Free Republic

According to an email sent May 13, 2025, by Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Gibbs, Nicole Rosmarino is the sole finalist for the director of the State Land Board, which is the state’s second largest landowner with 2.8 million surface acres and 4 million mineral estate acres. Gibbs said, per statute, the board provides public notice for 14 days prior to a formal appointment which will occur at the next regularly scheduled public board meeting, which is June 11 and 12 in Denver. An email sent to DNR confirmed the hire Friday. The mission of the State Land Board...

Wolves in California are costing ranchers millions of dollars far beyond just the price of cattle killed, .. A Wyoming rancher says the secondary costs of predation are well-known here. ... As California’s wolf population expands, the predators there are costing ranchers millions — not just in value of the cattle killed, but through collateral effects as well ... one wolf can cause $69,000 to $162,000 in “direct and indirect losses from lower pregnancy rates in cows and decreased weight gain in calves,” .. Those results should come as no surprise to Wyoming ranchers, Jim Magagna, executive vice president of...

A top House panel that oversees public land policies is investigating five green groups that brokered a settlement with federal officials in the waning days of the Biden administration, forcing family-owned ranches to vacate their leases on federal property over environmental concerns, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Under the January 2025 settlement between the green groups, owners of 11 multi-generational ranches, and the National Park Service, 12 of the 14 existing organic dairies and cattle ranches located across Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California will be abandoned by early 2026. The agreement was made possible by the Nature...

Today, Congressman Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s, R-Colo., legislation to delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List and ensure that action is not subject to judicial review passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee. The Pet and Livestock Protection Act will restore authority back to state lawmakers and state wildlife officials to control the gray wolf population. H.R. 845 will now head to the full House of Representatives for a vote. “The damage to pets, livestock and wildlife from an unmanaged wolf population can no longer be ignored. The gray wolf has exceeded federal and...

"You never know what you're going to get every day when you get down here." ================================================================= Texas ranchers are facing devastating losses after fertilizer contaminated with dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances poisoned their livestock and land. A recent article in The Texas Tribune highlighted growing concerns about these toxic chemicals entering the food supply. What's happening? Multiple Texas farming families have discovered that their land and animals were poisoned by fertilizer containing PFAS, human-made chemicals found in everyday products. The fertilizer, made from processed sewage sludge called biosolids, was promoted as an environmentally friendly option for years. "This is destroying...

Gavin Newsom & his allies just forced 12 historic family farms & dairies out of Point Reyes National Seashore in California. They claim it’s about saving the environment — but the truth couldn't be more different. Here is the true story — and it's heartbreaking. 2/ For over 100 years, ranchers and dairy farmers have worked the land at Point Reyes. They built Marin’s organic food movement & supplied fresh milk to Californians. Now they’re being forced out — by environmental groups, the federal government, and Newsom’s political allies. ... 3/ When Congress created Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962,...

The Lake County (Oregon) Board of Commissioners has declared a public safety and livestock emergency in the wake of livestock depredations by wolf OR158. It is, according to Commissioner Barry Shullanberger, one of the first times such a declaration has been made. According to the declaration, OR158 is responsible for five confirmed calf kills and three probable kills in Lake County in less than 10 days. Efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to haze the wolf with a drone, which was ineffective. The declaration requests immediate assistance from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek for intervention...

There is a private property rights battle brewing in rural parts of southeastern Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma and portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska and five Tribal Nations. The U.S. Department of Energy has plans to establish the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors or NIETCs, in these areas and the corridors span five to 15 miles in width. If approved, in New Mexico about 2 million acres of mostly private property would be transferred to the control of the federal government potentially via eminent domain. In Colorado, farmers, ranchers and rural residents stand to lose control of 325,000 acres in...

An idyllic stillness swallowed Home Ranch on Friday, as there was little to disturb the oldest dairy ranch on the Point Reyes National Seashore. California quail fluttered their wings and scattered in the brush beside a dirt road leading into the historic complex containing several barns, a silver silo and a farmhouse with green window trims that predates San Francisco’s cable cars.

CHICAGO, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) feeder cattle futures reached life-of-contract highs, while live cattle futures hit multi-month peaks on Thursday, as meat packers struggled to find inventory, analysts said. CME March feeder cattle settled up 3.225 cents at 266.200 cents per pound, and all other contracts except January also reached lifetime highs. February live cattle futures ended up 2.000 cents at 193.600 cents per pound, having earlier reached their highest level since March 21. Beef packers are having significant problems finding enough animals to cover their production schedules for the next week, said Cassie Fish, analyst...

I have been reading the articles concerning Proposition 127 and how this undermines the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s ability to properly manage wildlife. I agree 100 percent. However, there is another insidious movement underway that will undermine both the CPW and hunting in a big way. The National Forest Service is quietly, but steadily closing off dispersed camping — camping in areas other than designated campgrounds. I experienced this in September on my muzzleloading deer/elk hunt in South Park. This will probably be the last tented hunting camp I will be able to do with my hunting partner. I am...

The vast majority of America’s meat supply comes from four major companies, leaving little room in the market for smaller farms to compete. JBS Foods, National Beef Packing Co., Tyson Foods, and Cargill combined hold 85% of the market, leading to the closing of thousands of family farms. “Any time something is consolidated … you’re going to deal with more issues, like cleanliness, with health issues for animals, because now you’re cramming them into smaller spaces. You’re just worrying about quantity over quality,” says Brooke Ence, co-founder of From The Farm. Growing up in a family of farmers and ranchers,...

National Public Radio knows who is driving climate change as an existential threat: men who eat meat. And they found the origins of the current crisis in a 2006 television ad for Burger KIng that heralded the fast food chain and its appetite-satisfying whopper as a source of masculine culinary delight totally unlike the small portions of vegetarian food offered by places where women like to frequent. That ad began running when Malcolm Regisford, whom NPR interviewed for the story, was 10 years old, Regisford saw this commercial often in between his cartoons. “Beef is marketed to men — steaks...

Decisions made contrary to the wolf plan and comments from the First Gentleman raise concerns.. Colorado ranchers and lawmakers have questioned how Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are making decisions about wolves since the animals were introduced to the state starting in December. Concerns have peaked in recent months, however, as wildlife officials have gone outside of recommendations in the Wolf Restoration and Management Plan, and have raised questions about whether Gov. Jared Polis is calling the shots on wolves. Sen. Dylan Roberts — who represents Senate District 8, which has been the epicenter of Colorado’s reintroduction efforts — asked...

Hidden deep within the new omnibus bill is a secret provision to allow the federal government to electronically track all cattle in the United States. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) warned about the hidden provision on X, stating that lobbyists will receive $15 million in taxpayer funds to unleash the electronic tracking grid on the nation’s meat-producing cows and bison. As stated directly from the omnibus, the agreement “directs the Department to continue to provide the tags and related infrastructure needed to comply with the Federal Animal Disease Traceability rule (9 CFR 86), including no less than $15,000,000 for electronic identification...

Idaho farmers are in danger of having their water shut off. The water shutoff order affects half a million acres of farmland and about 6,400 people who use the water. Without water, their farmland is worthless. The state of Idaho has put a water curtailment order, which is basically a water shutoff order on literally a half million acres of farmland. ‌ Many farming this land have already invested in thousands of acres, thousands of dollars per acre, to grow potatoes. It’s too late for them to survive without water. Why is the water being cut off? Essentially, this curtailment...

War on food is spreading in U.S. through land-use restrictions, geoengineering and waves of propaganda Remember, it really is all about depopulation The World Economic Forum warned us several years ago that its ultimate goal was to destroy the middle class. How else would you explain their slogan: “You will own nothing and learn to like it“? This mantra is playing out in real time in the state of Oregon, and other states, in various forms which we will get into in this article. Small farmers are under attack in the Beaver State, which has begun shutting down family farms...

Between 2017 and 2022, the number of farms in the U.S. declined by 141,733 or 7%.. Acres operated by farm operations during the same timeframe declined by 20.1 million (2.2%), a loss equivalent to an area about the size of Maine. Only 1.88% of acres operated and 1% of farm operations were classified under a non-family corporate farm structure. ... USDA defines a farm as an operation that produced and sold, or normally would have sold, $1,000 or more of agricultural products during the census year. While the number of farm operations and acres operated declined, the value of agricultural...

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a lack of farms throughout the country impacts families in more ways than one. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Illinois, and others discussed the state of farming in Illinois and elsewhere Monday in Kankakee. Vilsack told an agricultural panel that the country is losing farms in large quantities. "I was surprised to learn that we've lost 438,000 farms since 1981," Vilsack said. "Just to give you a sense of how many farms that is, it is every farm in Iowa today, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, South Dekota, Nebraska and...

The House Committee on Natural Resources held a legislative hearing on June 15 on HR 3397, sponsored by Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, to require the director of the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw the proposed conservation rule. In her prepared testimony, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told the committee that nearly 98% of BLM surface lands in South Dakota are grazed by permittees; her state hosts 76 actively producing oil and gas leases that cover 36,762 acres; and the acres managed by the BLM provide recreation opportunities. Noem said the proposed rule overemphasizes conservation rather than the economic needs...