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...

The UK is on the brink of political chaos, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government arresting farmers, protesters, and even voters accused of "non-compliance" with Labour's increasingly unpopular policies. This crackdown began with Labour's new inheritance tax crackdown on farmland, forcing families to sell off their land just to pay the taxman. Over 300 farmers and protesters have been arrested, many without charge. Videos of tearful mothers, elderly landowners, and young agricultural workers being handcuffed and dragged away are now flooding social media, sparking outrage across the country. King Charles, known for his quiet diplomacy, has reportedly warned the Prime...

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...

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...

Wolf depredations on livestock in Idaho reached a record level during the past fiscal year, which ended June 30. From July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, Idaho Wildlife Services conducted 264 depredation investigations related to wolf complaints from 136 livestock producers in 17 counties. Of those 264 investigations, 175 involved confirmed wolf depredations, said Todd Grimm, the Idaho state director of Wildlife Services, which is a federal agency that helps solve conflicts between humans and animals. “Last year we had a pretty busy year,” he said during the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board’s Aug. 21 meeting. “The cattle guys...

Looks like the bird flu missed Mexico and is only impacting us here in America. What are the odds! American living in Mexico heads to the grocery store to show you their eggs. Completely packed full of eggs and a dozen eggs is only $2 in US Dollars “Eggs on eggs on eggs on eggs” This is why they need social media censorship. Their narratives and SCAMdemics completely fall apart ... While defending Amish farmer Amos Miller, @barnes_law discovered PA Dept of Ag head had ties to... Guess who? Bill Gates. What is Gates occupation? World population reduction. Every project...

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.

Here we go...again.. Here we go again. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has imposed a sweeping ban on poultry and dairy cattle exhibitions, this time citing fears of H5N1 avian influenza. If this feels like déjà vu, that’s because we’ve seen this playbook before. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government shut down businesses it arbitrarily deemed “nonessential,” crippling livelihoods and communities under the guise of public safety. Now, they are targeting farmers, youth organizations, and small-scale agricultural exhibitors. ... This isn’t just about bird flu—it’s about a growing pattern of overreach where freedom is sacrificed for an...

Investigators believe the 180 cattle, collectively, may have been stolen from several ranchers.. Investigators are working to determine if nearly 200 cattle that were reported missing southwest of Montrose were stolen. The Montrose County Sheriff's Office said roughly 180 cattle, collectively, are not accounted for by a number of ranchers. The cattle are missing from the Uncompahgre Plateau, where they graze during the summer months. “You can always lose some to predators, to accidents, to poisonous weeds, things like that. But the 180 is just far more than normal," said Montrose County Sheriff Chuck Searcy. “It's hard to believe that...

Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee met with the Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday to discuss potential reductions of the state’s wolf program.. As Colorado looks for ways to cut nearly $1 billion from its budget, some legislators are pondering whether pausing wolf reintroduction efforts could save the state $2.1 million per year. It was one of many options the Joint Budget Committee weighed during a budget hearing with the state’s Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday, Dec. 11. Funding for wolves After Colorado voters passed Proposition 114 in 2020 to reintroduce wolves in Colorado, the state’s wildlife agency has received...

Gov. Jared Polis is facing backlash for comments he made during the winter conference of Colorado counties, when he blamed ranchers for the cost of the wolf reintroduction program this year. The topic of wolves at the Colorado Counties, Inc. conference arose in response to Polis' comments about an ever-tightening state budget. The association represents 63 of the state's 64 counties. State economists have estimated that the 2025-26 state budget will be short about $1 billion due to lowering inflation and the end of billions in one-time federal money tied to the pandemic. "I've tried to bite my tongue and...

The leading bid for the first-of-its-kind facility in Gypsum that converted forest slash into electricity is from an Illinois real estate company.. The Eagle Valley Clean Energy biomass plant in Gypsum closed last month after its owners filed for bankruptcy protection. There are 7,000 tons of shredded forest slash at the facility. The leading bid for the biomass operation is a real estate company. The pioneering biomass plant in Gypsum — the first in the state to begin converting shredded beetle-kill trees into electricity — has shut down and its owner has filed for bankruptcy protection citing more than $40...

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,...

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...

The decades-long push led by tribal communities to remove four dams along the Klamath River reached another victory this week as crews began the project’s final stages, restoring historic water flows to the river for the first time in over a century. The fight to remove dams along the Klamath began over two decades ago, when poor water quality and river flows caused tens of thousands of the river’s fish, mostly Chinook salmon, to die in a massive fish kill in 2002. For thousands of years, Chinook salmon have been a fundamental source of physical, spiritual and economic sustenance to...

Ranchers across the U.S. have expressed outrage over the Forest Service prosecuting a South Dakota ranch couple for allegedly stealing public land. The feds, who showed up armed and in tactical gear, say a fence that’s been on the owners' land for 75 years crosses a boundary with federal grasslands. A South Dakota ranch couple is fighting federal indictments served to them by a U.S. Forest Service agent who allegedly showed up unannounced on their front steps — armed and in tactical gear. The agent was there to serve them with indictments in a modern-day range war between the ranchers...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will spend $5 million to vaccinate livestock workers against the seasonal flu in an effort to prevent possible interaction with bird flu, officials said today, July 30. If someone gets both the H5N1 (highly pathogenic avian influenza) and seasonal flu, the result could be “an exchange of genetic material” that could do what scientists call “reassortment” and the development of a new influenza virus, said Nirav Shah, the principal deputy director at CDC. Shah spoke to reporters in a call organized by the Health and Human Services Department. The $5 million will go...

Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash... John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include... John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance”...