Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Rancher calls new public lands plan retaliation

Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy claims “the Feds” are retaliating against his family with a wide-ranging public lands plan that would blanket a swath of Southern Nevada with environmental protections, including much of the Gold Butte range around his 160-acre ranch. “As proposed nearly 3 million acres in Southern Nevada will be locked away from the people. This includes most uses on the land,” such as recreational, agriculture — including ranching — “or otherwise,” the Bundy family said in a blog post Sunday. The Bureau of Land Management put out its draft Resource Management Plan and impact statement for review on Oct. 9. The comment period will close Jan. 7 after a series of public meetings set to begin Nov. 3. “I can’t get too excited about it,” Bundy said by telephone Monday. “What it amounts to is they’re going to treat this whole Southern Nevada area like wilderness. It’s a stricter rule for land use. It’s policing power is what they’re after,” he said. His wife, Carol Bundy, said she feels “like they’re trying to surround us by controlling all the land. People should know they’re doing this without the knowledge of the people who use it.” Before the standoff there were about 1 million acres designated as critical to the environment in Southern Nevada, but the draft plan proposes adding 1.8 million acres for protection. “This is a direct assault on the State of Nevada. It is also a deliberate retaliation against the people for standing against the horrific action of several federal agencies at the Bundy ranch,” the Bundy family blog post says. “The boldness of the federal government’s timing and action on these matters are astonishing,” the blog reads. “They are again making a clear case that they are willing to use federal power to punish the local people.”...more

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