Horseback protest targets BLM, but environmentalists say whoa

They're a dozen men and women riding horseback on a modern-day cross-country cattle drive, but with fistfuls of petitions instead of a herd of steers. Their wide-brimmed hats tipped low against the sun's glare, they're riding from Bodega Bay, Calif., to Washington. They call themselves the "Grass March Cowboy Express" and they want the Bureau of Land Management to remove "an abusive federal employee" and "end BLM tyranny."  The group contends that Doug Furtado, manager of the bureau's Battle Mountain District, has unfairly blocked their legal right to graze their cattle on federal land in central Nevada. But environmentalists have lashed out at protesters as a selfish, entitled group with no business running private cattle on public lands, especially during years of prolonged drought. Six months after Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's well-publicized face-off with bureau officials over grazing rights on public lands north of Las Vegas, tension still exists between many cattlemen and the federal government. Organizers of the Cowboy Express, which started in Bodega Bay in Northern California on Sept. 26, say they have no connection to Bundy. They just want the Bureau of Land Management off their backs. But in a message to supporters, one nonprofit criticized the riders for singling out Furtado because he had "the temerity to order drought-induced reductions in commercial grazing." The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility also mocked the protesters for their use of the hard-bitten cowboy image often seen in cigarette commercials. "The Marlboro Man evoked iconic cowboy imagery to sell cancer sticks," it said in a news release. The "stunt called the 'Cowboy Express' also seeks to harness this romantic image to mask deeply selfish and destructive ends." Katie Jones, a central Nevada horse trainer on the protest ride, said her group was being supported by ranchers along the way, many of whom joined the ride for a few miles. Speaking this week from Russell, Kan., Jones said the group was traveling 180 miles a day and planned to arrive in Washington on Oct. 16 to meet with Western lawmakers. Along with calling for Furtado's dismissal, she said, the group wanted to publicize the plight of Western ranchers to people on the East Coast "who have no idea we're out there." She criticized the harsh tone of environmentalists. "There's no need to cut us down like that," said Jones, 32, whose husband is also on the ride. "We're as homegrown as they come. We produce food for people. I just wish they'd open up their eyes to that."...more