“Could you run your business if the public lands were sold off?” asks Jon Wertheim. “No,” says Donna McDonald, a hunting and fishing guide in Montana. “There would not be a business to run.” In some states, the vast majority of the territory is federally owned. In Montana, it’s about 30%. How did we get here? As the nation expanded in the 1800s and as Native Americans were forcefully removed, some land was settled by homesteaders or sold to industrialists, but much of it fell under federal control. #publicland #federalland #fishing #fishingguide