I believe it's time to revisit that 1879 law regarding private use of federal land. That's the law that sets the price of a few dollars per acre for things like mining operations that could be worth millions, even billions of dollars. If the minerals or ore are in the land, then the land has real economic value and could be sold for a far better price than what is allowed by that law.

An even more fundamental question should be how much federal land in a state is enough. For example, does the federal government really need to own over 36% of all the land in Colorado, over 60% of Alaska, and over 80% of Nevada? These numbers are from this source.

When the federal government owns large percentages of a state's land, it means the people living in that state have little or no say in managing their own resources. Perhaps there needs to be a moritorium on the federal government acquiring land in western states for a while. If they want to acquire more land, let them work on the eastern states. After all, only 0.3% of Conneticut, 0.8% of Maine, and 0.7% of New York is federal property.

Whenever this topic is mentioned, a typical remark from Leftists regards selling the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone. That type of argument reduced to absurdity is the same as when people discuss private ownership of firearms and someone asks about nuclear weapons. The simple fact is that most of the western lands are no where near the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone in beauty. Much of the land is actually quite desolate which is why no one homesteaded it back in the 1800s when the land was being given away. However, land unsuitable for farming might still have value for other things like mining.

Taking the argument even further, the very thing that makes places like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone so valuable as a natural resource is the beauty. Even in the extremely unlikely event those were ever sold, the best way to preserve their value would be to keep them beautiful and desirable as a tourist destination. Millions of people visit the national parks each year. Developing the parks would kill the tourism.