Cutting up the commons

Cutting up the commons

“… a shady world of back-room deals, special interests and cronyism.” — Erica Rosenberg, Western Lands Project The future of federal public lands lies in the hands of the U.S. Congress as empowered by the American public. Whatever winds of influence and ideology blow through Washington also stir across vast acreages of American lands in the public domain of the commons. In Aspen, Pitkin County and the greater Roaring Fork Valley, land giveaways …

Cutting up the commons: Parceling off the American landscape is a long-held function of our politics — Paul Anderson (AspenJournalism.org)

Olympic National Forest clear cuts. Click the link to read the article on the Aspen Journalism website (Paul Andersen): November 15, 2025 As generous and readily available as local land grants were, the Roaring Fork Valley was small potatoes compared with enormous public land grants that mark vast Western landscapes today and could foreshadow a similar trend if the political powers that be in Washington take on the directives and intentions of …