Federal Lands in the US

The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) - nearly 30% of its total territory. These federal lands are used as military bases or testing grounds, nature parks and reserves and indian reservations, or are leased to the private sector for commercial exploitation (e.g. forestry, mining, agriculture). They are managed by different administrations, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Department of Defense, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Bureau of Reclamation or the Tennessee Valley Authority.

I hadn't realized that the US government owned so much land.

Really though, it is just land in the west, as the 11 western most states in the continental US and Alaska account for 93% of all federal land. The government owns 54% of all land in those 12 states, compared with just 4% in the other states.

via Strange Maps and US General Services Administration