I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Alaska. One of the statistics about this superlative state that intrigued me was that 62% (223.8 million acres) of its area is comprised of federally owned land. That got me curious about how much of the lands in our area are federally owned.
Well, it turns out that Riverside County has Alaska beat! Approximately 84% of Riverside County is owned or administered by the Federal Government. That about matches the state with the highest percentage – Nevada, which comes out to 84.9%. You might be surprised that the figure for Riverside County is so high. But it has significant areas of National Park, National Forest, and Bureau of Land Management holdings within its borders.
If you look at the Coachella Valley, almost half (48%) is federally owned or managed. Of that, nearly 72% is either Bureau of Land Management or National Park land.
