It depends on the situation. Access could come in the future, or it could be used in a swap that benefits access.
This was a large landlocked tract, but BHA (and many others) worked hard and eventually lots of collaboration and generosity came together securing access to awesome country for all of us:
Public Access to New Mexico Wilderness Achieved
Lots of people wanted the Saboinoso sold off too because of its access issues, but I’m glad it wasn’t.
The real work seems to have been done by the Wilderness land trust Wyss foundation. To my knowledge, the sabinoso was never listed for disposal..
WRO,
Also the horse creek easement agreement would pull together lots of those smaller tracts in Eastern MT.
You can see the map in the draft EA:
http://fwp.mt.gov/fwpDoc.html?id=83958
A few small pieces of ground were brought together by the tax payer footing the bill.
That doesn't change the status of pieces like 400 acre timber patch completely in held in by 2 private ranches on my buddies place, all of various 40 to 160 acre chunks buried in private timberland's and ranches across the west. As for trading stock, everytime the goverment steps up to the trading block, we as public land users get screwed. Literally every trade deal in Oregon I've seen has involved us getting screwed and taking the short end of the stick.