tacotruck7

Writing as a Montanan here. Federal management of public land is not a problem in any way. The state of Montana does not have the ability or the resources to manage such a resource over the long term. Most of the federally owned land is managed by the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management both of which have appropriate long term management objectives.

Cadillac Desert is a good read but it was written 25 or 30 years ago. What do you feel has changed in the decades since it was written? By that I mean what needs more emphasis in today's world as far as water policy is concerned.

I don't understand why a libertarian would want to duplicate all these government jobs in each state. Why would having, for example, a mapping office for each state make more sense than having one office office for the whole country? Seems like unnecessary government bloat.

I agree that one of the founding principles of the country was one that values private land ownership. A far more powerful influence though are the rights enshrined in the Magna Carta and expanded upon by the US Constitution. Read this or this. The rights to a public common (public land) where both peasant or lord may roam with equal right is at least as important a founding principle as one of private property.