Has anyone been taking about the protest planned from well before the Bundy confrontations? The understanding I have had about BLM for twenty years is they manage to piss off the locals and not just the citizenry. Local elected officials etc. They do have a ham handed approach too often. And when the Feds have and use control of 90% of the area in question, building resentment is a certainty. And that is the real backdrop for Bundy. BLM is a little less popular with locals and ranchers than the IRS audit people.

There is some minor local tension right here near Los Angeles, as vast swaths of National Forest are still no trespassing zones since the Station fire. The reason given is that even scattered human footprints of picnickers or hikers will disturb the natural recovery. As if limiting access via numbers of visitors was not an option. Or understanding that in these long human inhabited mountain range our impact is strictly a negative. There is a better balance available. Bad tempers, militias and glacial bureaucracies are not a good mix. Unarmed civil protest and disobedience is the respected way to go.

Bundy is an ass, the militias are damn dangerous. But that does not let the heavy handed officials have auto amnesty from poor decisions.

Cliven Bundy II? Utah protesters prepare for new face-off with feds

A band of angry citizens plans to ride all-terrain vehicles onto closed-off, federally managed public land Saturday in protest against the federal Bureau of Land Management, which many say has unfairly closed off a prized area, cheating residents of outdoor recreation.

The ride, organized by San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, is a gambit to assert county sovereignty over Recapture Canyon, known for its archaeological ruins, that BLM officials say has been jeopardized from overuse. The canyon was closed to motor vehicles in 2007, the agency said, after two men forged an illegal seven-mile trail. Hikers and those on horseback are still allowed there.

Lyman and his supporters want the BLM to act more quickly on a years-old request for a public right-of-way through the area. “You can’t just arbitrarily shut down a road in San Juan County,” he said. “If you can do that and get away with it, what else can you do?”

The revolt has received national attention, coming at the heels of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s successful standoff last month against the BLM that suggests a rising battle across the West over states’ rights on federally managed public lands. Tensions rose in Utah this week after two men pointed a gun at a BLM employee on a highway.