Posted on 04/15/2014 2:34:42 PM PDT by Buchal
The saga of Cliven Bundy and his disputes with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been in the news recently, and many Oregonians cannot understand why rural folk all over the West identify with Mr. Bundy. A spokesman for his nemesis, the Center for Biological Diversity, summed up the urban case against Bundy, complaining that the BLM "is allowing a freeloading rancher and armed thugs to seize hundreds of thousands of acres of the people's land as their own fiefdom." But the Center for Biological Diversity has a proven history of lying about ranchers and grazing, and no rancher could possibly seize a vast 1,200-square-mile area of rangeland by running a few hundred cows on it.
Mr. Bundy lost all his court cases fighting the federal government, but few have bothered to explain what those cases were about. Under Nevada state law, livestock are free to wander the open range. The federal government, which acquired portions of what later became Nevada by the conquest of Mexico, decided that it didn't like Nevada's open range law and would charge for grazing. Naturally, over time, it raised the grazing fees so high as to drive most of the rangers out of business. And it began to impose absurd limitations on the number of cattle that could be grazed, ostensibly to prevent them from stepping on desert tortoises. Later, it closed the land to grazing entirely.
In truth, the federal government should not own the land at all. The United States promised, when it made Nevada a state, that it would admitted on an equal footing with the other states. The United States also promised to sell off the remaining public lands it owned in Nevada and pay 5% of the sale proceeds to Nevada to build public roads and irrigation systems.
That was back when we still had a Constitution that operated to constrain the federal government. Under the Constitution, the only land the United States was supposed to hold for the long term was to run "Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings". Nevada has passed a statute asserting control of the public lands held in violation of this design (NRS 321.5973), but the federal courts will not give this law any effect.
That is because the United States changed its mind. Residents of Eastern states, after admission to the United States, got their own land when the federal government sold it, and then turned around and screwed their Western neighbors by stopping the sales, conduct that an 1833 Congressional report had warned would be "a most revolting breach of good faith on the part of the United States." Mr. Bundy lost his federal cases because federal judges upheld that "revolting breach of good faith".
So under modern federal law, the United States owns roughly 80% of Nevada, and its highest priority for the land Bundy and his family ranched for generations is now to protect desert tortoises. Ironically, the BLM recently announced plans to slaughter hundreds of desert tortoises it had been maintaining on funds extracted from real estate developers in Nevada. Apparently, the federal planners hadn't anticipated that the pace of development might slow. Presumably the tortoises were removed from the wild, meaning that the entire Endangered Species Act developer racket not only accomplished nothing more than paying BLM salaries, it actually increased the pressure on tortoise populations.
Bundy also tried to point out that the Endangered Species Act is obviously unconstitutional, since Congress has power to regulate interstate commerce, not wandering turtles. But the courts will not enforce that part of the Constitution either, and have allowed the Endangered Species Act to expand far from its its original "Noah's Ark" mission into an expensive fraud. Here in Oregon, we shut down timber harvests based on the lie that spotted owls had to have old growth timber to survive, only to learn that we must now protect them by hiring owl assassins to kill their real enemies: competing owls with a different, barred feather pattern. The worst fraud was probably when biologists listed the Klamath River sucker fish to extract research dollars, and later claimed that Upper Klamath Lake had to be kept full to protect the suckers--even though that was when fish kills from algae growth usually happened. The sucker fraud continues, even though there are millions of suckers in lakes and ponds all over the Klamath area.
Low-information urban residents who believe the lies of the Center for Biological Diversity and its ilk are clueless about how the Endangered Species Act really works. In general, things that kill a whole lot of endangered species, like fishing for them, are allowed to continue, while things that environmentalists don't like, with only the tiniest risk of even injuring endangered species, are shut down. Rich and/or politically-connected groups can kill all the endangered species they want, but not the little people like Cliven Bundy.
So all in all, even though Cliven Bundy isn't the best poster child for a Sagebrush Rebellion, having lost his court cases and failed to pay his grazing fees, I want to recognize him for his public service in bringing these issues to public consciousness. As a Member of Congress, I would work to restore the Constitutional vision of limited federal government to return Nevada's land (and Oregon's land) back to those like Bundy with the gumption to work that land. Conservation is the wise use of natural resources, not a program to turn the rural West into a fiefdom for environmentalists.
These videos are for people who don't yet understand why Cliven Bundy broke his agreement with the BLM. They show why the BLM should not even be managing the public lands of Nevada or any other state.
1of3 Stephen Pratt speaking to Sheriffs at WSSA conference
2of3 Stephen Pratt speaking to Sheriffs at WSSA conference
3of3 Stephen Pratt speaking to Sheriffs at WSSA conference
Here's one that shows why the Sheriff of Clark County is duty bound to keep the BLM and all Federal agents from arresting Cliven Bundy.
Steven Pratt, Bound by Oath to Support THIS Constitution,/a>
“The most complete data is from the Beaver Dam Mountains. Woodbury and Hardy reported a tortoise population density of 150 per square mile in 1948. BLM reduced cattle grazing a few years later and eliminated cattle in 1970. Coombs reported a tortoise density of 39 per square mile in 1974. In these 26 years cattle use was reduced 100 percent and tortoise numbers were reduced 74 percent.
“These tortoises were doing so poorly a veterinarian, Dr. Jarchow, was consulted. He reported all six specimens were suffering from osteoporosis caused by a protein deficiency in their diet. Dr. Jarchow examined five specimens from the same mountains that shared their range with cattle. He reported these specimens were all healthy and well nourished.
“The historical record proves conclusively that tortoise thrive when cattle are on the range with them and without cattle grazing they are always malnourished and unhealthy and their numbers plummet.
http://www.vinsuprynowicz.com/?p=80
Today’s federal judges making these unconstitutional rulings are owned lock, stock and barrel by the progressive environmentalists (fascists) and their allies (Marxists) in this war against constitutional liberty.
Bttt.
I heard the Tortoises eat cow poop. I think there may be circumstantial evidence of this in the article...
Reminds me about the 1970's when the National Park Service contracted to remove the mountain lions (Pumas) from the Grand Canyon areas because they were picking on the deer. Guess what. About two years later the death rate of the deer skyrocketed because without the culling of the herds by the big cats, they were having all kinds of fun producing hundreds of babies. Suddenly the environment could not support the huge herds of deer and most starved to death.
The park rangers learned their lesson when the tourists started asking why there were so many skin and bones deer and dead ones everywhere.
I would imagine it is because the cattle are grazing down the grassy fodder causes it to refresh itself more often, thereby increasing the amount of food for the tortoise. And since a significant amount of undigested fiber is in the cow poop your theory may also play a big part in the equation.
It would be interesting to see if there are any records of the number of bison grazing in that area. If there was a significant number that would be the predecessor to the cattle and your idea might be correct.
Cliven Bundy says "I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing" and makes sovereign citizen arguments in court. It's hard to stand for the Constitution of a government you don't even recognize as existing.
As a lawyer, then you understand that the fed. gov’t is not bound to recognize any state law contrary to federal law. Further, US v. Gardner knocks down Bundy’s other arguments. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1061959.html
people are just as appauled over militarization and swat-teamed equipped NFS, BLM and Dept of Interior bullies. And the audacity of our government spending $4 million to collect $1 million ($966,000 of that to the contractor who provided paid rustlers to run cattle to death). Your views?
The hoofs of the cattle break the crusty sunbaked top layer of desert soil and leave depressions which become a collection point for blowing seeds. When it rains or there is sufficient moisture for heavy morning dew, the seeds hatch and new plant life starts. It is this plant life that is the diet of desert tortoises.
The cow manure is simply fertilizer for the plants and vegetation in the area.
you are a marxist . where in the Constitution does it say the Federal government can own most of the land in Nevada or that unelected government agencies can have armies and use them against citizens? prove all of these. you trust government don’t you socialist/democrat.
bttt,,, Thanks for getting the word out ,
Actually the main diet of Tortoise in animal dung. The Tortoise gets it water from the dung as dung is 80+ percent water.
This is an incomplete, and therefore misleading, statement.
When read with the preceding sentence, you will see that "the state in which the Same shall be" is referring to the land granted for the District of Columbia. The forts, Magazines, etc., are necessary to protect the seat of the federal government, and would necessarily come from the same states that provided the land in the first place.
I don't think that this is a general power of the federal government to take any land anywhere that they find needful, if it is near other land that they already have.
-PJ
Today’s news includes items that say the United States Postal Service-—USPS— is ordering large amounts of ammo.
WHY???
NO ONE has said it better.....
And dried out dung is/was used for campfires....has been for hundreds of years.
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