possible. But there is no reason any yahoo may have to think that they should be entitled to trespass on land that isn't reserved for public use. If I own several hundred acres of land somewhere, and trespassers come on to it and do wonderful things like help remove trash or debris, incrementally burn off undergrowth that can contribute to fires, help create environmentally responsible erosion control, or remove invasive species, I certainly wouldn't be against it. I'd open that land up to Boy Scout troops, local environmental organizations, and the like to do the same (and a ton of landowners do just that.) Unfortunately, 90% of the time "trespasser" means just what you think it does, and they drive their vehicles through sensitive areas, start uncontrolled or unsupervised fires, discard trash (not just minor biodegradable camping litter like a pile of poo and paper, we're talking about using my property like a landfill to get rid of mattresses, tires, truckloads of bags of residential waste, old carpets, buckets of paint and oil, you name it.)
