WHO OWNS THE LAND?

Rex Burress

The land-use issue continued at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon during most of January 2016. The problem was about the use of Federal Land and whether the ranchers have a right to graze cattle on the public domain without following government regulations. The conflict caused a lesser tragedy in keeping birdwatchers out of the refuge.

Who owns the land? The question has lingered ever since mankind attained dominance in the animal world, and the issue became more of a problem as the human race expanded along with tools and technology. More living space was needed for people along with more space to grow food. All of this occurred on planet Earth, spinning through space “God knows how fast and far,” so mused John Muir. It spins with a finite amount of minerals, water, and soil that supports every living thing trapped in the atmosphere.

In the beginning of human emergence, land for people was rather “claimed by squatting on it,” just as animals protect their right to live in a certain territory. But then when Europe entered the civilization phase, a “land patent” system was developed which was brought along to America. Countries acquired land by war, purchase, and colonization, which was further shuffled to individuals through homesteading, grants, deeds, or patents. Land has always “belonged” to some living thing, whether wildlife, Indians, colonists, or governments.

It was a big surprise for explorers to find various tribes already occupying America, and colonizers had to contend with their presence on the land. Did the inhabitants own it? Native Americans offered no proof of ownership, and indeed their belief was not to own land, but one of merely using and sharing Mother Earth. “This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.” --Chief Seattle. There were a lot of treaties and real-estate land deals in trying to justify modern methods of land management.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 tried to organize state parcels by creating townships, a six-mile square that was surveyed and divided into 36 sections of 640 acres each, sold to settlers for $1.25 per acre for each section, but less desirable lots sold for 12 cents per acre, thus every inch of each state was accounted for by the human system! The 1812 U.S. Treasury manged public lands and granted patents until the Homestead Act of 1862 formed a new bureau. To homestead, you selected 160 acres of government land, resided on it for five years, built a 12x14 building and grew crops. Then you could apply for a patent deed of title in Washington D.C.

Land control was somewhat like gold mining claims in California, where a certain space was allotted to each miner who marked it as required.

Not all government land was sold, as we well know from the Malheur incident; in fact, nearly half of western land is under control of the government through the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forestry Service—very important in providing habitat for wildlife. Congress approved a law in 1976 saying that unclaimed public land would stay under federal control. Grazing laws would limit the size of herds to prevent overgrazing amid other conditions spelled out in the arrangement.

Access to the western land was difficult as roads were non-existent and there was a lack of trees on the plains to build houses [Sod shanties]. The Transcontinental Railroad of 1869 improved transportation, but there were no highways.

So who owns the land? Who speaks for the original inhabitants of America—the birds, beaver, bear, blossoms, blewits, and all of the species living on the thin layer of soil overlying hard rock of a planet once a mass of swirling hot magma? Wildlife was present long before people.

Who speaks for the conservation of the soil and our natural resources and landscape wonders? Who speaks for the earthly home of us all in Butte County and all of the world?

“Man did not make the earth, and though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity, any part of it.” --Thomas Paine, 1796

“What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish, and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?” --Chief Massasoit