The Ranch Davidians: Grazing controversy shines floodlight on growing distrust of government

The Augusta Chronicle ^ | April 19, 2014 | Editorial Staff

[Cen-Tejas]

Before the cowboys advanced on the feds, who just warned they would be shot if they did advance, they all stopped in a line and said a prayer with many fully believing they were going to die.

Now, what the difference between the fishermen and the cowboys is is hard to say. But, this is where are. Simply put, “some of us are going to die”. I don’t know if I will even live that long. But, in the American Revolutionary War Americans lost 25,000 dead. 8,000 of that were in battle and 17,000 to “other causes”.

I think the Cowboys, probably to a man, believed in this clip from Open Range:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNSg8qFlCBI

[VerySadAmerican]

And naturally the SC will determine what is a ‘real’ militia.

[VerySadAmerican]

The Texas State Guard is a volunteer organization and no member is paid. And they aren’t allowed to carry weapons in an official capacity. I have a feeling that candidate is trying to find something to gin up support with the Tea Party. Is it Dan Patrick?

[EricT.]

Ranchers have a vested interest in not destroying the land they graze their cattle on. If it won’t feed any cows next year, they don’t stay in business.

I’d put my trust in a cattle rancher before a militarized bureaucrat in Washington to manage the land well.

[Man from Oz]

Read up on the feral pony population explosion on public lands and tell me again about what an appropriate number of cattle should be on public lands.

MFO

[Georgia Girl 2]

“The thing is, we suspect the government and media elites, if they’re paying any attention to this powder keg at all, likely don’t get it.”

I believe this is true. The govt does not understand how ticked off people are.

The N GA mountains are also a powder keg right now. Already some face offs with the Feds.

[Red Steel]

This editorial staff gets it.

[TomServo]

Just curious- where? Spent a long weekend in Blue Ridge a few months ago. Same area?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Don’t know about the Blue Ridge area.

[TomServo]

Well, where in N GA were you talking about then?

[GladesGuru]

Ranching cattle is like farming land, and I refer to Jefferson’s “Were we told by Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want for bread.”

Substitute “BLM” for Jefferson’s ‘Washington” and it is clear we shall soon want for beef.

[GladesGuru]

“Enviros want the number to be zero. Ranchers want the number set high.”

Baaad argument.

Ranchers can not afford to abuse the range land which supports their cattle.

Why?

‘Cause calves are born in spring, when there is lots more grass/water than in the fall. Why have calves born if there is not going to be sufficient food for them?

Ranchers determine range capacity more accurately than Gubment Trough Feeders beause the rancher has a reality check in the form of salable cattle. Bad decisions = fewer (or no) cattle to sell.

The Gubment Trough Feeder will be overpaid by the taxpayers regardless of what happens on the land “managed” by said Trough Feeders.

[kiryandil]

It’s a well-known fact in the West that for much of the 20th century the BLM and Forest Service were in bed with local cattlemen and lumber companies, just as it appears they are now in bed with enviros. Neither is appropriate.

Actually, there IS a large difference in those two positions.

Back when the BLM and Forest Service were in bed with local cattlemen and lumber companies, a government job wasn't a Golden Sinecure. Now that the Left has taken over most of the government alphabet agencies and made "government service" a rather lucrative profession, including retirement (quite young & with sweet perks), this has changed things. In this instance, it appears as though the New Left in the BLM (immediately after Bill Clinton's ascension in 1993) used another Lefty in academia to justify their "new" position on grazing.

(I'll point out here that the Left has also taken over most of the universities and implemented the same "rape & pillage of the taxpayer" tactics used by their governmental brethren.)

Vin Suprynowicz reveals the connection in 'The more cows, the more tortoises' (June 22, 2008)
http://www.reviewjournal.com/vin-suprynowicz/more-cows-more-tortoises

"The following quotation is from Kristin Berry's 'Tortoises for Tomorrow':

" 'Long-time desert residents in California notes extraordinary densities' (in the early thirties ... when cattle numbers peaked) 'that could have been as high as 2,000 per square mile.'

"A member of the survey party in Antelope Valley in 1933 saw over 100 tortoises in one place at one time. He told Kristin Berry that tortoises 'were everywhere ... all over the ground' (and so were cow pies.)

"From the early thirties to the mid eighties the number of cows grazing on federal range was reduced about 90 percent. ... From the early thirties to the mid eighties tortoise densities declined from 2,000 per square mile to 65 i.e. 97 percent (Medica, oral communication) in response to reduced cattle grazing. Kristin Berry used this drastic reduction in tortoise population to get the desert tortoise listed as an endangered species. Then she used this listing to 'get rid of the cows.' Mission accomplished.

So, who IS "Kristin Berry"?

She's an old "tortoise-hugger" who looks to have been part of the Left's Long March through the universities (yep, she's a 1972 PhD out of the one & only Berzerkely):

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 1972
• M.A., Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 1968
• B.A., Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 1964

PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES AND SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEES

• American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
• Ecological Society of America
• Herpetologists' League
• Research Society of America, Sigma Xi
• Society for Conservation Biology
• Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
• Southern California Academy of Sciences

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Research Wildlife Biologist, Station Mgr., USGS, Western Ecological Science Center, Box Springs Field Station, Riverside, CA, Feb 1997-Present
• Research Wildlife Biologist, USGS, Western Ecological Science Center, Riverside Field Station, Riverside, CA, Nov 1993-Feb 1997
• Staff Supervisor and Research Scientist, Research Branch, Desert Biology US Bureau of Land Management, Riverside, CA, 1988-1993
• Leader: Desert Tortoise Res. & Monitoring Prog., US Bureau of Land Mgt., Riverside, CA, 1983-1988
• Coordinator: Research, Studies, and Monitoring, US Bureau of Land Management, Riverside, CA, 1980-1983
• Staff Leader for Wildlife, CA Desert Plan Prog., US Bureau of Land Management, Riverside, CA, 1974-1980

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Behavioral ecology of vertebrates
• Conservation biology
• Cumulative effects
• Desert Ecology
• Ecotoxicology
• Environmental impacts
• Invasive species ecology
• Monitoring methodology
• Natural areas and preserves
• Population biology
• Species/Population management
• Threatened and endangered species

BTW - she's hasn't changed her tune about the poop-eating tortoises, "expert" though she is...

[kiryandil]

Before the cowboys advanced on the feds, who just warned they would be shot if they did advance,

Hey! That didn't happen in the Wikipedia article!

**snicker**

[kiryandil]

The Gubment Trough Feeder will be overpaid by the taxpayers regardless of what happens on the land “managed” by said Trough Feeders.

Right. And "domestic terrorists" from another of Lord Harry Reid's alphabet agencies will jam automatic weapons in your peasant face to extract said overpay...

[jonrick46]

You are spot on! You have hit a raw nerve when you brought up Comcast. I know about Brian Roberts too, that Obama loving runt son of Ralph Roberts. The father Ralph Roberts is actually not too bad. However, he seems out of touch and just not with it. It’s his Lefty son who has taken the company off to the fantasy land of the Unicorn Farm. Hence, we have Comcast’s hand on NBC Universal (and MSNBC) and now, its latest, Time Warner Cable.

[Cen-Tejas]

Yes, and they need to be called out publicly as many times as possible and the temperature raised in their world if conservatism is to ever push these liberals,back to,their side of the river.

[GOPJ]

We could change 3 words about the Supreme Court too - make it so they ‘serve three years’... So few words... what’s the problem, right?

[GOPJ]

I feel powerful democrats have an eye on that land for development... that's why the other families were dumped. Democrats use intimidation ... in this case to steal land from everyday Americans.

[Sherman Logan]

Just another example of range management decisions based on politics rather than on science.