Western lands

Protestors out west are claiming the federal government owns too much land. Across America the federal government owns 28% of all land but in western US the government owns more than 50%. Government ownership is not evenly distributed throughout the stats and varies from a low of .3% in Connecticut to 81% in Utah. To many it seems that the government owning that much land in Utah is a little out of line. Most feel that setting aside some of the parks is reasonable but much of the land the government owns is not open to the public. It is land that contains valuable natural resources, things like oil and natural gas. Other resources, like rare earth metals and lithium, which are needed for high tech products will put pressure on the government to allow extraction. This pressure will overcome the objections of environmentalist who have succeeded in closing the doors to mining and fracking on these lands. Politics aside, things will change.