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How rating would you give your state on it's public land on the following areas:
Raw acreage
Ease of access and proximity to where most of the people are
Facilities, parking, restrooms,
Crowdedness and trail networks and info regarding trails
Variety of recreation options
Pristine-ness / old growth
Obviously all states are not equal in geographical richness. California and Nebraska are in separate leagues, but how well would you rate your state on working with what is has geographically?
For Colorado I'd say:
Acreage: A. There's more acres of public land than a person could ever explore.
Access: C. There's plenty to the west, but the eastern flank of the front range is almost entirely devoid of options
Facilities: B
Crowdedness: B. The front range trails are very crowded, but it's easy to get away from everyone driving a little ways.
Variety: A
Pristineness: A
Kinda like when Ralphie in “A Chritsmas Story” has a dream about his theme paper, California gets an A + + + + + + + +. But in all seriousness it gets an A+
New Mexico gets all 'A's with a possible 'B+' for some people on variety if someone wants a lot of impounded water.
Raw acreage --- it's everywhere - 22 million acres
Ease of access and proximity to where most of the people are --- you can probably walk there.
Facilities, parking, restrooms --- less is more
Crowdedness and trail networks and info regarding trails --- what is a crowd? With 2 million people in the whole state you might be happy to see someone.
Variety of recreation options --- mountains, plains, deserts, volcanoes, white water, skiing, bike trails, fishing, hunting, etc.
Pristine-ness / old growth --- lots of wilderness.
Raw Acreage: B+ For a midwestern state, Missouri does very well on the amount of public land, especially compared to IA, IL, IN, KS.
Ease of Access: B+. StL, Columbia, Springfield, Cape and Poplar all have good access. Its a little harder for KC.
Facilities: Hard to say. I don't want lots of facilities and parking lots. These are supposed to be "natural areas"
Crowdedness: A+
Variety of Options: A. Canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, fishing, hunting, trapping, spelunking, etc.
Pristineness: B+. There's still sustainable logging that takes place. The mines and quarries still operate.
Wildlife: B+. There Bear population has had a resurgence. The Elk repopulation has been successful. Mountain Lion citings are becoming more frequent. Get the wolves back and I'll give Mo an A.
I'll go ahead and do Texas since I lived there before coming back to the Front Range.
Raw acreage - F
It's really pathetic how little public land Texas has for a state of its size. > 90% of the state is private land. There are ranches in West Texas that rival smaller states in terms of acreage. Colorado is less than half the size of Texas and has about 4 times more public land.
Ease of access - C-
Closer to the Texas Triangle there are several smallish state parks and some national forest land, but the best areas of Texas (Palo Duro, Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains) are located hundreds of miles to the west.
Facilities - C
Crowdedness - B-
Reservoirs are the main attraction in the triangle. They're crowded. Tent camping in the eastern half of the state sucks rocks from the middle of June until well into September.
Hiking in the triangle is a joke. Austin is the cream of the crop of the major metros, but compared to Colorado it's fairly ordinary. The best hiking is, again, way out west.
Variety - A
Deserts, mountains, canyons, reservoirs (only 1 natural lake in Texas), old growth forest, and karst topography
Pristineness - B
The forests of East Texas are pretty impressive.
Last edited by bluescreen73; 04-15-2020 at 10:53 PM..
California is probably the most well known state for scenery, but I feel that a lot of the northern and eastern parts of the state are very much off the radar of most people, despite being some pretty dramatic scenery. New Mexico certainly has kept a lot of the west wild and I think it will catch a windfall for outdoor rec tourism like Colorado has received, with NM shining with an extra month or 2 in the spring and fall when it's not as nice in the colder sections of the Rockies as retirees will want to travel in non-summer break months.
Texas is a state that stands out to me as a distinct failure for public lands. There's lots of Texas that's arid and flat, but it has a huge coastline, ecosystems unique to anywhere else in the US, quite a bit of of land that could support a wide variety of animals, and more than enough arable land to spare some for nature. Yet most all of the land around the triangle where the bulk of people are is all privatized. Private land generates money, but it makes your state less attractive to live in. Missouri is a good counter example, the rural areas don't have as much money from farming, but there's plenty of places to get outside and explore and it's more attractive to visit.
California is probably the most well known state for scenery, but I feel that a lot of the northern and eastern parts of the state are very much off the radar of most people, despite being some pretty dramatic scenery.
Off the radar for most people but not for most Californians.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil P
Texas is a state that stands out to me as a distinct failure for public lands.
Way back in the '60s some Texas visionaries passed the Texas Open Beaches Act which, as I understand it, makes the intertidal zone and the dry sands zone open to the public on all salt water beaches, which stands in contrast to many eastern states that have private beaches. Open beaches is a huge public land amenity; nearly everyone likes visiting the beach.
I think New York gets an A. It has two separate and overlapping public land systems, the wilderness parks-- Catskill Park and Adirondack Park--where the state has acquired thousands of acres over the years and where the environmental conservation department manages many trails and operates loads of high quality campgrounds, and the NYS Park system which has lots of parks well distributed across the state including many within the New York - New Jersey metropolitan area. Certain small area, high population states should get credit too. New Jersey has lots of state parks and forests and lots of beaches open to the general public. Connecticut and Massachusetts have many state parks, state forests, state reservations, well distributed. Both also have state Audubon societies with dozens of wildlife refuges. Both have extensive town conservation lands with walking trails. Mass also has the Trustees of Reservations with many beautiful public areas across the state; it also has Cape Cod national seashore.
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