# Americans are locked out of more than 6.35 million acres of Public Land



## onX Hunt

Did you know Americans are locked out of more than 6.35 million acres of Public Land? Landlocked lands are defined as state-managed lands that cannot be accessed directly from a public road (direct access) and cannot be accessed via adjoining public
land by way of a public road (indirect access). Throughout 2019, we have been working with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) to identify the extent of the landlocked problem and potential solutions of how to help make improvements. You can read more about what we have found at the link below. What are your thoughts? 

https://www.onxmaps.com/blog/onx-and-trcp-partner-to-highlight-inaccessible-state-lands?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=organic-feed&utm_campaign=trcp-2019


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## soldierarcher

My family and I do not acknowledge anything west of the Mason Dixon line. lol, just kidding I do have family that lives in the very Blue state of California. Needless to say their hunting sucks! 

I really don't care for the OnX Hunt app either. Not kidding here. Your business practices are questionable. I tried your app a year or two ago. Paid the app fee and decided I didn't need the app. Then your charge AUTOMATICALLY showed up on my iTunes account the next year. That's a "NOGO" ghost rider! Not cool. Had to go into iTunes to dis-able the auto subscribe from your app. Again, so not cool!


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## onX Hunt

soldierarcher said:


> My family and I do not acknowledge anything west of the Mason Dixon line. lol, just kidding I do have family that lives in the very Blue state of California. Needless to say their hunting sucks!
> 
> I really don't care for the OnX Hunt app either. Not kidding here. Your business practices are questionable. I tried your app a year or two ago. Paid the app fee and decided I didn't need the app. Then your charge AUTOMATICALLY showed up on my iTunes account the next year. That's a "NOGO" ghost rider! Not cool. Had to go into iTunes to dis-able the auto subscribe from your app. Again, so not cool!


Sorry for any confusion of how the subscription works, we're always open about how that works and are more than happy to answer any questions you have regarding the app. Feel free to send us a message and we can help you out.


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## DRoach

Get choppered in? Halo jump? lol Seems they could use some of the Tax money they collect from sporting goods purchases to garner access.


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## 925767

Washington state has some of that kind of land. Of course Washington only cares about illegals, potheads, and law breakers rights, not those of honest hard working tax paying hunters.


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## NevadaZM

The good news for Nevadans is that they have good laws that allow access across private lands. The private land owner must notify the person regarding trespass. That means either in person or via adequate signs, which could mean a LOT of signs. Someone can hop a fence even and enjoy the private land, so long as they are not there to vex or bother the private land owner. I love hunting in Nevada.


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## lsu_engr

Expropriation or eminent domain can't be used to acquire access?


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## cpollard

What about the possibility of providing a map of all these "government" properties?


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## Ectotherm

I ran into this problem my first time elk hunting in western washington. I setup where i wanted to go using information from onx map and friends who knew about areas to go (but hadnt been up in and around the forks area in a while). When I went up there early early in the morning the roads i had planned on using that looked like usable access all were gated off and no tresspassing/no access signs up at all the avenues from Rayonier timber company. They want you to lease a chunk of the land from them. So ya that did mess up my hunt quite a bit.


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## Midlife Crisis

Yeah, I love it when people donate a landlocked parcel to the public, take a tax write off for the donation, reduce their annual property taxes (thus increasing the burden on other folks in the area), and deny the public access to what is now public land. I think we all need to learn how to operate motorized hang gliders. Or get legislators who will not put up with this scam.


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## 180orbust

thats too bad! kinda sucks


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## jp93308

it sucks


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## Zigggy

Yes, this is a big deal. Also impacts other outdoor sports like mountain biking.


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## Zigggy

Yes! conservation easements and land trusts are often our friends. Good to be active in a local one.


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## thewy_2007

That’s a large amount of area, and the hardest part is many public land hunters just want to use the land correctly. I think many of those landlocked properties are because those local ranchers had a bad experience with one unethical hunter over the many years.


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## BeardedBowman1

This is kinda BS


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## KiloLandis

Wow, I had no idea. That's nuts.


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## Hikari

That is a tough policy question. Private property law are very strong for property owners in the US. The government has few options for imposing easements across private land--that is a fifth amendment issue and can be considered regulatory taking. It is also compounded by the government swapping land so private property owners can landlock Federal lands. Unfortunately, no one has been very interested in that problem, which goes further with basically giving away water and timber resources.


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## jcchiles

Take a look at the locked state and federal land in Wyoming, look at all the land south of interstate 80, it is unbelievable. We need to join organizations that will help unlock this land for all of us.


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## jcchiles

Also, can someone answer this question for me – all over here in the west private landowners are able to gate off roads that go through their property and onto public land. If we can’t access that land using the road then why can they? If we are blocked off from it they should also be.


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## horsehands

At least it keeps some public clean and limits hunting pressure on the wildlife. If it is opened and a game rich environment, it would soon be trashed and raped by the not so desirables. Being entitled and being fortunate are hardly ever allies.


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## jcchiles

So, all public land is trashed and raped? I’m going on a hike right now on public land and i pick up what little trash I see but nothing is damaged. I don’t agree with you, there aren’t enough people that hunt, camp, etc. that would damage wildlife And the land. In fact, I talked to a wildlife biologists in Wyoming and many of these landlocked areas have too many elk. The fish and game straight up said more animals need to be harvested On these landlocked areas because there are too many Elk which need to be limited to balance the land with grazing, drought etc.


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## Schoeny

Its going to take designated people to knock on doors and find funding sources to secure right of ways to public lands....its that simple.


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## horsehands

jcchiles said:


> So, all public land is trashed and raped? I’m going on a hike right now on public land and i pick up what little trash I see but nothing is damaged. I don’t agree with you, there aren’t enough people that hunt, camp, etc. that would damage wildlife And the land. In fact, I talked to a wildlife biologists in Wyoming and many of these landlocked areas have too many elk. The fish and game straight up said more animals need to be harvested On these landlocked areas because there are too many Elk which need to be limited to balance the land with grazing, drought etc.


Typical reply. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is ours. Laughable. Oh, last time I checked ,elk weren't a stationary animal. The fish and game have said a lot of stuff that was misleading. I'm done,


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## jcchiles

Typical reply. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is ours. Laughable. Oh, last time I checked ,elk weren't a stationary animal. The fish and game have said a lot of stuff that was misleading. I'm done,

and your reply is typical. You added nothing but a complaint. Typical to complain without offering a substantial response. Montana is having the same issue with private versus public land. It is well known ungulates migrate.


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## Psion

This makes me curious how much hunting appropriate public land is locked out in Australia, not counting national parks and reserves.


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## j.cul

If you buy the right piece of land, you could potentially have private access to public land!


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## tuckerjt07

There is an easy fix to this that respects property rights. The landowner has three choices, either grant an easement and they can use the public land the same as everyone else, pay the top end hunting lease rate per acre of the entire parcekt in the area for their exclusive use, or no one can use it. If they are found to be using it without payment hammer them just like they would ask for anyone trespassing on their land to be. 

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk


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## Bluffbender

soldierarcher said:


> My family and I do not acknowledge anything west of the Mason Dixon line. lol, just kidding I do have family that lives in the very Blue state of California. Needless to say their hunting sucks!
> 
> I really don't care for the OnX Hunt app either. Not kidding here. Your business practices are questionable. I tried your app a year or two ago. Paid the app fee and decided I didn't need the app. Then your charge AUTOMATICALLY showed up on my iTunes account the next year. That's a "NOGO" ghost rider! Not cool. Had to go into iTunes to dis-able the auto subscribe from your app. Again, so not cool!


Literally every subscription service ever created does this. OnX didn't invent automatic renewal, it shouldn't have came as a shock that you got charged for something you subscribed to and didn't cancel.


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## Bluffbender

thewy_2007 said:


> That’s a large amount of area, and the hardest part is many public land hunters just want to use the land correctly. I think many of those landlocked properties are because those local ranchers had a bad experience with one unethical hunter over the many years.


Or because they want free land that only they have access to.


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## raisins

The national forest here is regulated in part by USFS. The part of the forest closest to my house is a patchwork of private and public ownership.

I scouted it 2 years ago using OnX and paper topos.

There were many instances where a county road ran through someone's property where they owned like 10 acres on each side. These people would put their own locked gate on it and block access to 100s of acres of public land behind them. Sometimes they even erected a cruddy hand painted sign renaming the road after themselves.

I marked all of this on OnX and called the USFS to ask about this and offered to share the coordinates.

I talked to some guy on the phone that simply said "They don't do that. That doesn't happen."

And that was it. I said "I have maps with county roads on them with numbers and there are private gates blocking 100s of acres".

He insisted that never happens. How would he know? His office isn't in the area. He didn't know what location I was even speaking of. Maybe it occurred after the last time his rear left the chair a year ago to drive around and look at something.

I could feel the stench of lazy, can't get fired, employee leaching through the phone. So I'd say half the problem are a bunch of people with no real incentive to actually do their job.


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## soldierarcher

Hey Bluffbender, welcome to Archerytalk. Thank you from finding a post I made from 3 years ago and commenting.....I appreciate that, yep I get how the Apple itunes store works I was just frustrated. Look forward to returning the favor.........


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## Bluffbender

M


soldierarcher said:


> Hey Bluffbender, welcome to Archerytalk. Thank you from finding a post I made from 3 years ago and commenting.....I appreciate that, yep I get how the Apple itunes store works I was just frustrated. Look forward to returning the favor.........


Lol. My bad bud. I didn't look at the date. But I'm glad you sorted things out over these past few years.


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## Primeshooter67

onX Hunt said:


> Did you know Americans are locked out of more than 6.35 million acres of Public Land? Landlocked lands are defined as state-managed lands that cannot be accessed directly from a public road (direct access) and cannot be accessed via adjoining public
> land by way of a public road (indirect access). Throughout 2019, we have been working with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) to identify the extent of the landlocked problem and potential solutions of how to help make improvements. You can read more about what we have found at the link below. What are your thoughts?
> 
> onX and TRCP Partner to Highlight Inaccessible State Lands | onX
> 
> View attachment 6909147


Ya you can thank Bill Gates for this BS, I don’t know if anyone follows this but he owns more land in the US than china


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## aeds151

30 acres were just acquired by the nat forest here that opened up 700 acres locked out for the public. Believe it or not, there is land out there with no proof of ownership or no living owner, family etc. no way to put a name to the title so the reality specialists for the public land management agencies acquire the land to expand our public hunting lands. I was told they are in the process of acquiring another free 15acres. Im glad they are because i never will be able to afford land and the richers are making their big land grabs as we speak.0


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