O'Brien writes: "Not surprisingly, I guess, this 'grand bargain' proposes to
reward the Bundys of the West with the kind of frozen livestock grazing and
lack of national authority for which the Bundys thought they had to pick up
guns and occupy the Malheur Wildlife Refuge."
Ammon Bundy in Burns, Oregon. (photo: Rob Kerr/AFP/Getty Images)
Public Lands Initiative Takes an Oregon-Standoff Approach to Grazing
By Mary O'Brien, Salt Lake Tribune
31 January 16
Maybe it's that my children and I twice spent spring vacations at Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge in the early 1980s, when water was unusually
plentiful and the birds at dawn were a cacophony. Or that we hiked near the
refuge to see pre-dawn sage grouse males burbling like coffee percolators
with inflated chests while the females feigned disinterest.
And then, in 1983, there was the memorably titled book, "Sacred Cows at the
Public Trough," written by former Malheur Wildlife Refuge naturalists Denzel
and Nancy Ferguson. It was a ground-breaking book about, well, breaking of
the ground.
These many years later, we're still tied to Malheur's evocative, wide skies.
Several months ago we arranged to stay with friends at the refuge this May.
I'm looking forward to the staff in the refuge headquarters telling us how
the bird populations are doing.
But after living in Oregon for 24 years and working 10 years on eastern
Oregon public lands issues, including grazing, I moved to southeastern Utah.
Here in southern Utah, 97 percent of the three national forests' acreage is
open to livestock grazing under 31-year-old forest plans.
Last month, U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz handed Utahns and the
nation their discussion draft of a Utah Public Lands Initiative (PLI), which
would expand fossil fuel extraction, motorized recreation and compromised
wilderness on national lands in eastern Utah.
Not surprisingly, I guess, this "grand bargain" proposes to reward the
Bundys of the West with the kind of frozen livestock grazing and lack of
national authority for which the Bundys thought they had to pick up guns and
occupy the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The PLI would create a new kind of
"un-wilderness," tying the hands of land managers. In the grand bargain's
newly designated wilderness areas, National Conservation Areas, Special
Management Areas and Recreation Zones, existing livestock numbers would be
mandated to remain the same, or increase. In this new "wilderness," ranchers
could use ATVs to place feed and bulldozers to build new infrastructure. The
Forest Service would be barred from considering the continued existence, or
disappearance, of species or species habitat when making grazing decisions.
Sage grouse chicks scrawny from lack of bugs due to flowers having been
grazed? Bighorn sheep dying from contact with domestic sheep? The alpine La
Sal daisy exterminated from its only home in the world by exotic mountain
goats? Colorado River cutthroat trout eggs smothered by sediment from raw,
trampled creek banks? The public land managers would be prohibited from
taking any of these into account.
Before the gunmen occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge in January 2016, did they
know that there had been a successful collaboration between ranchers who
graze cattle on the refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
environmentalists?
As Colby Marshall, member of a ranching family that has long retained
grazing permits on the refuge, reports on a recently finalized comprehensive
conservation plan for the refuge, "Ultimately, at the end of the day,
ranchers and environmentalists all agreed it was excellent. What it did is
it provided flexibility for the public lands managers and the ranchers."
Flexibility for public lands managers? Down in Cedar City promoting his
grand bargain, Bishop crowed, "That's why in [my bill] I stripped out
anything that allowed the agencies to have any discretion. If there was
anything in there we took it out. That's the only way to give the people any
kind of control."
What people? Did Rep. Bishop know that in the last seven years in Utah, four
long-term grazing collaborations made up of people - including grazing
permittees, state and county grazing agency representatives, range
professors, conservation and wildlife groups and county commissioners - have
reached consensus (that means everybody agrees) on how to make sure
livestock grazing and wildlife species and aspen and science are able to
coexist? And that two more such collaborations are underway in Utah? That's
not a reasonable take on the meaning of "the people"?
Nothing, as we are learning with climate change, can be frozen in time. Not
permafrost, not national borders and not last century's livestock grazing
practices.
What we need now, more than ever, globally and locally, are disparate people
leaving their guns behind and agreeing to figure out how we all can live
together in this world, in this nation, on these public lands, in
wilderness, in southeastern Oregon, and in eastern Utah. All the people, as
well as all our relations living in these lands.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Ammon Bundy in Burns, Oregon. (photo: Rob Kerr/AFP/Getty Images)
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3468472-155/op-ed-public-lands-initiative-take
s-anhttp://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3468472-155/op-ed-public-lands-initiative-
takes-an
Public Lands Initiative Takes an Oregon-Standoff Approach to Grazing
By Mary O'Brien, Salt Lake Tribune
31 January 16
aybe it's that my children and I twice spent spring vacations at Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge in the early 1980s, when water was unusually
plentiful and the birds at dawn were a cacophony. Or that we hiked near the
refuge to see pre-dawn sage grouse males burbling like coffee percolators
with inflated chests while the females feigned disinterest.
And then, in 1983, there was the memorably titled book, "Sacred Cows at the
Public Trough," written by former Malheur Wildlife Refuge naturalists Denzel
and Nancy Ferguson. It was a ground-breaking book about, well, breaking of
the ground.
These many years later, we're still tied to Malheur's evocative, wide skies.
Several months ago we arranged to stay with friends at the refuge this May.
I'm looking forward to the staff in the refuge headquarters telling us how
the bird populations are doing.
But after living in Oregon for 24 years and working 10 years on eastern
Oregon public lands issues, including grazing, I moved to southeastern Utah.
Here in southern Utah, 97 percent of the three national forests' acreage is
open to livestock grazing under 31-year-old forest plans.
Last month, U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz handed Utahns and the
nation their discussion draft of a Utah Public Lands Initiative (PLI), which
would expand fossil fuel extraction, motorized recreation and compromised
wilderness on national lands in eastern Utah.
Not surprisingly, I guess, this "grand bargain" proposes to reward the
Bundys of the West with the kind of frozen livestock grazing and lack of
national authority for which the Bundys thought they had to pick up guns and
occupy the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The PLI would create a new kind of
"un-wilderness," tying the hands of land managers. In the grand bargain's
newly designated wilderness areas, National Conservation Areas, Special
Management Areas and Recreation Zones, existing livestock numbers would be
mandated to remain the same, or increase. In this new "wilderness," ranchers
could use ATVs to place feed and bulldozers to build new infrastructure. The
Forest Service would be barred from considering the continued existence, or
disappearance, of species or species habitat when making grazing decisions.
Sage grouse chicks scrawny from lack of bugs due to flowers having been
grazed? Bighorn sheep dying from contact with domestic sheep? The alpine La
Sal daisy exterminated from its only home in the world by exotic mountain
goats? Colorado River cutthroat trout eggs smothered by sediment from raw,
trampled creek banks? The public land managers would be prohibited from
taking any of these into account.
Before the gunmen occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge in January 2016, did they
know that there had been a successful collaboration between ranchers who
graze cattle on the refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
environmentalists?
As Colby Marshall, member of a ranching family that has long retained
grazing permits on the refuge, reports on a recently finalized comprehensive
conservation plan for the refuge, "Ultimately, at the end of the day,
ranchers and environmentalists all agreed it was excellent. What it did is
it provided flexibility for the public lands managers and the ranchers."
Flexibility for public lands managers? Down in Cedar City promoting his
grand bargain, Bishop crowed, "That's why in [my bill] I stripped out
anything that allowed the agencies to have any discretion. If there was
anything in there we took it out. That's the only way to give the people any
kind of control."
What people? Did Rep. Bishop know that in the last seven years in Utah, four
long-term grazing collaborations made up of people - including grazing
permittees, state and county grazing agency representatives, range
professors, conservation and wildlife groups and county commissioners - have
reached consensus (that means everybody agrees) on how to make sure
livestock grazing and wildlife species and aspen and science are able to
coexist? And that two more such collaborations are underway in Utah? That's
not a reasonable take on the meaning of "the people"?
Nothing, as we are learning with climate change, can be frozen in time. Not
permafrost, not national borders and not last century's livestock grazing
practices.
What we need now, more than ever, globally and locally, are disparate people
leaving their guns behind and agreeing to figure out how we all can live
together in this world, in this nation, on these public lands, in
wilderness, in southeastern Oregon, and in eastern Utah. All the people, as
well as all our relations living in these lands.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
