The Idaho Legislature Doesn't Care About Public Access

[idahohikker]

https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article240020008.html

Just another sad footnote in the ranchers and farmers who only care about property owners. Brad Brooks and Idaho Wildlife Federation try to introduce a very reasonable bill and it's immediately shut down.

Here is a great quote from the article from Brooks:
“We’re just trying to protect public property rights,” Brooks said in an interview. “I can’t believe it’s controversial to say you can’t block a public road.”

Glad there are guys out there spending their time fighting the big money interests. Too bad it's so hard to get any traction with the Idaho legislature.

 

[Rob5589]

Very unfortunate. Billions buy you a lot of influence...

 

[menhaden_man]

Corporatocracy works at all levels...

 

[bluetick78]

I deal with this issue more often than most. Ranchers slowly encroaching onto public land, farmers allowing their operations to creep onto public land, roads illegally gated or posted. It's pretty common across the entire state of Idaho. The more rural the area, the more common it has become. I've always figured it was a few bad apples giving the ranching/farming community a bad name, but my wife pointed out that it's way too widespread to be chalked up to "a few bad apples". A good percentage of the landowners I've noticed are also heavily involved in politics at the local, county, or state level. It's no surprise to me that common sense bills like this one get the boot immediately. There's a sense of entitlement that these landowners have towards public land that I just cant understand. It's really sad to me that in a great state like Idaho with massive amounts of public resources, we are peasants avowed to a few crooked, self-serving bastards that want nothing more than to pillage our public endowment as if it were their own.

 

[netman]

Senator Mike Lee of Utah just blurted out something negative about public lands on Fox News a few minutes ago. It was on The Daily Briefing w Dana P. He was saying something about all the states east of the Mississippi River had only 9-10% public lands.

 

[ODB]

From the article “
“To me, we were dealing with robots here,” Gibbs said, discouraging the use of copy-paste communications.”

Which is why no one should ever just tag-on to some pre-written bullshit letter to a legislator. They are as disengenuous as the form letters we get back from those same legislators saying “I care about XYZ cause...blah, blah.” Neither side really cares when a form letter shows up...

 

[hutty]

Wow talk about a group of legislators that are bought and paid for...

Idaho lawmakers on Wednesday voted against introducing a bill that would have fined individuals who knowingly block access to public land.

“This isn’t about those roads that are in legal limbo,” Brooks said. “People love to vilify the Wilks brothers ... but I don’t think the Wilks brothers are evil. I don’t think anyone who’s blocking access is evil, they’re just ignorant of what belongs to them.”

 

[idahohikker]

Wow talk about a group of legislators that are bought and paid for...

Idaho lawmakers on Wednesday voted against introducing a bill that would have fined individuals who knowingly block access to public land.

“This isn’t about those roads that are in legal limbo,” Brooks said. “People love to vilify the Wilks brothers ... but I don’t think the Wilks brothers are evil. I don’t think anyone who’s blocking access is evil, they’re just ignorant of what belongs to them.”

I think they are lobbied hard by big money landowner interests but the farmers and ranchers in the legislature are often big money landowners as well. They’re one and the same.

 

[idahohikker]

There's a sense of entitlement that these landowners have towards public land that I just cant understand. It's really sad to me that in a great state like Idaho with massive amounts of public resources, we are peasants avowed to a few crooked, self-serving bastards that want nothing more than to pillage our public endowment as if it were their own.

Very well said.

 

[Vandy321]

Dont like it, vote them out. That's the beauty of a representative democracy.

 

[wapitibob]

"The bill would have allowed individuals blocked from public land to deliver a cease-and-desist notification to the individual blocking access. The defendant would have 72 hours to respond. "

If the above is truly what the Bill would have allowed, I'd toss it in the trash as well.

There aren't 1 out of 100 average joes that have the slightest clue if a gated road has a public easement and probably closer to 1 in 1000. Draft a Bill that gives the respective agencies some teeth when dealing with actual violations and it might get some traction.

 

[KoolBreeze]

Wow! Are there any laws that would prevent someone from just cutting the locks on the gates or whatever and going on about their business on the public lands?

 

[TheTone]

Dont like it, vote them out. That's the beauty of a representative democracy.

we tend to get very little choice in this state. Lots of people run unopposed, we have a closed primary system where you can only vote for the party you are registered with and lots of people vote only on party affiliation in the general elections.

 

[idahohikker]

Dont like it, vote them out. That's the beauty of a representative democracy.

They’re pretty well entrenched in red state Idaho. Their replacements will have the same backgrounds.