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Welfare Ranchers Desperate to Destroy Public Wildlife Habitat

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Source:  by Dean Ellis (less headlines) as published at the Capitol Press

Subsidized Cow Grazers Want to Take More Land from Wild Horses and Burros

Privately owned welfare cattle being herded onto public land and wild horse habitat ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Privately owned welfare cattle being herded onto public land and wild horse habitat ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

MELBA, Idaho — A local rancher has donated a registered Angus heifer that he will sell at auction to raise money for a pending legal battle over an issue industry leaders fear could significantly reduce public lands grazing in the West.

South Mountain Ranch co-owner Matt Duckett hopes to sell the animal several times during his ranch’s annual production sale Feb. 11. He will donate the proceeds to help offset legal costs in the so-called Owyhee 68 case.

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in 1999 ordered the BLM’s Owyhee field office in southwestern Idaho to rewrite 68 grazing permits that it renewed in 1997. Winmill’s decision to void the permits was the result of a lawsuit by Western Watersheds Project, which argued that the permits weren’t properly analyzed according to the National Environmental Policy Act.

The new permits were issued throughout 2013 and in most cases reduce grazing by 30-50 percent, according to Duckett and Idaho Cattle Association officials.

“(Ranchers) basically have to cut their cow herds in half to meet the requirements,” Duckett said. “Most businesses can’t cut their revenue in half and stay in operation.”

The decisions are being appealed by the ICA and Owyhee Cattlemen’s Association. WWP is also appealing them and the grazing reductions won’t go into effect until the appeals are resolved.

The 68 permits include 120 grazing allotments and affect hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

While the impact to Owyhee ranchers is significant, the BLM’s decisions could also set precedence for new grazing permits throughout the West, said ICA Executive Vice President Wyatt Prescott.

Prescott said ICA officials believe BLM reduced grazing to try to avoid litigation from WWP.

“If that is allowed to happen, the BLM could apply that model to many more permit renewals to come,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve taken such a strong stance on this issue.”

Heather Feeney, a spokeswoman for BLM’s Idaho office, said the agency did not base its decisions on an effort to avoid litigation.

Winmill ruled that the field office didn’t adequately analyze the permits under NEPA and ordered it to go back and conduct a NEPA analysis in the process of considering the renewal of the permits, she said…(CONTINUED)

Click (HERE) to read the rest of the story and to comment directly at Capitol Press

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23 replies »

  2. Hang on….I have to dab my eyes with a tissue….this Poor Welfare Rancher…who receives money from the Farm Bill for anything including blowing his nose, Money from the Farm Bureau if any of the cattle he has insures dies, Money he saves from welfare ranching instead of being like MOST American cattlemen across the REST of the States OWN their own land or pair fair market value for the lease on the lands….I have to dab my eye that this poor fella has to cut his herd in half as a businessman……cause you know not many other businesses actually lost revenue and were forced to cut back during the economic downturn or had to relocate because they no longer had a location for their small businesses…..I have to shed a tear for the fact they have to save their money and sell a single cow repeatedly…..Oh, the tears…..no, I am not crying for this guy….I am crying that this is the State of the Welfare Cattle Ranchers who just demanded cutbacks for the Snap or Food Cards of America’s children, who hire people for the cheapest rate they can and complain because they NOW have to play by the rules and increase the wages and treat them like people. I am so sick of the taking of horse land and then they INSULT people’s Intelligence by being so stingy with their Dam@! money they pretend they have to “raise” the money…..This is not dignity, this is incomprehensible actions, they are playing the Judge’s sympathies. The fact is that small businesses have unexpected issues every day and they have to adjust the best they can or try another line of work. That’s what these people aren’t used to hearing. I am sure somewhere in the Farm Bill the Central and Eastern Cattle men and Farmers are sick of being screwed! What about them? They don’t get to welfare ranch…..the horses are losing land and the ranchers forget this isn’t even about horses……not alone. This is about America spent their own dollars and they began Farm Aid, celebrities, and people in positions of power worked until they were so tired they literally dropped, and they would do it again. They SAVED these family farms for MOST of the Country and then this is how these people behave…..Killing horses brutally at slaughter, removal for slaughter, MORE MORE MORE free land when they have the resources to pay. Beef at an all time high in 2014, prices rising due to the demand from China again. The feeder calves are high, the prices per pound beef, cheese and dairy are higher than ever….these people raising these cows need to get a grip….The Old West got new technology and still bully, play the heartstring like a violin, cry for money, demand it really, rail against horses and I am sick of it…. The rest of them are paying their own way-what about the REAL cattlemen who own/lease land not a part of welfare ranching, they have paid their dues, shouldn’t they be offended? This IS America, which is why they are taught to NOT do this, but they still do. So sorry, the tears? Oh they are for the horses who need their land back. Equality in America-let them increase what they pay or dump Welfare Ranching!

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  3. I’m surprised to hear this, frankly. Ag industries have a stranglehold on Idaho politics, and ag and killing industries (outfitters, hunters/trappers) are best buddies with BLM and USFS — actually with the whole federal wildlife “management” infrastructure. And of course these same interests have the state agencies and wildlife “management” personnel in their back pockets. The Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission, a state advocacy agency for ranchers, puts out all kind of spin to “promote public support of livestock.” Thus I am surprised that there has been any challenge to the grazing permits. I am delighted.

    Kudos to Western Watersheds!

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    • And the whistleblowers are beginning to blow. God Bless them. We now have some interested Congresspersons who question and are investigating the rampant USDA-WS’ wildlife killing in behalf of Big business – four million wild creatures killed intentionally in the USA in 2014 by the WS in 2014 alone using snares, traps, poison, guns, dogs, and bombs. Yes, bombs.

      Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

      Who killed the horses before 1971, who are killing the horses now, and who is proposing their death in the future? I just read somewhere that the burros are being used for target practice. May the “Horse Haters” reap what they sow.

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  4. Cattle/sheep are a cover……they want to control water and other extraction resources on those permits, mostly through sub leasing.

    The wild equine holocaust is to stall and blame the equines for the destruction done by water diversion and extraction by Man. Oh, and many advocates believe the wild equines are the proverbial “canaries in the coal mine” scenario. Dead deer or elk around a contaminated stream or watering hole, for most not a big deal; dead wild horses and burros….A.BIG DEAL!

    I love WWP. I just wish they would do more for the wild equines. DOI and State’s appear to be scared $h*tless of them. Wish it were more and WWP would make those evil entities feel one tenth the pain they cause our wild equines and other wild life.

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    • “Analyzing the long-term effects of grazing is beyond the scope of this analysis. Note that the BLM is currently re-evaluating grazing levels on 16 planning units in six western states.” This is a response to several of Western Watersheds comments! Possibly extending the allotments to 20 years is how they are re-evaluating the grazing levels, right??????? It seems no one wants this transmission line running through or over their homes, pastures, land, etc., and honestly I understand their fears. I wouldn’t want it either – but putting it through “desert that no one is using” doesn’t really solve the problem either. Its about time our government stopped selling out our public lands & listened to the people who actually “own” it!

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    • Just what exactly are these people being paid subsidies for? Doesn’t make much sense that over half of this town’s population is being subsidized.

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  8. “(Ranchers) basically have to cut their cow herds in half to meet the requirements,” Duckett said. “Most businesses can’t cut their revenue in half and stay in operation.”

    I don’t understand how an enterprise almost completely underwritten by the Federal government can be considered a ‘business’, when the inherent risks of such are borne by the taxpayer and not the permitee.

    Public lands ranchers refuse to allow adjustments of grazing fees to reflect the economy or view the ranges as a finite resource, that without allowances for some kind of recovery, those ranges and water will cease to function.

    And conveniently forget that grazing leases themselves are a privilege, not a right.

    Everyone in the Real World has to make adjustments for the ebb and flow of resources; why should Public land usage for profit be any different?

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    • Private businesses aren’t paid for by US- the taxpayers, though, are they? These allotments are not owned by these ranchers (businesses?) – yet can be used as collateral for loans? This doesn’t sound exactly legal. Plus using that range and not allowing it to recover – or rotating the pastures (as most farmers do) that’s just not good stewardship of our lands.

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      • Sounds like a basis for a lawsuit. Part of that class action that is beginning to raise its righteous head, don’t you think? How illegal and corrupt they all are!

        As long as the courts and the Fourth Rail Media remain uncorrupted, correct?

        So where then does that leave us?

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    • I’m dubious about the claim they will have to cut their “revenue” in half by reducing their herds by half. They can keep the same number of cattle, the difference is they will just have to buy feed for them in an open market.

      The choices they make are their own. So any rancher who had a fair market price for his cattle or sheep could afford to buy the feed for them at fair market value as well. Subsidized grazing forever and ever Amen is not a valid or realistic business model.

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      • What happened to the recent statistics that the amount of beef being consumed has decreased? Or is that only domestic consumption?

        What will it take to go back to the original law – 1971?

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    • I was reminded elsewhere that these are mostly “paper cows” anyway; the allotment allowances are not usually maxed out, so reducing the allowed AUMS doesn’t make the impact some are suggesting.

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  9. It’s such a perfect plan, isn’t it. Let the rancher get rid of the WH&B and then get rid of the ranchers. Then, what’s left America’s Public Lands can be turned into a giant industrial park…owned by foreign corporations.

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  13. Proposal! Let’s start a Rain Dance. A spontaneous, continuous Rain Dance – pray, affirm, chant, vibrate, vision, love, and dance; let’s ask for rain and for good for the horses, for the animals, for the people, for the planet. Let’s save ourselves. That spirit which surrounds our horses will lead us.

    It is said that one percent of a population meditating together for good can change the whole population for good. What if we were to try.

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