The government is the original owner of every inch of land that wasn't owned before the US was founded. Most of the BLM lands were lands that the GLO couldn't sell. Unless your land was owned by Spanish or French landgrant, the odds are that the US owned it at one time.
Just some trivia.
The Forest Service was set up first and primarily to preserve and protect watersheds, and also to protect timberlands.
Again, a lot of these were lands owned by the US, unsold lands. A good bit of'em were considered undesirable, even, too steep to log, but critical for watershed.
You can than the US Geological Survey for deciding that watershed areas be protected. It was their idea, and they wanted to be the management office to handle it.
Denver today is crying because their watershed got screwed up in the fires of 2002. It takes a while to get those lands back in shape, and stupid lawsuits that prevent cities from protecting them just make it worse!
There is "environmentalism" which is a belief system, and then there is the study of the environment, it's interrelationships, the ways we can use it, the effects and dynamics. I like to call this conservationism nowadays, to protect it from the green movement, which seems to want to freeze a moment in time instead of looking at a dynamic system that changes, evolves, gets used, and to make it the best system for all concerned, where things are maximized, gets managed!
There's a lot of real science involved.
That was a very good mini-essay, Knitting. I learned something! I agree that the eco-freaks do not comprehend the dynamic aspect of ecology. Many of their organizations and movements are simply vehicles for leftist activism.
Conservation is what I believe in also, as opposed to environmentalism. I'm wondering now if Teddy Roosevelt wasn't the President most instrumental in bringing these protections about. I believe he not only founded our national parks system, but established other governmental conservation agencies.
"In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation, the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight.... The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life."
Address to the National Editorial Association,
Jamestown, Virginia, June 10, 1907.