Mapping the Checkerboard
Illustration by Ashley Quick and captions by Birch Malotky, with assistance from Bryan Leonard.
Upstream
The legacy of public land grant-making in patterns
Perspective from John Leshy
Public land grants in a checkerboard pattern have a long history in the United States, and in some places their effects are still being felt and contested.
To Cross or Not to Cross
Using Hamlet’s quest for justice to teach the corner-crossing case
By Kelly Dunning
In my undergraduate classes, I teach that the Wyoming corner-crossing case is one of the past decade’s most significant political developments regarding conservation.
For the Beneficiaries
Colorado plays the long game on nearly three million acres of state trust land
By Birch Malotky
Senator Dylan Roberts might be one of the few people in the Colorado state legislature who has been interested in state trust land for years.
A Century of Managing the Checkerboard
An interview with John Hay and Don Schramm of the Rock Springs Grazing Association
By Temple Stoellinger
The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) represents one of the oldest and most complex grazing operations in the American West, born from a conservation crisis more than 100 years ago.
Lines on the Land
Conflict and collaboration in the checkerboard of Montana’s Crazy Mountains
By Shawn Regan
The Crazy Mountains rise sharply from the plains of south-central Montana, forming an island of rock and forest in a sea of prairie.
Fragmented Jurisdiction
The complicated legacy of allotment legislation
By Autumn L. Bernhardt
Consider a pronghorn doe embarking on her yearly migration route or simply traveling an intermediate distance in search of better grass. Over the course of her journey, she may cross streams, roads, and fences.
Short-circuited
Developing energy resources in checkerboard land
By Bryan Leonard
Imagine that you are a private landowner interested in tapping oil or gas reserves beneath your property. You own one square mile of land, which is surrounded by alternating squares of federal and private land.
Gridlocked
In Wyoming’s Red Desert, the checkerboard has fueled a wild horse stalemate
By Mike Koshmrl
A dozen or so wild horse advocates and photographers were gathered on a ridgeline near White Mountain in August 2024 when news started spreading that federal land managers got the OK from the courts to eliminate two entire herds, and a part of another, from 2.1 million acres of the area known as the Red Desert.
Partner-led, Science-driven
How the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative has fostered two decades of conservation in the checkerboard
By Emma Dietrich and Patrick Anderson
“The checkerboard is always in the back of our minds” says Jim Wasseen, Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Fire at the Property Line
Mix of public and private lands causes fire management challenges
By Kristen Pope
A bolt of lightning crashes down and hits some brush, which begins to smolder.
Chess Not Checkers
For grizzly bears, some of the most desirable dispersal habitat crosses heavily checkerboarded lands
By Katie Hill
It took all night to drive hundreds of miles from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) in northwestern Montana to the shores of Yellowstone Lake,
From a Simmer to a Boil
Corner-crossing case ignites firestorm with messy history
By Christine Peterson
Long before a group of hunters from Missouri hoisted a ladder over a fence in southwest Wyoming—setting off a series of headline-grabbing court cases and breathless predictions—the US government had a plan.
Editor’s Note – Issue 15
Issue 15: The Checkerboard By Birch Dietz Malotky Like many folks, I first learned about the checkerboard fairly recently. Paddling down a stretch of the Platte River through an old burn zone bursting with fireweed, a friend described the strange pattern of every-other-square ownership and how difficult it...
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