The story keeps changing, from “grazing fees” to “protecting” the desert tortoise (which the BLM has been euthanizing due to high numbers according to them). I always assume the feds are not telling the truth.
Oh, so do I. But that's an assumption, not a guarantee.
If he's not squeaky clean, the MSM will use that to clobber him and make him out the bad guy who deserves what he gets.
I'm not saying that's right, it's just the way it is.
Maybe that's why the more Conservative DC politicians are wary.
I'd be surprised if they aren't checking into it at the level of staffers, though.
That's what this is really about.
excerpt from 2013 article
Desert tortoise faces threat from its own refuge as BLM closes Vegas rescue center
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, August 25, 3:56 PM
LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.
Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas.
But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it.
Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
The Bureau of Land Management has paid for the holding and research facility with fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat on public land. As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the center’s $1 million annual budget.
Housing never fully recovered, and the federal mitigation fee that developers pay has brought in just $290,000 during the past 11 months.