More Than 500,000 Acres of Public Land in California Are Inaccessible to the Public

Across America, 15 million acres of state and federal land is surrounded by private land, with no legal entry by road or trail. If this so-called landlocked land was one contiguous piece, it would form the largest national park in the country, nearly the size of Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut combined.

This stunning fact is detailed in a recent Times article about brewing fights between landowners and the public over access to these broad swaths of land. Most of these inaccessible public lands are in the West, and, until recently, their existence was largely unknown.

That changed because of a hunting app called OnX, a Google Maps for the wilderness that combines state and county maps to show wind patterns, fire histories and, most importantly, property lines. The revelation that millions of acres of public lands aren’t really open to the public has increased tensions in several communities and resonated far beyond the audience for whom OnX was intended.

“When I showed OnX to people who aren’t hunters, they would almost always say, ‘Hold on, let me look at this again,’” said Ben Ryder Howe, a journalist who wrote the Times article. “There’s so much power in just that knowledge and awareness of who owns land. It’s not something Americans are accustomed to, I think. So OnX has really tapped into something there.”

One analysis found that among Western states, Arizona has the most inaccessible public land, with more than 1.5 million acres. California comes in second place, with 530,000 acres. Typically these state and federal properties are moated by private ranches and corporate holdings.

The popularity of OnX has raised all sorts of questions around land rights, trespassing and tourism in previously untouched spaces. The app is also at the root of a case in federal court in which a Wyoming landowner has accused four hunters of trespassing — and causing millions of dollars in damage — even though they never set foot on his land.

As Ben explained, much of the Western United States is divided into alternating squares of public and private land. But for years, the landlocked lands were largely unknown, except to neighboring private property owners, and some saw the spaces “as part of their ranch,” said Joel Webster, vice president of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. OnX helped expose this, he said, a change he called “profound.”

And the problems emerging aren’t likely to ease up anytime soon, Ben said. Tensions are “embedded in the pattern of property ownership,” he said. “A checkerboard pattern is basically a guarantee of future conflict.”

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Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Jeff Album, who lives in Lafayette. Jeff recommends Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond, especially if you have a dog:

“The views across the Bay of San Francisco, the Golden Gate and Sausalito/Tiburon across the water are spectacular, and, unless you hate dogs, the free play of dog interactions is relentlessly entertaining.

There are several miles of trails along this shoreline — the best of any place we know allowing dogs off leash — and we cannot remember any bad experiences EVER with bad dogs with bad owners. Somehow, the self-policing seems effective, and the canines and humans both get great facilities where they can drink and take care of their business.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

And before you go, some good news

No matter what kind of book you’re looking for, it might be waiting for you just down the street.

Hundreds of Little Free Libraries have sprung up across the Bay Area in recent years in curbside boxes that are as unique as their stewards, including a Victorian steampunk-style version in San Jose and a midcentury modern library in Pinole, The Mercury News reports.

The goal of the national movement is simple: Encourage literacy and the joy of reading by providing free access to books of all kinds. Stewards of the curbside libraries implore their visitors to take a book and to leave one, too. You can find a Little Free Library — or the inspiration to create one yourself — via littlefreelibrary.org.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Isabella Grullón Paz, Jaevon Williams and Danielle Cruz contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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