Richard knight describes the public and private land in the west. which statement represents one aspect of this landscape? richard knight describes the public and private land in the west. which statement represents one aspect of this landscape? the private lands in the west have shallower soils and less water than nearby public land. if ranching operations fail, private ranch lands will revert to federal government ownership. the families that hold bureau of land management and us forest service grazing permits also own more than 100 million acres of private land. only a tiny percentage of private lands adjacent to public land are ranch lands.