There are 16.4 million acres of public land in 20 U.S. states that are actually closed to the public. There are over 300,000 inaccessible public acres in Minnesota and Wisconsin alone, which means Americans have no legal way to access these places – to hike, hunt, camp, forage or fish – without trespassing on private land. .
We call these places “landlocked.” Some are islands of public land completely surrounded by private land, with no public roads or trails leading to them.
Other plots are “corner-locked” – they border private land but touch other public land at one or more corners, like the squares of a chessboard. Due to the legal gray area surrounding the practice of walking from one corner of public property to another, these acres are considered off-limits.
About half of all inland land is closed to corners, and these types of inaccessible public lands are currently in the national spotlight as the Wyoming case currently awaits ruling in the 10th Circuit Court. It is possible that this judgment will be appealed to the Supreme Court. However, litigation over inaccessible, locked areas is nothing modern. Decades of court cases have yet to produce any change. And a court decision could take years.
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While the legality of corner crossings remains in limbo, we can take a different approach to improving access to public lands. Through our work at onX, I have seen first-hand how successful we can be in developing public-private solutions that recognize the shared values of both recreationists and private landowners.
This work is often conducted by a nonprofit or conservation organization. However, the strategies they are using require renewed support and attention from our federal government. These strategies include creating access easements, making outright acquisitions, and participating in seasonal landowner incentive programs.
The first two solutions – larger easements and land purchases – are hampered by an old-fashioned valuation process. Access easements – or deeds of ownership of a road – allow the public to legally cross private land to reach inaccessible public lands. Landowners interested in negotiating easements expect fair compensation for the privilege. After all, they allow the public to cross their lands for a certain period of time, which can range from several years to indefinitely.
However, the groups paying for the easement – usually state or federal agencies or nonprofit groups – can only bid for the assessed amount or less than the assessed value. This value is based on the same calculations used for a power line or fiber optic cable, not access to narrow recreational resources.
According to a nonprofit that works closely with landowners during these negotiations, these valuations are often thousands of dollars below landowners’ expectations. But when public access values are factored into the assessment, landowners are more likely to say yes.
Acquiring private land poses similar challenges. When a private piece of land that has exclusive access to inaccessible public acres comes up for sale, a land management agency, nonprofit land conservation organization, or land trust may want to acquire that piece of land to improve public access.
To do this, they must also purchase the property at a price equal to or less than the appraised value through a strict federal appraisal process. However, there is no set amount that an appraiser can allocate for recreational access, as there is for extractive uses such as mining, grazing and subdivision.
As a result, the appraised value may be significantly lower than the market value. Once again, a private owner can negotiate a higher offer from a private buyer. To address this problem, the federal government must establish a system for pricing recreational access to our public lands. This would give the land management agency or environmental nonprofit the opportunity to make an attractive offer to landowners to provide access, so that landowners would not be forced to choose between goodwill and financial expediency.
A third solution is to expand federal funding to programs that already reward landowners for allowing access to their properties for specific purposes, such as seasonal hunting and fishing. In many states, these are called walk-in programs.
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Many state programs are funded in part by provisions of the Farm Bill, i.e currently in congressional limbo. By improving the incentives offered to landowners engaging in these programs, we can ensure their registration and additional access for many years to come.
Americans have the opportunity to utilize a extensive reserve of public lands. But can millions of acres beyond Americans’ reach really be considered public?
Laura Orvidas is the CEO naXrecreational mapping technology and data company.
