[kindred]

[If given all the facts, most people would support neither the rancher’s position nor the enviro’s position.]

I don’t think that is true. If given all the facts, the majority of the not thinking people would see who the enviormentalists are and support the ranchers who grow the cattle that we ear in resteraunts and at home.
Most enviormentalists are marxist communists vegetarians who insist that all eat vege only and that is enough for me to despise them, not to mention every greenie I ever knew as a liberal communist.

[Ben Ficklin]

Most reasonably minded people don't object to a grazing leaseholder doing certain things on the lease to facilitate the use of the lease. The objections come as a matter of degree.

If you look at the details of the example used the article, most reasonably minded people are going to say that the leaseholder has gone too far.

This "going too far" lends credibility to the enviro's position. It also points to the underlying problem with grazing leases, which is that the lease takes on higher and higher value. And sometimes the lease has more value than the actual land that the rancher owns.

And another issue that has emerged is that of recreational use. A grazing lease entitles the leaseholder to the right of grazing, not the recreational rights. When a situation arises where the leaseholder is making more money operating a dude ranch and a hunting ranch than he is grazing, it has gone too far.