People complain the federal government is seizing land from the citizen, but in the Chesapeake Bay region it’s very small. The feds own about 2.8% of the land in Maryland, and 9.9% in Virginia (Virginia has a lot of Civil War national parks).
Retired Stanford University History Professor David Kennedy looked at the numbers and created this map (click on map for larger view):
Map created in 2008
You’ll notice that the federal government owns a larger percentage of land in newer states. The state with the highest percent of fed-ownership is Nevada with more than 85%, followed by Utah and Alaska.
In our area, it’s mainly office buildings, historic parks and a few military facilities.
