In Oregon, frustration over federal land rights has been building for years

Freemuth said that in recent decades, the federal government has placed increasing emphasis on the environment, which has led to more restrictions on ranching, grazing and mining and other traditional uses of the land. That has led to frustration among many rural Westerners, who feel a sharp disconnect with a federal government run by people in urban centers.

“They have a concern that they are being left behind, that their values and their concerns are really irrelevant to the urban folks around the country,” Freemuth said.

The extent of federal land ownership in the West is often not well understood by people from other parts of the country, he said. According to a 2014 report by the Congressional Research Service, the federal government owns 27.4 percent of all U.S. land.

But the vast majority of that territory is concentrated in handful of Western states. According to the report, the federal government controls 84.9 percent of Nevada, 64.9 percent of Utah, 61.9 percent of Idaho, 61.2 percent of Alaska, 52.9 percent of Oregon and 48.1 percent of Wyoming.