A lot of National Forest land ends up being land that no one thought was worth homesteading. Compare the small, quite new national forest in warm, fertile Ohio to the vast national forests in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
Which doesn't mean I think the government is beholden to past policy, I think maintaining large tracts of land is a valuable role for the Federal Government to take up, it's just that casting it as 'the job' is a bit of an overstatement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts
A lot of National Forest land ends up being land that no one thought was worth homesteading. Compare the small, quite new national forest in warm, fertile Ohio to the vast national forests in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
Which doesn't mean I think the government is beholden to past policy, I think maintaining large tracts of land is a valuable role for the Federal Government to take up, it's just that casting it as 'the job' is a bit of an overstatement.