No public access: Montana leads West in acreage of inaccessible state lands

Montana leads the pack with more than 1.5 million acres of landlocked state land, which is almost a quarter of the state’s land.

States own a lot of land that is supposed to be open to the public, but a recent study found millions of acres where that’s not so. And that means state schools could be losing out on money.

More than 6 million acres of state-owned land is inaccessible in 11 Western states, according to an analysis conducted by the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a coalition of sportsmen and conservation organizations, and onX, a Missoula-based GPS technology company.

By Laura Lundquist  The Current