When the country was formed the land was divided into states and the states became mini-countries. The Federal Government was used as protection for those states and the states set up land sales offices inside the forts the Fed built.
As time went on they had different methods of selling land including the Oklahoma homestead act which the people would claim 640 acres and take ownership after they owned it after an amount of time.
This is how most of the states in the East were formed and what was intended when the country was originally formed.
Oregon was one of the first states formed west of the Rockies as they divided the Oregon Territory which stretched from Alaska to the top of California which was Mexico at the time and east to the Continental Divide.
Due to the lack of population or water and transportation the land was simply divided in the fetile farming areas and protected in the non populated lands. Much of this was due to the threats of Mexico and British armies on the borders.
These were valid reasons in the 1860's however now none of those reasons exist and why those lands need to be divided like the eastern states were sold.
If the forests were sold to the people they would take care of those forests and manage them far better than they are being cared for today. It is time to release these Federal lands to the states and sold to individuals for the health of the forests.
