Our government just found $100 million in its petty cash drawer. Should they build affordable housing, or buy one extra square mile of parkland?

Photo above - Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is 3,000 square miles. The US government just paid $100 million for a single square mile, land which is not even connected to this park.

How many acres are in one square mile? A little more than 600. (I would have guessed more). That probably makes it even MORE absurd that the Federal Government bought a square mile of Wyoming forest for $100 million. That’s um . . . $150,000 per acre. In the middle of nowhere. It's in no way contiguous to any existing national parks, anywhere.

Maybe someone at the White House thought we were running low on vacant land? I checked . . . we’re not. There’s already one million square miles of federally owned land. Well, we just added 1 more. That’s a net increase of 0.000001% (check my math please). But it ONLY COST ONLY $100 million. For reference, the federal government ALREADY owns about 30% of all US land. The government owns Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, which is 3,000 square miles.

And they bought somebody else’s single square mile for $100 million!

I love those movies about the wild west. Remember “How the West Was Won?” The transcontinental railroad? Built in the 1860s. The federal government gave the railroads one square mile of land on each side of the tracks, for each mile of track built. Roughly 2,000 miles of track. 2 square miles of free land for every mile of track . . . that works out to 4,000 square miles. Well, we just bought one of those free square miles back, I guess. For $100 million.

The federal government is doing this to keep rich guys from adding that square mile to their already considerable holdings. Billionaires probably covet this land because the views of “purple mountains’ majesties and fruited plains”.

You know who owns a lot of wilderness? Ted Turner. How much? 2 million acres. That’s 300 square miles. Does this mean TED’s wilderness is now worth $100 million per square mile too? I betcha Ted would have sold the government one of his miles for less than $100 million. Heck, he might have even donated it, to get the tax break, if someone had bothered to ask. Ted is 84 years old and thinking about his legacy. And I betcha he didn’t pay anywhere close to $100 million per square mile.

I would never argue against preserving wilderness. We need all the spotted owls, wolves, and grizzly bears we can get. (Polar bears are endangered too. But they are a recent subspecies of Grizzlies that appeared during the current ice age). But $100 million an acre? This is the sort of decision that should have been made by someone competent. Like Ted Turner, or possibly Vivek Ramaswamy.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

$100 Million for One Square Mile: Deal to Protect Land in Grand Tetons – DNyuz