A Government Hostile to Ranching?

I am publicly apolitical to the greatest extent I can manage. But in the past I have written a little about Federal Government abuses of power when it comes to how an ignorant or even hostile bureaucracy treats cattle and other livestock ranchers. Such was the case with the Hages and the Hammonds, relatively unknown families in the horse industry. And now it seems the Government has it eyes set on Ace-Black Ranch which is run by Martin Black, a renowned horsemanship clinician, and his extended family.

But less than two months ago, 14 June 2021, five armed US Marshals and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents with search warrants showed up unannounced to inspect their property on Bruneau river. The pristine Bruneau River runs through the ranch, and the Ace Black is one of the oldest in ranches in Idaho: “This has been in the family since 1875, different branches of the family, my grandpa bought it in 1967, and then my Dad started buying from him thereafter and we started buying from him shortly thereafter,” said Terry Black.

After almost three days of the EPAs search, the inspectors abruptly packed up and left. They didn’t say what they found, or what warranted the search. On July 23rd the case was in Federal District Court in Boise. The Blacks were never told what they were charged with, but they have an idea. “Ace Black Ranches has changed our irrigation. We went from flood irrigation to center pivots, so that’s required us to change our roads. That's required us to do a little more gravel work to fill those roads and tracks to make our irrigation system work.”

Watch the video at the end of this article.

Readers can also go to this site for a compendium, with links, on the articles on the Hage family and the Hammonds who endured years of regulatory and judicial abuse from the Federal government.

This is not just a blip on Government actions, President Biden's nominee to serve as the head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) "collaborated with eco-terrorists" in a tree spiking plot before trading her court testimony for legal immunity, according to court documents reviewed by Fox News. In 1993, Biden's nominee to head up BLM, Tracy Stone-Manning, was granted legal immunity for her testimony that she retyped and sent an anonymous letter to the U.S. Forest Service on behalf of John P. Blount, her former roommate and friend, those documents reveal. The letter told the Forest Service that 500 pounds of "spikes measuring 8 to 10 inches in length" had been jammed into the trees of an Idaho forest. ~ Fox News, 16 June 2021

Note: Tree spiking is a dangerous and violent eco-terrorism tactic where metal rods are inserted into trees to prevent them from being cut down. The metal rods damage saws that, in turn, have severely injured people, such as a mill worker whose jaw was split in two from an exploding saw.

Stone-Manning, advocates that Americans undergo Chinese style population control in the name of environmental stewardship. According to the Daily Caller 25 June 2021, Stone-Manning featured a shirtless American baby in an ad for her graduate thesis declaring the child an “environmental hazard.” If confirmed as Secretary of the BLM, Stone-Manning would oversee 155 million acres of grazing land for livestock nationwide, about the size of Arizona and New Mexico. Her position on grazing? “It is overgrazed. Most likely, the grasses won’t grow back, because the topsoil took flight,” Stone-Manning contends. “Worse still, the government encourages this destruction. It charges ranchers under $2 a month to graze each cow and its calf on public land — your land.”

I was an Army Range Rider charged with providing law enforcement coverage in 1.2 million acres of land, much of it owned by the BLM and leased to the US Army. This land included 15 grazing units which the BLM leased to ranchers. I was present at the bidding and even the most dogged grazing units went for much more than $2 an acre...some for $17 an animal unit month...and these are 2008 figures. And use of those grazing units were tied to a maximum number of pairs. So it is misguided at best to believe the ranchers are making their living off the backs of tax payers.

Two things the relatively uneducated public should understand about ranchers grazing on public lands is that these ranchers are best stewards of the land - they not only practice low stress stocksmanship, but low impact use of their deeded land and the land they lease from the US Government agencies. Leased grazing units are substantially better off land health and sustainability wise, than land that has been prohibited for use. The second thing is that ranchers and sometimes the same family have been leasing federal land for many decades and in some cases before the US Government claimed that land and imparted controls.

I really don't know what to tell people other than to get educated on the issues and write their legislators with their concerns. America was settled by immigrants who came here for two primary reasons: 1 - for religious freedom, and 2 - an ability to own property and prosper. Both which were largely denied in the countries they came from. We sure as hell can't afford to lose those God given rights.

New Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, Rides to Work on Day One

Largely from an article posted by CNBC. Well, that's one way to make an entrance. On his first day as Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke rode a horse to work. While wearing a hat. With an escort from the United States Park Police. According to the Interior Department, his ride took place from the National Mall, where the National Park Service has stables, to the Interior Department's main building, located just off the Mall. He was then greeted by more than 350 federal employees. There, a veterans song was played on a hand drum by a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, who is from Montana's Northern Cheyenne tribe.

Also part of the welcome, former acting Interior secretary Jack Haugrud, greeted Zinke on the steps. Zinke accepted an invitation from the Park Police to "stand should-to-shoulder with their officers on his first day at Interior, the eve of the Department's anniversary," Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said. Zinke, who previously served in the U.S. House and as a Montana state senator, was confirmed by the Senate as Interior secretary on Wednesday. As a fifth-generation Montanan, born in Bozeman and raised in Whitefish, who is also the first person from the state to serve on a presidential cabinet, perhaps it should be no surprise that he's starting off his time at Interior in such a manner.

Zinke was a US Navy SEAL from 1986 until 2008, and retired with the rank of Commander. As a Navy SEAL, Zinke earned two Bronze Stars for meritorious service in a combat zone, four Meritorious Service Medals, two Joint Service Commendation Medals, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, and an Army Commendation Medal. He was the first Navy SEAL to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served as a member on the Natural Resources Committee and the Armed Services Committee. As a member of Congress, Zinke supported the use of troops in the Middle East and has fought against the Affordable Care Act and environmental regulation.

President Trump nominated Zinke to be his Secretary of the Interior. Part of that selection has to be due to Zinke breaking with most Republicans on the issue of transfers of federal lands to the states, calling such proposals "extreme" and voting against them. In July 2016, Zinke withdrew as a delegate to the Republican nominating convention in protest of a plank in the party's draft platform which would require that "certain" public lands be transferred to state control. Zinke said that he endorses "better management of federal land" rather than transfer.

On Feb 28th, 2017, Trump issued an executive order instructing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers to rely on a 2006 opinion from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for guidance on how to determine which waterways fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the legislation under which the waters of the U.S. rule was issued. The Clean Water Act was intended to prohibit polluting discharges into the nation’s “navigable waters”, and says that the EPA can regulate “navigable waters” -- meaning waters that truly affect interstate commerce. But a few years ago, the EPA decided that “navigable waters” can mean nearly every puddle or every ditch on a farmer's land, giving them statutory authority to punish farmers and ranchers from collecting rain water run off, repairing or improving dirt stock tanks, and the like. In fact, in one case in a Wyoming, a rancher was fined $37,000 a day by the EPA for digging a small watering hole for his cattle.

The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers lost several court cases over their zealous enforcement of their interpretation of the CWA regulation. Part of what kept the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers going back at farmers and ranchers was that there is no punishment or penalties for losing in court. Some of the EPA regulations over challenging the agencies decision relating to fining you for your stock tanks repairs or rain run off diversion was heavy application fees, long wait times all while your fines compounded.

I don't much like the idea of the Federal Government owning a high percentage of western lands but I am likely more in the Zinke camp as to not being a fan of releasing that land to the states,...just desire better management and much fairer treatment to the farmers and ranchers. I have faith in Secretary Zinke working with President Trump to curtail expansive Federal agency power and regulations and find a good balance between effective federal management and supporting freedom and property rights.