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I’m trying to keep up, too, but I’m confused. What was in this new BLM contract that he objected to? Was it an increase in fees? That seems to me like a landlord raising the rent and if the tenant can’t pay, he moves somewhere else. Or was there something else? And what’s with all this turtle nonsense? This story just kind of blew up on my radar recently and I’m kind of playing catch up.

What was in this new BLM contract that he objected to? Was it an increase in fees? That seems to me like a landlord raising the rent and if the tenant can’t pay, he moves somewhere else. Or was there something else? And what’s with all this turtle nonsense? This story just kind of blew up on my radar recently and I’m kind of playing catch up.

They wanted to reduce his cattle population to the point where his ranch was no longer economically viable.

Coincidentally, the trouble started in 1993, right after Bill Clinton took office.

But I'm sure there was no connection...

Bundy's grazing contract expired in 1992. In 1989, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had declared the desert tortoise an endangered species.

The new grazing contract offered Bundy had an increased AUM grazing fee in accordance with federal grazing rates for 1993, rates that were still subsidized and a quarter or less of private grazing rates.

The new grazing contract also limited the number of livestock that Bundy could graze on the old Bunkerville allotment to 150 because of the 'endangered species,' while Bundy was then grazing approximately 900 cattle on the allotment.

Bundy refused to sign the grazing agreement. He sent Clark County a payment for grazing eighteen cattle for a year at the BLM grazing rate. Clark County refused the payment on the grounds that the land was federal land.

he moves somewhere else.

Well, Bundy has and hasn't. He's still grazing on the old Bunkerville allotment, but is also grazing on new property, included developed areas within the National Park Service's Lake Mead National Recreation Area.