Monday, October 07, 2013

Forest Service to shut down logging operations on 150 forests

The U.S. Forest Service confirmed it is shutting down logging operations on national forests across the country due to the partial shutdown of the federal government. The agency plans to notify 450 timber purchasers across the country early next week that timber sales and stewardship contracts will be suspended, Forest Service spokesman Leo Kay said in an email. Tom Partin, president of the timber industry group America Forest Resource Council, said he got word that the agency would be posting details of the shutdown on a White House website on Monday. The Forest Service will be contacting each logging company in writing to tell them how to close down operations. In general, loggers will have seven days to finish cutting and hauling out logs on timber sales where they are already working. The shutdown comes as loggers typically look forward to one more month of work before winter weather makes conditions tougher. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said the shutdown was another reason the Senate should join the House in passing legislation to increase logging on national forests, in part by putting them under local control. That bill has passed the House but is considered unlikely to pass the Senate...more

Farm bill expires with fed shutdown

Among its widespread effects, the government shutdown assured the lapse of the farm bill and left many Coloradans with questions about their immediate future. The bill, originally a five-year agricultural plan, was set to expire last year but was given a one-year extension, which officially ended Tuesday. Some Southwest Colorado farmers are frustrated with the government’s inability to pass the bill. “This is the second straight year that this has expired, so I’m not sure when they were planning to pass it,” said Jim Dyer, a rancher near Marvel. The lapse of the farm bill because of the government shutdown will revert agricultural policies back to those instated in 1949...more

I can assure you they won't let this stand.  Because of politics?  Sure, that's always there.  But the real reason is if you implemented the 1949 farm bill today it would be a huge budget buster...costing much more than the current or proposed farm bills.

9th Circuit asked to stop USDA predator killing

Conservationists have appealed a federal judge's rejection of their lawsuit in Nevada aimed at shutting down a federal program that spends more than $100 million a year to subsidize the killing of coyotes, mountain lions and other predators that threaten livestock. The appeal filed Thursday targets a ruling in March by U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, who dismissed most of the WildEarth Guardians lawsuit that claims the Depression-era program of the U.S. Agriculture Department is illegal because it relies on scientific and environmental data that is nearly two decades old. Among other things, Du said the harm cited by the conservationists would not be alleviated by shutting down the Wildlife Services operation in Nevada — where 6,000 coyotes are killed annually and federal officials spend about $1.5 million a year — because the state has said it would carry out the killings itself. Lawyers for WildEarth Guardians said in its appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Nevada doesn't have the resources to continue all the work. A state wildlife official agreed. "We wouldn't have the manpower," Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said Friday. "They are in some wild places in Nevada doing that kind of predator work where we have zero personnel. We already have a full plate." The conservationists said the program that spent $127 million to exterminate more than 5 million animals in 2010 should be suspended nationally until USDA updates its scientific analysis that's based largely on an environmental impact statement conducted in 1994 when the program was much smaller. In 1988, Wildlife Services spent $26 million to control 17 target species, compared to 2010 when it spent $126 million on a list of about 300 species, court documents state...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1120

Bob Wills - Swing Blues #1 (1937)

http://youtu.be/whhaO9ZYJYI

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Government shutdown? There is no government shutdown

But there is no government shutdown. Is the IRS still operating? Are millions of Americans still paying taxes under the threat of government persecution? Are taxpayer salaried federal minions still collecting those taxes and funneling them into the national treasury? Are political swine still poking their snouts deep into the stolen loot to fund their pet projects while skimming as much as possible into their own bank accounts? Then the government hasn't shut down. The people at the very top of the criminal enterprise that ordinary citizens have been trained to call "government" have become adjusted to this status quo. Since neither can gain the total control they truly desire they're willing to divvy up the loot amongst themselves. That means their primary goal is to keep the loot coming. What political form the government takes is irrelevant...more

Obama's Golf Course Has Been Spared from the Shutdown


by ELIZABETH SHELD

One of Obama's preferred golf courses, the course on Andrews Airforce Base remains open during the government shutdown. The grocery stores on the base, where troops get discounted groceries for their families are, however, closed. They will shop "at local stores that cost about 30 percent more, Lieutenant General Raymond Mason, the service’s deputy chief of staff for logistics, said yesterday at a House hearing."

The Andrews Air Force Base golf course is funded through user fees and that’s why it remains open, said Air Force Captain Lindy Singleton, chief of public affairs for the 11th Wing at Andrews.
 .Obama hit the links last weekend for a round, on the eve of the possible shutdown. Last week the President played his 35th round of golf this year.

Source

Petty Tirade: Selective Shutdowns at 12 National Parks Across America


Washington’s grown a bit nastier and colder since the last government shutdown, and the casualties of the partisan fight are the family memories lost from being denied access to public landmarks that are supposed to belong to the people. The government doesn’t see it that way anymore – it’s all just a “damn game” and the folks running the Capitol are just toying with the American people. That’s right – public memorials, monuments and parks remained open under President Clinton and the Republican Congress in 1995/96, causing one to wonder how much inconvenience and financial hardship this partial government shutdown is creating is actually necessary. Nonetheless, American parks, memorials and monuments across are shuttered today, despite many of them being privately funded and run at no expense to the taxpayer and despite Republicans passing bills to keep them running while the two parties negotiate on funding the government. The following list of 13 parks and monuments and how they were affected by the government slowdown shows exactly what kind of ridiculous nonsense is going on in America nowadays...more

Iwo Jima Memorial Closed, Barricades Erected (Update: Vets Break Through)

Another open-air memorial in the Washington area is closed and barricaded off: the Iwo Jima Memorial, just across the bridge from D.C. in Rosslyn, Virginia. A source sends along this picture of the barricade set-up at the memorial, which is also called the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial:
"I took the picture yesterday afternoon. Those barricades had been there at least a day. People can still walk into the Memorial area, but for many elderly and disabled vets, it is important they be driven and park right next to the statue," the person who took this picture emails.
"There has been no coverage of Iwo Jima being closed and it is a routine stop for Honor Flight visitors."
The source adds: "This picture is from North Marshall Drive (100 yards up the hill from the 110) facing the only road in and out of the Memorial for cars. There are parking spots for cars and buses right next the Memorial that can only be accessed via this road. Interestingly too, the view you see is also the last 200 yards of the Marine Corps Marathon which is in three weeks. That would be 20,000 pissed off runners who have trained for months."
The stop is a popular destination for veterans and tourists alike, and, in my observation, is usually completely unmanned and unguarded. But, for some reason, it's closed to the public during this federal government shutdown.
UPDATE: I'm told, "The Syracuse Honor Flight just knocked down the barrier and a couple hundred of them are at the Memorial now."
Here's a picture:
Source

Obama Shuts Down Ocean

In a move that is being driven by monumental hubris, the Obama Administration has informed Florida charter boat operators that they are not allowed to take customers fishing in the Florida Bay until the feds get back to work. The Park Service has verboten use of 1,100 square miles or prime fishing between the tip of Florida to the Keys. They've prohibited access to the ocean. Heck, why not the air? There's air in those national parks that belongs to the federal government -- not the people, the government. It's been clear since before it started that the shutdown was just theater and that Obama would try to make it as painful as possible for us little people. We've seen this with the closing of national parks, the barricading of national monuments. The images of elderly WWII veterans being blocked from visiting the memorial dedicated to them has angered people across the country. When the veterans tore down the barricades the first day, the Park Service went back and put up stronger fences with double locks...more

A tweet on the shutdown

America has deployed to protect Monuments from visitors quicker & better than Embassy's from Terrorists.

Park Ranger: “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

The games politicians play: Barack Obama is having a lot of fun using the government shutdown to squeeze the public in imaginative ways. The point of the shutdown game is to see who can squeeze hardest, make the most pious speech and listen for the applause. It’s a variation on the grade-school ritual of “you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” President Obama is not a bad poker player, but the man with all the chips always starts with the advantage (and he gets all the aces). He has closed Washington down as tight as he dares, emphasizing the trivial and the petty in making life as inconvenient as he can for the greatest number. It’s all in a noble cause, of course. Access to most of the memorials is limited, and often in curious ways. The Lincoln Memorial is easy to reach, with the streets around it remaining open. But the Martin Luther King Memorial is made difficult to reach, relegating it, you might say, to the back of the bus. Not very nice. The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. The rangers are from the government, and they’re only here to help. “It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”...more

Read on below and we'll see what some folks think of Obama's "chips".

The NPS Government Shutdown Contingency Plan

by Debra Heine

...The Department of Interior Website has a page that links to all of its departments' contingency plans in case of a government shutdown. The National Park Service Contingency Plan is basically the template for all of the daily outrages we've been seeing since the shutdown began...

As stated in its original authorizing legislation, the National Park Service mission is to “preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.”
Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all necessary steps to close and secure national park facilities and grounds in order to suspend all activities except for those that are essential to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property. 
Day use visitors will be instructed to leave the park immediately as part of Phase 1 closures. Visitors utilizing overnight concession accommodations and campgrounds will be notified to make alternate arrangements and depart the park as part of Phase 2. 
Wherever possible, park roads will be closed and access will be denied. National and regional offices and support centers will be closed and secured, except where they are needed to support excepted personnel. These steps will be enacted as quickly as possible while still ensuring visitor and employee safety as well as the integrity of park resources.
The shutdown process will take place in two phases. Phase 1 includes all activities to notify the public of the closure, secure government records and property, and begin winding down operations to essential activities only. Phase 1 will take place over a day and a half. 
Phase 2 will be initiated by the Director and includes the complete shutdown of all concession facilities and commercial visitor services. Overnight visitors will be given two days to make alternate arrangements and depart the parks. At the end of Phase 2 operations are expected to be at the minimum levels defined below. The entire closure process – both phases – will be completed within four days.
You might well ask how throwing an elderly couple out of their Lake Mead home, blocking WWII and Vietnam vets from seeing their memorials, blocking scenic overlooks, etc help "preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.”




Lake Mead property owners forced out until shutdown ends

The government shutdown is being felt close to home for some locals. They say they're being forced out of private homes on Lake Mead because they sit on federal land. Joyce Spencer is 77-years-old and her husband Ralph is 80. They've been spending most of their time in the family ice cream store since going home isn't an option. The Spencers never expected to be forced out of their Lake Mead home, which they've owned since the 70s, but on Thursday, a park ranger said they had 24 hours to get out. "I had to go to town today and buy Ralph undershirts and jeans because I forgot his pants," Joyce Spencer told Action News. The Stewart's Point home sits on federal land, so even though the Spencers own their cabin outright, they're not allowed in until the government reopens. Park officials said property owners can visit only to retrieve belongings; they sent Action News a statement which reads in part, "Unfortunately overnight stays are not permitted until a budget is passed and the park can reopen."...more

There's a video report at the link provided.

Hikers climb fence into Zion National Park in protest of gov't shutdown

A heavy metal gate with a large "do not enter" sign was not enough to stop James Milligan from visiting Zion National Park on Saturday. "I wanted to go hiking today, and so I thought I'd invite some friends to come join me," Milligan said before leading about a dozen protesters over the fence and into Zion. "The way I see it this is our park over here and no one has a right to shut us out of it." The group met about 8 a.m. just outside the park's entrance, energetic about their plan despite the chill that persisted in the shadow of the red rock cliffs. The parking lot and entrance to the park looked more like a ghost town than one of Utah's largest tourist destinations, and the gate at the end of the pedestrian bridge into the park remained locked. They called the excursion "Occupy Zion," an act of civil disobedience in protest of the federal government shutdown that closed the park Tuesday...more

Mount Rushmore blockage stirs anger in South Dakota

NPS cones to block "viewing" of Mount Rushmore

Blocking access to trails and programs at South Dakota’s most popular attraction was one thing, but state officials didn’t expect Congress’ budget stalemate to shut down a view of Mount Rushmore. The cones first went up Oct. 1, said Dusty Johnson, Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s chief of staff. The state asked that they be taken down, and federal officials did so with some of them. The state was told the cones were a safety precaution to help channel cars into viewing areas rather than to bar their entrance. “I think reasonable people can disagree about that,” Johnson said. The cones were down again Friday as a blizzard hit the Black Hills and plows needed access to the roads, Johnson said. He said the state would be monitoring to see whether the cones are put back along viewing areas. “Once the snow’s off the ground, we’re going to be keeping an eye on how the cones go up,” Johnson said...more

Families throw off the cones at Badlands National Park in South Dakota

Noelle Bruno tweets that she and her family made it through Mount Rushmore despite the White House obstacles. Noelle’s husband’s act of defiance has been meme-ified on social media:



Source

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy



Hear the call of the wild

by Julie Carter

They are here and they are everywhere. The fall months bring out the masses of hunters seeking trophy antelope, deer, and elk.

Walmarts across hunting country are full of camo’d men talking on cell phones and loading up with ammo, hard candy and beanie weenies. They drive into town in big, powerful and very expensive vehicles pulling heavily loaded trailers full of all the essentials for a successful hunting camp.

This would include at least 17 gigantic coolers filled with plenty of fine camp cuisine including t-bone steaks and cold beer, a selection of brand new ATVs and camp trailers that completely take the “camp” out of camping.

Studies indicate that hunting and other wildlife-associated recreation bring more than $1 billion to New Mexico's economy, including $127 million from outfitting and guiding businesses. 

What those numbers boil down to is the majority of that income comes from imported hunters. They come from every corner of the country wearing and owning everything Cabelas had to offer. 

They ride around in a big diesel truck hoping something with horns will jump out in the road before it gets dark. They will pay $2,500 a gun to hunt in places game is so scare that the landowner does his hunting at the neighbors.

Small towns in the heart of hunting country offer free chili suppers or free breakfast for hunters. One guy reported it cost him about $200 in gas to go around to all the little towns and eat their food. He isn’t a hunter, just an eater.

Signs will be posted “45 miles to the next ammo store” and if doesn’t say “ammo” it says “beer.”

While I mock the current state of the sport of hunting, it is not foreign to me and mine. I come from a long line of meat hunters who indeed hunted first for family sustenance and later as a family sport and somewhat a rite of passage to manhood for my brothers.

The “locals” just gear up, go kill something, bring it home, skin it out, cut it up and know they have winter meat in the freezer. While they have plenty of fun doing it, it is more a way of life than an epiphany for them.

I have a son who wore his first camouflage as a toddler. He is a young man now and the lure of hunting annually matched his growing size. He took on archery hunting as well as rifle, and even learned to run a trap line that honored the generations before him.

In the early years, the discovery of marketed “scents” to disguise his “people” smell while sitting in a hunting blind was an exciting find for him. Somehow, the idea of wearing elk urine scent on his clothing was completely entertaining to him at an age where he found that anything gross was hysterically funny.

Like those that came before him, he lived for the next hunt and the next hunting camp which was apparently as fun as the hunt itself.

Each season was marked by a gleeful note when I would hear, “Mom, the new Cabelas catalog just came in the mail!”

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com .

Little Creek to Cliff Marathon

Follow blazes
Little Creek to Cliff Marathon
Lesson in independence
By Stephen L. Wilmeth



             I have good memories of Little Creek Cabin.
            With just one room and a matching single room barn, its allure was its existence alone. It was at the head of the creek and there wasn’t any competing pursuit. Unlike White Creek Cabin or the Trotter Place where we would grab a fishing pole as soon as we unsaddled, there wasn’t enough water at that point in the creek to support fish. We’d unsaddle and go over to the cabin and lounge around until it was time to cook supper. We’d cook something good because we had time to concentrate on the task.
            Coming in there or leaving we’d always see game. The biggest elk of my life still looms in my mind coming into the horse trap there one afternoon. We had come off the mountain in a high trot to get away from lightning.
            All of us … horses, mules, Hugh and I …sat there in clouds of steam from the heated bodies watching him with fascination. What a beautiful thing he was, standing over there looking back at us.
            The starting line
            August 8, 1967 was the last day that summer I could spend in the Gila. I was 16 years old. Football camp started within a few days and I had to ride out to be there.
            We had ridden to Little Creek Cabin for the purposes of shortening my ride as much as possible. Hugh was going to ride on to Gila Center later that day and continue his Wilderness Patrol rotation before he headed off to school himself. This time it was going to be New Mexico State University. Big changes were coming in his life.
            There had been a dread brewing for several days for both of us and that morning was an indicator. We didn’t say much as we went through our routine. Hugh was going to ride with me to where the trail dropped off into the head of Turkey Creek. I would head to Cliff and my grandparents over 30 hard trail miles south. He was going on to the lookout on Granite Peak and check in with the fire-watch, Jimmy Neeley and his new bride.
            I was anxious and it wasn’t just excitement of the ride. I had never been down Turkey Creek from its head. We shook hands at the trail head and he watched me descend until we were out of line of sight. I was on my own.
            I had my map and I had studied it diligently. I had pumped Hugh for landmark features. He had worn a bit weary of my fretting.
            “Follow the blazes,” he had said repeatedly.
            The problem was I had followed blazes too many times with him and still got lost. We had gone through an infamous Little Turkey Park ride one time thinking we were in a drainage further south and we weren’t. We rode all day finally getting to the river and realizing we were miles upstream from where should have been. It was Hugh who sweated that ride, though, because he had to get out for a deadline.
            That morning I was riding Red, a Rice Ranch mule. His dedicated headstall was let out all the way to fit his yard long head. He was as tough as he was big. Well over 16 hands tall, the big sorrel horse mule didn’t need shoeing. His feet were like iron.
            We had played polo on him one night at Gila Center just to say, “Yea, you can even play polo on that mule”, but, the truth was, he reined like steering a dozer with a set of clutches missing. He turned pretty good … as long as it was left.
            First wind
            Morning in the mountains always fascinated me.
I loved to ride along alone and get as light and quiet on the horse as possible. He invariably became more responsive and was interested in surroundings as well. That morning on Red was no different.
Coming off the Granite Peak ridgeline was easy. The trail was good and the open ponderosa pine glades were appealing. I saw a bunch of elk and several bunches of deer before we dropped deeper into the drainage.
By the time we were in the creek bottom with running water, the trail had brushed up. It was then the magnitude of the day started to impact both mule and rider.
The first raw rush came with a bunch of turkey poults that flew across our bow. Red and I both about jumped out of our skin. With us fighting brush, they had come whistling by like feathered rockets making funny chirping sounds. Even laid back Red was sure he was about to be eaten alive by alligators. Round and round to the left we went before crashing southward through a hole in the brush.
From that point to where the trail hits Sycamore Canyon, we fought heavy brush. The trail had not been worked in years. Riding down that brushed up canyon bottom was a nightmare. Repeatedly, we had to backtrack just to find a blaze on a tree to find a way through the tangle.
By midmorning, the dew had burned off and we were into snakes. August, cooler canyon bottoms, water, and shedding rattlesnakes in the Gila have a bit of commonality. They certainly did that day. It was a snake infested son-of-a-gun.
The first encounters put us on high alert. I killed the first several but it got to the point both Red and I wanted just be make haste and get out of that brushed up snake pit. At one point, we stopped to drink. I was lying on my belly upstream from Red and heard the buzz. We both looked for the snake and saw it crawling out between his legs and away from us … we went back to drinking.
I didn’t touch a spur to Red as he tried to stay in a trot as much as he could. The entanglement didn’t always allow it, and we sweated and fought our way through that nasty upper canyon. By the time we got to the mouth of Sycamore and a better trail, there were nine rattlers in my memory, about one per mile of brushed up canyon bottom, but … that could have been a dozen off in any direction.
Second wind
Sycamore is like every other rocky drainage into Turkey Creek. It gets few visitors, but it is a goal post for horsemen. By the time you get there, major stretches of canyon bottom are behind you.
The next leg to the river was fairly brisk. We could stay in a trot for long stretches. There was Brushy, where the trail crawls out of the bottom onto talus slopes, and then on to Skeleton. It was there evidence of fisherman making their way up the creek from the river was seen. We encountered one where it empties into Turkey Creek. We came hustling off the point and plowed through the first crossing greeting the wide eyed fisherman without stopping.
By the time we hit the mouth of the creek at the Gila, numbers of people were present. That diversion lifted me from the monotony of the pace even if it didn’t impact Red. His ears maintained a steady mule rhythm to his stretching walk. He knew where he was and he wanted to finish.
We left civilization again as we made the sweeping curve southwestward toward the Hooker Dam site. It was there Red urged me to cut across and make the climb over the ridge jutting from east to west in the big turn. We did, but he was noticeably weary as we topped the ridge. I led him off the ridge to give him a break.
To the Finish
We finally hit the pavement beyond the mouth of Mogollon Creek and below Worty and Lois Shelley’s house. From there it was not rattlesnakes that pestered us, but dogs. Red would back his ears and I’d scream at them.
Both of us were tired by then, and Red suffered from the absence of water. I was pushing on him as we came down the road above the Rice headquarters, but we slid off the embankment, rode into the corral by the old cottonwood planked barn, and called it quits. We had made the ride. It was 4:00 PM on the dot.
Sam threw a full bale of hay to Red as I unsaddled him. He asked me how the ride had been.
“It wasn’t too bad,” or something like that I said.
I remember Red looking around at me, and, in his mulish way of too few words, he distinctly signaled telepathically … “Liar!”


Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Every 16 year old in the world would benefit immensely from a solo Little Creek to Cliff marathon.”


THE WESTERNER ASKS:  Would teen agers benefit from this type of experience?  Do they even need it? Yup.  Look at this Wall Street Journal article:


The on-ramp to adulthood is delayed and harder to reach for young people today, a reality that is changing the country's society and economy, according to a new report. More demanding job requirements, coupled with the pressures of the recession, have delayed the transition to adulthood for young people in the past decade and earned them the title of "the new lost generation," according to the report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, published Monday.

 To save "the country's society and economy" we need to vastly increase the supply of red mules.


Top 100 landowners collectively own 33 million acres

Investing in rural, undeveloped land continues to be a popular strategy among the affluent, according to the 2013 Land Report 100, the latest annual survey and ranking of the largest private landowners in the United States just published by The Land Report and presented by Fay Ranches. Increasingly seen as a "safe deposit box with a view," acreages continue to be purchased by leading landowners at solid rates. In 2012, the country's top 100 landowners cumulatively increased their private holdings by 700,000 acres to a total of 33 million acres, nearly 2 percent of U.S. land mass.

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone and his 2.2 million acres under ownership topped the Land Report 100 list, which focuses exclusively on deeded acreage owned by individuals, families, family-owned companies and family-controlled foundations and excludes leased and public lands. Malone edged out Ted Turner, who currently possesses more than 2 million land acres. Rounding out the top five in order were: the Emmerson family, Brad Kelley and the Irving family. The 2013 edition of the Land Report 100 presented by Fay Ranches can be downloaded at http://fayranches.com/blog/2013/10/01/2013-land-report-100-sponsored-fay-ranches.

"It's refreshing to continue seeing large landowners find value in aggregating their land for conservation and agriculture purposes versus parceling it out and developing it," said land broker Greg Fay, founder of Fay Ranches, which is sponsoring the Land Report 100 for the third straight year and is a longtime supporter of the magazine. "Everyone at Fay Ranches congratulates leading landowners for their commitments to the land, to conserving our wild places and preserving our agricultural heritage."

This year saw a shake-up in the top ten as Stan Kroenke elevated his position from No. 10 to No. 8 after his recent purchase of the historic Broken O Ranch, described nationally as "one of the largest agricultural operations in the Rocky Mountain West." Kroenke also owns the 540,000-acre Q Creek Ranch, the largest contiguous ranch in the Rocky Mountains.

There are several landowners new to this year's 100 list, including No. 28, Dan and Farris Wilks, billionaire brothers who recently purchased more than 400 square miles of land, mostly in the eastern half of Montana. Oil field services entrepreneurs, the Wilks brothers own the prized N Bar Ranch in Montana, which is known for its wildlife and fishery resources. Another new addition to the Land Report 100 presented by Fay Ranches is No. 96, Arthur Nicholas. The co-founder of Nicholas Investment Properties owns Wyoming's historic Wagonhound Land and Livestock, an AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder.

"America's largest landowners continue to recognize land as a compelling asset, one whose numerous attributes go well beyond ROI," said Eric O'Keefe, editor-in-chief of The Land Report. "It's a story you'll see again and again in the Land Report 100, one that features familiar faces and some new ones I'm sure readers will instantly identify. "

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1119

From their 2013 cd "Reborn" Mark Newton & Steve Thomas perform The Key.

http://youtu.be/KWjC3aWt-Ds

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Claims of shackles, beatings at NM ranch for troubled boys

State investigators are looking into allegations that teenage boys living at an unlicensed southern New Mexico ranch for troubled youth were beaten by a former staff member and forced to wear leg shackles and handcuffs for minor infractions of ranch rules. The $80-a-day program at the 30,000-acre Tierra Blanca Ranch in Sierra County near Hillsboro caters to parents who can no longer deal with their children’s drug use or other behaviors. It promises a careful balance between love, discipline and structure. It also promises education based on sound biblical principles. State Police Sgt. Emmanuel Gutierrez and general counsel Jennifer Saavedra of the Children, Youth and Families Department have confirmed the investigation. According to State Police reports, residents of the program say they saw one teen beaten by an employee while the boy was shackled after he had been forced to run all day. Witnesses said the employee, now living in Texas, beat the boy in the face with what the teens described as a Kubaton, which is akin to a nightstick. In other cases, employees allegedly had groups of teenage residents beat another resident for being uncooperative, according to police reports. Officers called to the ranch on at least one occasion found one of the boys in shackles. He had escaped and called State Police on a telephone he had taken from the ranch. Officers returned the boy to the ranch and had to serve a search warrant later to retrieve him at his mother’s request. Tierra Blanca owner Scott Chandler said through his attorney, Pete Domenici Jr. of Albuquerque, that the ranch is “proud of its success in serving families and their at-risk children over the years.” “While at TBR, most youth get on track to successful and rewarding lives outside the ranch,” Chandler said in the statement. The ranch averages about 15 teens placed there voluntarily by parents. Some stay for more than a year...more

Friday, October 04, 2013

County commissioner - Shutdown proves state should manage public lands

Idaho County Commissioner Skip Brandt isn’t pointing fingers at Democrats or Republicans in Washington for the fact that national wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management campgrounds, boat ramps, visitor centers and other developed recreation sites, national forest developed areas and all national parks are closed. “Federal employees have decided to make their furloughs as painful as possible for the public,” Brandt wrote in an email. “So apparently the ‘Federal’ lands/ facilities are not 'true public' lands/ property after all, but rather are the bureaucracy’s property,” Brandt wrote in a email. “Thus if the bureaucrats/ Federal employees do not have a pay check the properties are off limits to the ‘subjects’” Brandt has a solution: “It is time that the Federal lands become managed/ accountable State lands.” Brandt is one of the supporters of a resolution that was approved by the Idaho Legislature earlier this year demanding the federal government hand over all of the more than 32 million acres of federally owned public land in Idaho to the state. Critics question the legal theory the resolution is based on and say the state would suffer economically unless it sold all of the land, which lawmakers say they don’t want to do. “So the next question; How long until ‘they’ put up their signs on all Federally managed lands?” Brandt asked...more

State DNR refuses federal directive to close some popular parks

The state Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday refused a directive from the National Park Service to close a host of popular state properties because of the federal government shutdown. The park service ordered state officials to close the northern unit of the Kettle Moraine, Devil's Lake, and Interstate state parks and the state-owned portion of the Horicon Marsh, but state authorities rebuffed the request because the lion's share of the funding came from state, not federal coffers. Even though federal lands such as the Apostle Islands National Lakeshorehave been shuttered, the DNR issued a statement saying all state parks, trails and other recreational properties were open and not affected by the federal government's budget problems. The agency also reopened a boat launch Wednesdayat Wyalusing State Park on the Mississippi River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closed the launch on Tuesday because it was on federal land. But in a sign of defiance, the DNR removed the barricades at the landing, saying it had the legal authority to operate the launch under a 1961 agreement with the federal government. On Tuesday, vast swaths of land were closed by the federal government because of the budget stalemate. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closed all its properties, including the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge and the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. The agency said that fishing and hunting on those lands were prohibited. The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest also was closed. But the status of hunting and fishing on the 1.5 million acres was unclear. DNR officials gave no indication they would try to stop the public from using the forests. On Wednesday, state and federal authorities came to loggerheads over access to state land when the Park Service directed the DNR to close properties in which the state and the federal government had a cooperative financial agreement. The federal agency provided the DNR $701,000 for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the DNR. The DNR said the majority of money for the parks comes from the state and that it would usestate funds to continue operations. On Tuesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was closing the federal portion of the sprawling Horicon Marsh, which attracts thousands of visitors during the fall bird migration. The federal Interior Department has also closed the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, which includes the St. Croix and Namekegon rivers in northwestern Wisconsin. As the shutdown took effect, federal authorities notified the DNR to authorize the closing of Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo, Interstate State Park near St. Croix and the northern unit of Kettle Moraine State Forest north of Milwaukee, because they shared in the funding. A U.S. Forest Service memo says that law enforcement and fire protection services will continueon federal lands...more

This is Wisconsin, but what is happening in your state?  Are they in lock-step with the federales or have they grown a pair?
 

Enviros sue over another logging project

A timber sale in the Kootenai National Forest faces a court challenge for allegedly failing to protect a small population of grizzly bears. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed the lawsuit in Missoula’s U.S. District Court office on Tuesday. The Helena-based group charges the Pilgrim timber sale would open 50 miles of roads in the Cabinet Ranger District, where fewer than 50 grizzlies live. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service population target is 100 bears. “The Fish and Wildlife Service has declared that ‘(i)f human-related disturbances such as road use or timber harvest continue in preferred habitats for extended periods of time, historical bear use of the area may be lost.’ “ AWR director Michael Garrity said in an email. “But instead of refraining from logging and road-building in occupied grizzly bear habitat until the bear shows signs of recovery – or at least stabilization – the Forest Service has just approved another road-building and commercial logging project in occupied bear habitat: the Pilgrim Creek Project. Obviously the Forest Service isn’t doing its job to recover the grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak, so unfortunately, we have no choice but to take them to court to force the agency to follow the law.” The project would log or burn 1,434 acres in the Kootenai National Forest, including 898 acres of clearcuts. It also plans to use helicopters for prescribed burning of another 3,250 acres in the Huckleberry Mountain and Lone Cliff Smeads inventoried roadless areas, which Garrity said was also occupied bear habitat...more

Three days ago I posted the following, which so far has received quadruple the hits of an average post:

 You are not going to obtain better management as long as the current laws, and the judicial interpretation of those laws, remain in place.  

Congress has given the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to waive some 30+ environmental laws to speed construction of the border fence.  Congress should now grant similar authority to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior for the purpose of thinning our forests.  Otherwise, save the picture above, for it is an image of our future.
This is just another example of what's happening.  In this particular instance they are using the grizzly, in other instances they use different critters or plants, or they sue on process under NEPA or other planning laws. 

These are just some of the headlines from the last week of news.

Conservationists look to end old-growth logging 

Groups, US House members, seek cancellation of southeast Alaska old-growth timber sale

U.S. Forest Service to Reevaluate Big Thorne Timber Sale Due to Effects on Wolves and Deer 

Timber from Yosemite fire sparks debate over salvage plan

Obama threatens to veto timber bill

ead more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/09/28/3249501/timber-from-yosemite-fire-sparks.html#storylink=cpy

Desert monument is no Place for Target Practice, Suit Says

North America's most biologically diverse desert, the Sonoran Desert National Monument, should not have to endure recreational shooting, three groups say. In a new complaint, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Wilderness Society and Archaeology Southwest claim that the Bureau of Land Management's new resource-management plan allows recreational shooting on the monument in violation of a presidential proclamation and the Federal Land Management Policy and Management Act protecting the land. The monument, located in Maricopa and Pinal Counties about 50 miles southwest of Phoenix, contains 486,400 acres of bureau-administered lands. It is home to "prized saguaro cacti forests, high quality habitat for Sonoran pronghorn and desert tortoise, designated wilderness areas, and popular historic trail corridors and cultural areas frequently used by visitors to the monument for sightseeing, camping, and hiking," according to the complaint. The bureau's new resource-management plan allows recreational target shooting throughout the monument, despite the agency's studies that show "that opening the monument to recreational target shooting - as authorized by the management plan - has resulted and will continue to result in significant and direct adverse impacts to the monument's objects and natural resources," the environmental groups claim...more

All you hunters and shooters who are supporting national monument designations, take note. 

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1118

Patsy Montana - Cowboy Rhythm (1938)

http://youtu.be/VjUAS3hNtmU

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Government Looking for Witches Will Find Them (NSA, FISA)

By

While the nation’s political class has been fixated on a potential government shutdown in Washington this week, the NSA has continued to spy on all Americans and by its ambiguity and shrewd silence seems to be acknowledging slowly that the scope of its spying is truly breathtaking.

The Obama administration is of the view that the NSA can spy on anyone anywhere. The president believes that federal statutes enable the secret FISA court to authorize the NSA to capture any information it desires about any persons without identifying the persons and without a showing of probable cause of criminal behavior on the part of the persons to be spied upon. This is the same mindset that the British government had with respect to the colonists. It, too, believed that British law permitted a judge in secret in Britain to issue general warrants to be executed in the colonies at the whim of British agents.
 
General warrants do not state the name of the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized, and they do not have the necessity of individualized probable cause as their linchpin. They simply authorize the bearer to search wherever he wishes for whatever he wants. General warrants were universally condemned by colonial leaders across the ideological spectrum — from those as radical as Sam Adams to those as establishment as George Washington, and from those as individualistic as Thomas Jefferson to those as big-government as Alexander Hamilton. We know from the literature of the times that the whole purpose of the Fourth Amendment — with its requirements of individualized probable cause and specifically identifying the target — is to prohibit general warrants.

And yet, the FISA court has been issuing general warrants and the NSA executing them since at least 2004.

Last week we learned in a curious colloquy between members of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and Gen. Keith Alexander and Deputy Attorney General James Cole that it is more likely than not that the FISA court has permitted the NSA to seize not only telephone, Internet and texting records, but also utility bills, credit card bills, banking records, social media records and digital images of mail, and that there is no upper limit on the number of Americans’ records seized or the nature of those records.

The judges of the FISA court are sworn to secrecy. They can’t even possess the records of what they have done. There is no case or controversy before them. There is no one before them to oppose what the NSA seeks. They don’t listen to challenged testimony. All of this violates the Constitution because it requires a real case or controversy before the jurisdiction of federal courts may be invoked. So when a FISA court judge issues an opinion declaring that NSA agents may spy to their hearts’ content, such an opinion is meaningless because it did not emanate out of a case or controversy. It is merely self-serving rhetoric, unchallenged and untested by the adversarial process. Think about it: Without an adversary, who will challenge the NSA when it exceeds the “permission” given by the FISA court or when it spies in defiance of “permission” denied? Who will know?

For this reason, the FISA court is unconstitutional at best and not even a court at worst. It consists of federal judges administratively approving in secret the wishes of the government. By not adjudicating a dispute, which is all that federal judges can do under the Constitution, these judges are not performing a judicial function. Rather, they are performing a clerical or an executive one, neither of which is contemplated by the Constitution.