The Nature Conservancy Acquires Diamond A Ranch Easement Today local ranchers and state biologists applauded the conservation of approximately 12,349 acres of the New Mexico ranching landscape. The Diamond A Ranch (which includes land formerly known as the “Gray Ranch”) is located in the southwest corner of New Mexico. The ranch is operated by a long-time ranching family and is owned by the Animas Foundation, a non-profit that seeks to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the Animas region. With a lead grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Nature Conservancy recently purchased a conservation easement, or voluntary land preservation agreement, from the Animas Foundation for $2.3 million. The Animas Foundation contributed over $400,000 in value to the easement transaction. This action supports the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) – which identifies the region as one of the top three habitat conservation priorities in the state. Edward Elbrock, a lifelong resident of the area and neighboring rancher said, “I’m just so glad that the Animas Foundation will now be the owner of this property and that it’s in conservation easement, so it’s going to stay as open country and never be subdivided. I just drove past the area this morning and I saw thirty head of deer.” Elbrock continued, “it’s just great to have a big block of land that can be managed for ranching and wildlife, without having to work around forty acre subdivisions -- I support this 100%.” Elbrock is also a principal of the Malpai Borderlands Group, a sister rancher-led non-profit in the region that has used conservation easements to protect land in the Animas Valley as well as the San Bernardino Valley....
Eminent domain threatens Music Row studio A Music Row publishing and recording studio is at the center of a turf war with a Houston-based developer. Country International Records, which has been located off Music Square East since 1980, is being threatened by eminent domain. The owner of the building, Joy Ford, said Houston-based Lionstone Group wants to bulldoze her building and make it a parking lot for an office tower slated to be build beside it. The building is wanted as part of a redevelopment plan aimed at revitalizing Demonbreun and Division streets, along Nashville's historic Music Row. Ford said she doesn't want to leave behind her company that she says has helped so many country music stars and fears if her property is taken, it will set a precedent for all property owners....
Congress More Understanding Of Horse Ban's Bad Consequences Members of Congress showed a growing understanding of the unintended consequences of the closing of America’s three horse slaughter plants, according to participants in Livestock Marketing Association’s fourth annual Washington, D.C. Fly-In. Since a series of legislative and judicial actions closed the three plants, LMA President Jim Santomaso said the industry is seeing “more and more reports of abandoned horses, and of horses turned out and left to starve, because owners can’t afford their upkeep, or have the means to properly dispose of them.” Santomaso, the operator of a Sterling, Colo., market, said LMA members are also reporting that horses are being left at their facilities when they don’t sell, “because their owners don’t want them back.” Lawmakers, he said, “are ready to listen to the argument that banning slaughter is creating huge problems. For example, the ban takes away individual property rights, when you tell a horse owner what he can and cannot do with an animal that may be at the end of its useful life.” The LMA representatives made these points in meetings with the chairman or staff members of key panels, including the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, and lawmakers from the members’ home states....
Iowa meatpacking plant raided in ID theft investigation At least 300 people were arrested Monday on immigration and identity theft charges at Agriprocessors, one of the USA's largest packing plants for kosher meats. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the Agriprocessors complex in this northeast Iowa community of 2,500 during morning work hours, executing warrants for fraudulent use of others' Social Security numbers in connection with their employment at the plant. The packing plant has attracted workers from Mexico, Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere. Nathaniel Popper, a journalist who has written about Agriprocessors for The Jewish Daily Forward, based in New York, said the raid could disrupt the supply of kosher meat....
A Ropers' Reunion It's like a family reunion. Every year, the annual Elks Team Roping competition brings together family and friends from throughout the Central Coast. Saturday's day-long event at the Santa Maria Elks Unocal Events Center was no exception. It was an opportunity for friends, old and new, to gather for a full day of team roping. “This is a community event,” said Elks Recreation President Keith Barks. “There are cowboys and cowgirls here from all over Santa Barbara County and a good deal of San Luis Obispo County. Most everyone knows each other. You've got two or three generations from many of the families here - fathers and sons or daughters, even grandchildren out there competing.” The ropers spend the day catching up with each other and giving each other a good-natured hard time. But this is also serious competition. The best are rewarded with a few hundreds dollars in prize money and, more importantly, bragging rights for the next year. “There are a lot of tough cowboys out here today,” said Barks. “A few of them are ranchers. A lot of them have non-ranch jobs but they grew up riding and roping. They still love it and are continuing their family tradition....
Old timers recognized at Cloudcroft event Approximately 100 people came to honor three long-time residents of the Sacramento Mountains in the commons area of Cloudcroft High School Saturday. Honorees have to be at least 84 years of age and must have spent the majority of their lives in the area. Georgie Cadwallader, of High Rolls; Aris Frizzell, of Mayhill; and Robert Bell, of Pi-on, were selected as this year's honorees. "Next to my family, two of my great loves have been the mountains and horses," Georgie said. "I have loved the mountains since I was young girl. I used to ride with three of my friends from Haynes Canyon to Cloudcroft and back." When she lived in El Paso, Georgie and her friends used to ride horses from her home near Ysleta to the El Paso airport. "We used to get a hamburger before our ride home," she said. "That area was very bare and desolate back then, with nothing in between." Georgie was an accomplished horsewoman, participating as a trick rider for many shows and rodeos. She also traveled with Monty Montana and was part of his shows. "I'm grounded now and I regret that," she said. "I rode horse into my 70s."....Three interesting life stories. Check it out.
It's All Trew: Hanging preceded death of a town Chipita Rodriquez died on Friday, Nov. 13th, 1863. She is believed to be the only woman ever legally hanged by the state of Texas. Though guilty by circumstantial evidence only, her death seemed to place a curse on the town of San Patricio, Texas, as it signaled the beginning of the end of the small settlement. History states a horse trader stopped by Chipita's home on the Aransas River between Refugio and San Patricio to spend the night. His saddle bags held $600 in gold taken in payment for a horse herd sold to the Confederate Army earlier and he was returning home. He left the next morning early but was later found hacked to death, floating in a canvas bag just down-river from Chipita's home. The investigation linked Chipita and her employee Juan Silvera to the death with robbery as the motive. The pair were indicted for murder and both pled not guilty. Strangely, neither uttered another word during the trial, supposedly protecting each other through silence. The details have not survived but somehow Juan received a five-year sentence for his part, but Chipita was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to be hanged. She was hanged at sunrise from a mesquite tree on Friday the 13th, convicted on purely circumstantial evidence and buried in an unmarked grave. Later, the gold was found intact in the trader's saddlebags sitting on the riverbank. Some years later a dying rancher finally confessed to the murder in a dispute over a horse trade deal gone bad....