Former Nevada Governor supports ranch family

Gibbons is second from left

Former Gov. Jim Gibbons showed up Thursday to help Pete Tomera and his family turn their cows out on the contested Bureau of Land Management grazing allotment south of Battle Mountain. The former governor came in a show of support for the ranchers, who have been fighting a decision by Battle Mountain District Manager Doug Furtado to close the mountain pasture. Furtado relented May 23. Meanwhile, petitions seeking Furtado’s removal from office were delivered Friday by the Cowboy Express to Gov. Brian Sandoval. The petitions were carried by horseback from Elko in five days. Furtado told the Tomera and Filippini families in February that he was not going to allow any grazing on the Mount Lewis pasture of the Argenta Allotment because of the drought. His decision left the longtime ranching families facing financial ruin and sparked a grassroots effort to pressure the BLM into rescinding Furtado’s closure. That effort has included a public outcry by the ranching families, a petition drive demanding Furtado’s removal from office, a Grass Tour of the affected pasture, a Grass March calling attention to BLM control of Nevada’s rangelands, and a Cowboy Express to deliver the petitions on horseback to the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City. “Most people don’t have to fight to make a living. These folks do,” Gibbons said Thursday...more