He called us a week after his
terrible fall to report on the progress his Grass March/Cowboy Express
had made as it approached Washington, D.C. He talked about how he had
pushed himself clear from his horse when it tripped, but landed hard on
his head. He spoke clearly of the group’s hardships through heavy
thunderstorms, and expressed optimism that their message was being well
received.
Then, more than two weeks after the accident,
his son Travis reported he underwent surgery in Utah. Two days later
Grant succumbed to his injuries after miraculously seeing the march
through to its completion.
We offer our condolences to
his family, and are inspired by their unwavering faith through this
tragedy. They have lost a father, husband and grandfather, but the
community has lost a powerful advocate for justice. Grant died fighting
for the rights of ranchers to use the resources they had invested in.
Now
we can only look back fondly at the many visits Grant paid our
newspaper over the years, usually to let us know what he was planning
next in his never-ending battle against federal regulations. He fought
hard against unbeatable odds, but always with a wide smile on his face
as he approached the next challenge.
It all started half a
century ago when Congress began to designate the nation’s first
wilderness areas, including one right here in Elko County. Gerber stood
up for those in wheelchairs who would be denied access by restrictions
on motorized travel.
He continued to fight when federal
land managers ordered a rancher to remove a water pipe installed at
Kelly Spring, organizing citizens who replaced the pipe and sealed it
off with fence posts signed boldly with their names.
His
biggest battle came at the end of the millennium when a flood washed out
a road leading to a popular recreation site at Jarbidge. The Forest
Service placed a boulder in the road to keep traffic out, but Grant
helped organize a party to remove it. That battle over road rights
continues today.
When wildfires began consuming large
swaths of rural Nevada rangeland, Gerber fought against grazing
restrictions because of the fuel they were allowing to accumulate. At
this point he decided to use fire to fight fire, creating a character
called “Smoked Bear” whose goal was to save all of the animals being
destroyed by wildfires. Government agencies disagreed with his
conclusions, but Gerber had used their own statistics to support his
claims.
Next came the threat of a sage grouse listing
under the Endangered Species Act, and Grant was not one to sit idly by
as the federal government began sealing off land from productive use. He
organized projects to prove that more predator control was needed to
fight the decline in bird populations.
With all of this
activity we were surprised a few years ago when Grant visited us to
announce he would be running for county commissioner. He had decided to
work within the system as well as from the outside.
Whatever
problem surfaced on public land, Gerber would come up with a potential
solution and then struggle to make it work. For that reason, many
considered him an agitator. Yes, he loved a good fight, but his motive
was to serve the people whose livelihoods were gradually being
encroached upon through federal restrictions.
He
genuinely cared about the people who would not be able to enjoy Nevada’s
outback because of wilderness restrictions. He genuinely cared about
the small number of residents in Jarbidge whose livelihoods were
impacted by loss of access to campgrounds along South Canyon Road. And
he genuinely cared about ranchers who were losing the use of forage that
ended up feeding dangerous, pollution-causing wildfires.
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