Wednesday, October 07, 2015

More than 200 hundred new species discovered

A sneezing monkey, a walking fish and a jewel-like snake are just some of a biological treasure trove of over 200 new species discovered in the Eastern Himalayas in recent years, according to a new report by WWF. The report, Hidden Himalayas: Asia’s Wonderland released on World Habitat Day maps out scores of new species found by scientists from various organizations including 133 plants, 39 invertebrates, 26 fish, 10 amphibians, one reptile, one bird and one mammal. The volume and diversity of discoveries, 211 in total between 2009 and 2014, highlight the region as one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth; the discoveries listed equating to an average of 34 new species discovered annually for the past six years...more

AFBF, NCBA, other ag groups support trade deal

The American Farm Bureau said, “We hope the agreement will bring a more level playing field for farmers and ranchers by reducing tariffs and removing non-science based barriers to trade. We expect to see increased access for our agricultural products, particularly some meats.” While he reserved final judgment on the agreement until he is able to read it, Wade Cowan, president of the American Soybean Association, said, “The agreement will eliminate tariffs and other market access barriers in most markets and substantially increase access in remaining markets. We are optimistic that soybeans, soybean products and the livestock products produced by our customers all will fare well in the TPP agreement when specific details are revealed.” And by the way, soybeans are the top U.S. farm export when measured by value. Chip Bowling, president of the National Corn Growers, said, "We are hopeful that this agreement continues the tradition of past free trade agreements, which have had a positive impact for America's farmers and ranchers. In the coming weeks, we will carefully examine the agreement to determine whether it is in the best interests of America's corn farmers." U.S. Grains Council CEO Tom Sleight said the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is expected to increase the output of all U.S. grain exports by 11 percent. The National Cattlemen’s’ Beef Association said, “Congress should ratify the TPP, we can’t afford to pass this off to other countries. We’re the biggest economy in this agreement and it’s time for the U.S. to really take the lead.” The National Pork Producers Council said, “The Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement will help ensure that exports of U.S. pork products remain competitive in Asian markets. There’s nothing at this point that gives us any pause.”...more

Western States Fighting for Control of Federal Lands

by Ann Purvis

A new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) highlights a growing rift between Western states and the national government over what the states argue is gross mismanagement of the federal lands within their borders.

According to ALEC, more than 50 bills to transfer public lands from the federal government to state control were offered in or adopted by state legislatures in 2015.

On average, the national government controls more than 50 percent of the land within the borders of the 12 most western states, including 81 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah. The national government controls just 4 percent of land in the 38 non-western states. Utah and its western neighbors are increasingly calling for the same treatment, with some Western lawmakers contending states could better manage the resources. 

Federal Land Mismanagement

ALEC calculates taxpayers lose $2 billion annually due to federal mismanagement of public lands. Federal land management agencies also face large maintenance backlogs, the study found. The National Park Service alone had a backlog of more than $11 billion of work, as of 2014.

The report highlights research from the Property and Environment Research Center showing every dollar spent by the federal government managing lands in Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico returned just 73 cents to the federal treasury, whereas every dollar spent by those state governments on their public lands earned a return of $14.51.

Karla Jones, director of the ALEC Task Force on International Relations and Federalism and author of the federal lands report, says the disparity between federal and state management largely comes down to bureaucracy, with the federal government’s “use it or lose it budgeting” giving federal agencies no incentive to cut costs. 

Wildfire Concerns

Advocates of transferring federal land to the states contend states would be better stewards of the environment on public lands, as well as managing them more economically.

From 1980–89, during the Reagan administration, the number of large wildfires on federal lands averaged 140 per year. Because the amount of logging declined by 80 percent and hundreds of forest roads were closed since 1989, the number of large wildfires has risen substantially, topping 250 large fires annually from 2000–09. The U.S. Forest Service reports more than half the agency’s budget will go toward dealing with wildfires in 2015, up from just 16 percent in 1995.

Although critics of plans to transfer federal lands to the states question whether states can assume the growing costs of fighting wildfires, proponents argue federal mismanagement has exacerbated the wildfire problem.

“Of course the states cannot afford to manage fires and forests the way the federal government does,” said Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory (R-Salt Lake County).

Ivory says reducing the fuel loads—trees and other combustible material—in these areas would reduce the problem.

Jones suggests states could create additional road access to “give firefighters greater ability to get to fires while they’re still small.”


The ALEC report is here.

Tuesday, October 06, 2015

THE WESTERNER

It's a busy week and things aren't running real smooth for the kid.  Posts are spotty and will probably stay that way for awhile.

Wolf attack alarms ranchers

logo-oca-cattlemen
By Oregon Cattlemen’s Association

On August 25, 2015 Oregon Cattlemen’s Association members, Buck and Chelsea Matthews, dealt with the unexpected. The ranchers woke to discover one of their dogs laying on the porch with what appeared to be wolf’s teeth marks on his neck. “Scooter, was laying by the front door when I headed out in the morning,” owner Buck Matthews said. “I thought he was dead. He was laying on his side obviously injured and bleeding from his back and front legs.”

The couple lives in Troy Oregon, an hour and a half from the nearest town. They loaded the dog up and rushed him to a veterinary office in Enterprise. Dr. Randy Greenshields of Double Arrow vet clinic was the vet on duty that received Scooter. “It was pretty gruesome,” Greenshields said.

“Scooter had both front legs punctured with torn muscle and bruising on the back of his neck.” He said the skin was not only torn loose, but that it was lifted off of the muscle. His hind legs were also bruised.

It was several hours later when Buck and Chelsea realized that Scooter wasn’t the only dog that had been hurt. Tom, a dog that typically tags along with their children during the daytime hours, had been attacked too. Buck Matthews said Tom had jumped in the truck to head to work in the morning and didn’t start moving slow until later that day. “After looking closer, we saw he had lacerations behind his ear and hind legs and was bruised really bad on his belly/underside.” Wolf bites

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was called to examine the dogs. According to an official ODFW report, “ODFW examined both live dogs and found multiple bite marks indicating attack by large predator or domestic dog. The location and appearance of the bite wounds noted above are similar to those ODFW biologists have observed on other depredations by wolves.” The injuries were evidence enough for ODFW to label the attack “wolf probable.”

...The attack on their dogs was close enough to the house that it has raised some concern for the Matthews, especially since they had no idea wolves were coming so close to the house before the attack occurred. “We’ve seen a wolf twice since the attack. Both times it was less than a mile from our house,” Buck Matthews said.

Chelsea Matthews said the family is now taking extra precautions, both with their dogs and young children. “We lock all the dogs up at night and the kids have to stay where I can see them (when playing outside),” she said. “It’s not worth the risk of me sending them out of sight knowing that there are wolves around.” Matthews said it is frustrating to not be able to let her children explore and play outside without constant worry. “Our kids should get to experience all the joys of being country kids.”



UN releases draft agreement on climate change

The United Nations on Monday released a first draft of the negotiating text for the major conference on climate taking place in Paris in December. The document is a step forward for the talks, slimming down the text from more than 90 pages earlier this year to just 20. Negotiators from 195 countries are to gather for a new session of talks Oct. 19-23 in Bonn, Germany. A large number of proposals in the text are in parentheses, meaning they are still to be negotiated. The document notably includes a long-term goal for reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, but details and deadline remain to be discussed. The Paris conference on climate is aiming for an ambitious deal to keep the rise in worldwide temperatures since pre-industrial times below 2 degrees Celsius. Scientists fear going beyond that point could lead to widespread drought, stronger hurricanes as well as more rampant wildfires. Financing is considered key to an agreement, with poor countries expecting some assistance from rich ones to help them cut carbon emissions while developing their economies. The text mentions that financing could be more than the $100 billion per year already promised by 2020, coming from both public and private sources...more

In Canada, Miniature Heavy-Oil Sites Overcome Slump in Crude Prices

EDAM, Saskatchewan—In a muddy field where rows of canola stood just three months ago, a miniature oil-sands plant is rapidly being assembled by a small crew of workers. What’s unusual about this project is the speed with which it is being built—in a matter of months—and its compact, football field-size. Oil-sands sites typically take years to build and require hundreds or thousands of acres of land. At a time when slumping crude-oil prices have shelved most new oil-sands projects in neighboring Alberta and halted drilling for all but the most productive shale oil wells in the Bakken formation on both sides of the border, pint-size sites are proliferating in Saskatchewan’s oil patch. About a mile away from the construction site, down a rural highway in western Saskatchewan, three other similarly size heavy-oil projects are rising on a landscape filled with cattle pastures and duck ponds. The miniboom along Highway 26 is upending the long-standing logic that this type of extraction needs to maximize economies of scale to provide the best return on capital. While Saskatchewan’s oil reserves are a fraction of those in neighboring Alberta, companies developing small-scale sites in the province say they are profitable, even with crude prices at six-year lows. That is due to advances in modular construction, ample rail and pipeline takeaway capacity and an attractive regulatory environment. Like their larger oil-sands brethren in Alberta—home to the majority of Canada’s oil production—these newer sites in Saskatchewan extract crude by drilling horizontal wells and then pumping in steam from natural gas-fired generators to loosen up the thick oil deposits. Typical steam-powered oil-sands plants produce from 30,000 to 100,000 barrels a day, but smaller-scale thermal heavy oil facilities produce as few as 2,000 barrels a day. Both use a technology called steam-assisted gravity drainage, or SAGD, to tap subterranean deposits of molasses-like crude oil. Smaller operations benefit from lower construction and operating costs, faster production ramp-ups and higher prices for their crude than traditional supersize oil-sands projects. That means they can make money below the roughly $65 a barrel needed for most new larger-scale projects to break even. “Oil at $40 a barrel doesn’t scare us the way it scares oil-sands producers,” said Chad Harris, the founder and chief executive of startup firm Serafina Energy Ltd., which expects to produce 6,000 barrels a day starting in the first half of next year at its roughly 180 million-Canadian-dollar (US$134 million) plant in Edam...more (subscription)

BLM plans spark debate over grazing permits

Federal land managers are proposing to reduce livestock grazing within parts of Washington County’s designated conservation areas, citing a need to restore native vegetation and provide habitat for the federally protected Mojave Desert Tortoise but drawing heavy criticism from local leadership. The Bureau of Land Management is taking public comments on its proposed “Resource Management Plan” for two separate parts of the county that Congress designated as National Conservation Areas in 2009. The draft plans, available on the BLM’s website, recommend steps such as a limits on the number and type of grazing allotments available within the conservation areas and the automatic retirement of grazing permits as ranchers give them up.  Grazing creates food competition with species like the tortoise and complicates already difficult efforts to restore the native desert shrublands typical of the two conservation areas, according to documents attached to the BLM’s draft plans. In written comments distributed last week among county leadership and major stakeholders, officials argue the BLM’s proposals come without any substantive scientific evidence and fails to account for the potential harm, such as overgrown grasses that create fire hazards. Wildfires in 2005, 2006 and 2012 wiped out large numbers of tortoises. “The county would urge the BLM to use proper grazing management as a tool to reduce fine fuels,” according to the document. Some local leaders also feel the RMPs represent broken promises. County Commissioner Alan Gardner saying Friday he saw the proposals as a backdoor attempt to violate compromises that were reached after years of negotiation leading up to the 2009 lands bill. “The County’s position was that if there was to be any consideration of reducing grazing, the Lands Bill would not be introduced,” Gardner writes in some of his prepared commentary on the draft RMP. “We were told that the language used in the bill was the standard language and would allow grazing to continue at current levels. We assured the grazers that their grazing rights were safe.”...more


Will do some research on this, but they probably  fell for the language saying grazing is allowed to continue "to the extent it occurred" prior to the designation and subject to the "reasonable regulation" of the Secretary.  

           

A Shifting Approach to Saving Endangered Species

Traditional approaches to species conservation have focused on saving individual animals or plants in specific locations, with the goal of restoring as much land as possible to its former pristine condition. Conservation efforts — walling off areas to preserve habitat, for example — have been structured around a particular species’ needs, with little or no attempt to reconcile those protections with the larger needs of human society. And regulatory solutions have taken precedence over financial or other incentive-based tactics, with landowners and companies often viewed as hostile actors. But a growing number of conservationists argue that this view is far too narrow, especially in an era of climate change and rapid population growth. By the end of the century, according to projections, as many as 10 billion humans will be competing with other species for available space. And changes in climate are already forcing species to move into new terrains, migrations that will increase in the future. For conservation to succeed, some environmentalists argue, it must work on a larger scale, focusing not on preserving single species in small islands of wilderness but on large landscapes and entire ecosystems, and the benefits that nature provides to humans. The remaining sagebrush in the West, for example, is home not only to the greater sage grouse but also to many other mammals, birds, invertebrates and plants: Daniel M. Ashe, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that made the grouse decision, said the government’s conservation plan would protect more than 350 other species that share the landscape. And preserving such habitats means that important natural processes continue, like pollination and the storage in vegetation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. “It’s not about setting aside places for wild species anymore,” said Frank Davis, the director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It’s about figuring ways to coexist with them in a highly uncertain future.” Conservation efforts, according to this view, will be more effective if they accept humans as a part of nature and come to terms with the fact that they have irrevocably altered the landscape...more

Researcher Finds Way to Fight Cheatgrass, a Western Scourge

Cheatgrass could vie for the title of the most successful invasive species in North America. The weed lives in every state, and is the dominant plant on more than 154,000 square miles of the West, by one estimate. When it turns green in the spring, “you can actually see it from space,” said Bethany Bradley, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who studies biogeography, the spatial distribution of species. The sins of cheatgrass are many. Its tenacious seeds lodge in the eyes and gums of livestock (not to mention the ears of pets and the socks of hikers). Even a moderate infestation in a wheat field can reduce yields by up to half. Its profusion is a big reason today’s Western fires burn more land, more frequently and with more ferocity than in the past, scientists say. Unlike well-spaced native bunchgrasses, cheatgrass — its scientific name is Bromus tectorum, or downy brome — crowds tightly together and then dies early each summer to form dense mats of tinder. After fires, cheatgrass thrives even as native flora struggle to return. After more than a half-century of largely failed efforts to thwart the Sherman’s march of cheatgrass, a researcher may have a powerful new weapon against it. Ann Kennedy, a soil scientist with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, has discovered naturally occurring soil bacteria that inhibit the growth of the weed’s deep root system, its competitive advantage, even as those bacteria leave native plants untouched...more

Monday, October 05, 2015

Drunk squirrel thrown from bar after causing hundreds of dollars worth of damage

A private members club secretary went nuts after he opened up his bar to find hundreds of pounds worth of damage had been caused - by a drunk squirrel. Sam Boulter, 62, originally thought the premises had been ransacked by burglars after he opened up at 8pm on Sunday evening. But he was stunned when a sozzled squirrel emerged from behind a box of crisps "staggering around" - having managed to empty an entire barrel of beer onto the floor. As well as flooding the place with Caffreys ale, the critter had knocked glasses and bottles from the shelves as well as straws, beer mats and money off the bar. Sam and two customers spent an hour trying to capture the squirrel as he gave them the runaround at the Honeybourne Railyway Club, near Evesham, Worcestershire. Eventually Sam managed to corner the animal after it dashed into the gents toilet - where he caught it inside a waste paper bin before throwing it out a toilet window. Yesterday the branch secretary of the club said the rodent had caused around £300 worth of damage. "It's safe to say he is now barred from the club for life."...more

Two Illegal Aliens Found Guilty of Murdering Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

After hours of deliberation, jurors found two illegal aliens guilty on all counts in connection with the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The guilty verdict confirms that Ivan Soto Barraza and Jesus Leonel Sanchez Mesa, two men who had entered the country illegally as part of a crew of gunmen bent on robbing drug cartel smugglers, killed Terry during a shootout. Defense attorneys tried to claim that the men were not there to commit a robbery and that the shooting was done in self-defense. Terry was a member of the elite BORTAC team that had been working in the area known as Mesquite Seep. The agents had moved to arrest the gunmen and yelled out “policia,” however, the gunmen pointed their weapons at them prompting the agents to fire. Trial testimony revealed that the agents fired their less-lethal ammunition or bean bags as per agency policy but the rip crew fired with bullets, one of which ricocheted and killed Terry. As reported by Breitbart Texas, the weapons used in that trial proved controversial since two them came from the failed ATF operation Fast and Furious...more

DOJ: Mexican Cartel Used Middle Eastern Honor System to Launder U.S. Currency

Court documents filed in federal court claim that a suspected drug traffickers linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel used a Middle Eastern honor system to launder drug proceeds. Known as a Hawala, members of the conspiracy would be hired by cartel members in Canada and Mexico to move drug proceeds through the honor system that does not leave a paper trail as couriers move the money between countries. “Drug traffickers in Canada would generate drug proceeds from multi-kilogram and multi-pound sales and distribution of drugs provided by Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel,” court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed. A Hawala need two brokers who would transfer the money between each other on a trust basis thus not leaving behind any promissory notes or legally binding documents for authorities to seize...more

Juárez Mayor Forgets City’s Violent History in Absurd ‘Sicario’ Film Lawsuit Plans

As Breitbart Texas recently reported, Enrique Serrano Escobar, the mayor of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (just south of El Paso, Texas) stated he aims to sue the makers of the fiction film “Sicario” in a U.S. court for “moral damages” to the city. Escobar said the movie depicts violent incidents that don’t currently reflect the city, telling Mexico’s El Norte newspaper, “It hurts the image of Juarenses.” However, Escobar seems to have forgotten that Cuidad Juárez is still host to two major drug cartels and over 400 street gangs. Starting in 2007, the annual murder rate in Ciudad Juárez began to skyrocket in parallel with a war between the Sinaloa Federation and the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, a.k.a. the Juárez cartel. The war peaked in 2010, when Juárez earned the nickname “Murder City” for its death toll of over 3,600, per New Mexico State University researcher Molly Molloy. In the years since, the nature of the violence in Ciudad Juárez has evolved. Federation kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán began employing local gangs in the city, along with police forces, to do the dirty work for him in forcing the Juárez cartel into submission. Homicides no longer solely involved cartel members; it slowly changed into a dangerous mix of cartel activity and local gang warfare. As the Federation’s strategy began to succeed, the murder rate began dropping, reaching 434 deaths in 2014 according to the US State Department. However, those numbers are still higher than the homicides in Detroit (300), Chicago (390), and New York City (328) during the same year. The source and manner of homicides that do occur in Cuidad Juárez is also very similar to those in Mexican cities with higher death tolls, and some doubt that Ciudad Juárez is really “back.” Luis Chapparo wrote an article for VICE in June 2014 in which he stated, “The ‘rebirth’ of Ciudad Juárez might just be a temporary phenomenon. Some believe that before the year is up, the war will return.” Scott Stewart, vice president of Stratfor—a US-based intelligence and analysis firm—told VICE he agreed with this assessment. “The border corridor of drugs between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas, is returning to the hands of the Juarez Cartel, after a weakening of their rivals in Mexico,” Stewart said...more

Mexican Heroin Flows North in Pellets, Planes

He practiced with baby carrots, swallowing them whole, easing them down his throat with yogurt. Later came the heroin pellets, each loaded with 14 grams of powder, machine-wrapped in wax paper and thick latex. Long gone were the days of swallowing hand-knotted, drug-filled condoms. The Mexican drug trafficking organizations were always perfecting their craft. On this trip, Gerardo Vargas would swallow 71 pellets — a full kilo, just over two pounds, enough for as many as 30,000 hits at $10 a pop on American streets. And so before he set off on his 3,900-mile journey from Uruapan, Mexico, Vargas was given the rules: No soda, because it could erode the pellets’ wrapping. No orange juice, either. Drink only water. He was told which airports to avoid, which places to go, his every move orchestrated by his handler in Mexico. And don’t eat anything, he was told, until reaching the final destination: Dayton, Ohio, one of the new frontiers of the American heroin epidemic. A sophisticated farm-to-arm supply chain is fueling America’s surging heroin appetite, causing heroin to surpass cocaine and meth to become the nation’s No. 1 drug threat for the first time. As demand has grown, the flow of heroin — a once-taboo drug now easier to score in some cities than crack or pot — has changed, too. Mexican cartels have overtaken the U.S. heroin trade, imposing an almost corporate discipline. They grow and process the drug themselves, increasingly replacing their traditional black tar with an innovative high-quality powder with mass market appeal: It can be smoked or snorted by newcomers as well as shot up by hard-core addicts...more

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy


Testing the boundaries of marital bliss

by Julie Carter

The term “marital bliss” used during any moment of working cattle at the ranch is said only with the greatest sarcasm. It denotes an impressive amount of verbal restraint indicating the likelihood of an explosive flood of expletives building behind a failing dam of good sense.

Husband and wife ranchers represent the best and the worst of wedded teamwork in sustaining their livelihood in remote locations that come with their own kind of difficulties. If they weren’t speaking to each other before the work happens, they wisely will refrain from it during and after, if only to save on the accident insurance.

A cowboy husband usually has high expectations of his only help, the little missus, when it comes to bailing him out of a bind that he won’t admit he probably shouldn’t have gotten into in the first place. Those expectations don’t lessen with the increase of age –his or his bride’s.

Cell phones have made it ever so much easier for him to get some help when he’s roped himself into a place of needing a second set of hands. The sound of that “ring ring” brings with it both dread and aggravation because it means drop whatever you are doing and come running.

“Bring a rope, a tie down string, pliers and the pickup. I’ve got a heifer down. Now!”

This is coming from a cowboy with a bit of gray around the ears and a few skeletal parts that have been surgically replaced, so the days of roping, tripping and doctoring alone are a thing of the painful past. Add to that a green and very fresh young horse, and yes, probably wasn’t the best recipe at this time for the project, but it happened.

The wife in her mucking-out-the-house wardrobe of cut off pants and a t-shirt takes a minute to throw on socks and shoes, races around to gather up the ordered items and drives off across the pasture not knowing quite sure where he is exactly. Sure enough, “ring ring.” “I’m over here, your drove right past me,” he says with not-so-veiled aggravation.

She gets turned around on a rough two-track road, drives back across the pasture and finds him with a yearling heifer he has tripped, lying at the end of the rope dallied to the saddle horn. The wife takes the tie string, ties up the two hind feet, puts another rope on the front feet and hands him the rope. He switches ropes, stretches the heifer out and the wife gets the pliers and begins pulling porcupine quills from the less-than-happy heifer’s nose.

The cowboy bride has thoughts of “I’m getting too old for this kind of stuff” as the heifer thrashes and fights her restraints. She gets the job done with a measurable amount of huffing and puffing and for reasons known only to him, the cowboy is a tad testy when it’s all over. She doesn’t ask why, or really care at this point. She gets the ropes off the bovine who jumps up and takes off at a run.

Insuring the beloved feeling of the moment now that the crisis was over, he says to her, not “thanks” or “appreciate the help” but a surefire gunpowder moment of  “Sure wish I had a camera to get a picture of you in your Walmart shopping clothes.”

And, as they say, that’s when the fight started.

Julie can be reached for comment, if you dare, at jcarternm@gmail.com.


Babies

Wanted
BABIES
Dead or Alive
By Stephen L. Wilmeth


            Aging has many complications. Quite frankly, there are things that get harder and harder.
            No, these issues don’t necessarily reflect declining physical ability. These issues happen to relate to the mental anguish demonstrated through the witness of societal deportment and behavior. Ongoing atrocities are particularly distressing, but parallel factors of what I can and can’t control have a way of manifesting themselves. The best example in my world is baby calves, especially those calves that are orphaned, or, in our parlance, dogied. Nothing causes me more grief than to see a baby calf trying to hang onto life without any maternal assistance. Without a doubt, it is the most difficult thing for me to face as a rancher. I am a total wuss and I admit it.
            Short of that good mother, the next best thing is a nurse cow and that usually means a milk cow. There are also some rare individuals who have learned to care for these little guys that have lost the window of opportunity to nurse and find themselves in dire straights. There is a fellow in our neck of the woods, Gary Harper, who fits that calling. Gary and I have worked a deal and he has filled the role of life giver if and when we find ourselves in that predicament. I respect his skill immensely. Perhaps more than that, I respect his desire to undertake the responsibility. He creates a positive out of a negative and fills a hopeless void with humor and hope.
            The world needs more of his kind of stewardship.
            AMENDEMENT XIV
            Yes, there it is.
            Proposed on June 13, 1866 and ratified July 9, 1868, the Amendment’s Section 1 reads, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
            That is the constitutional premise our government uses to obligate us and future generations to the unfunded liabilities and entitlements to babies born to foreigners on American soil. It doesn’t matter that the amendment dealt specifically with solidification of rights of citizenship to slaves after the Civil War. The current application has nothing to do with slavery much less the fact most of those newly vested babies will never live in the state of his or her birth. It has only to do with what now must be considered a long standing growth industry. As such, we have no choice but to label it the propagation of American constitutional rights for foreigners. It is the phenomenon of pass goal and drop (baby). It is the game being played whereby the pregnant foreigner coordinates her delivery date with a dash through customs at American portals of entry only to appear at the emergency room of a convenient birthing center. The new babies automatically become human tokens of value to be redeemed in the myriad of welfare programs that become available. They are citizens with every right of every legitimate citizen that ever walked.
That had to be what the ratifying states envisioned back in 1868, right?
Indeed, after the slaves were given full rights, the next phase of the program was intended to spread the richness of America to every corner of the world. The vectors would become the pregnant world citizens who could squeeze themselves through to the concourse turnstiles of arriving international flights or waddle across the foot bridge crossings on the Rio Grande. It is all there is black and white. Even O’Reilly has studied the verbiage and declares those babies … Americans.
            Following delivery, the welfare program experts walking the birthing floors in the hospitals in places like El Paso, Tucson, Los Angeles and San Francisco can visit with the new mother and explain to her the programs her baby made available. Most are government representatives, but private enterprise is also in on the action. Last Sunday, The Westerner ran an article on the budding birth tourism industry of California. In the Bay Area for example, third trimester foreigners can check themselves into birthing cottages at the modest rate of $4K per month and wait for their next little American to appear. If they have planned correctly and nature takes its natural course, they have been prepped to make their menu driven program selections. If things get a bit dicey and lucky baby decides to arrive early, the selection process will have to be done during the recovery phase of the great experience.
            In either case, the birthing of foreign additions to the rolls of American programs represents big money. That applies to the revenue exhaustion of the process itself as well as summation of the unfunded liabilities for the next 80 years. The supporters of all this extra-constitutionality suggest America is a bastion of moral authority. Meanwhile, the American tax payer must be reminded his fiscal incarceration in this matter is promulgated by the genius and the vision of the authors … of the XIV Amendment.
            The kill plants
            My state, New Mexico, has taken the progressive low road and decided kill plants for horses are dastardly things. That position, which includes the stance of Governor Susana Martinez, parallels the position of the USDA which is maneuvering to eliminate any chance of the humane killing of horses by refusing to provide inspectors. Without the inspectors, meat plants cannot operate. No laws have been passed, but regulatory fiat by the agency has created the law banning horse slaughter. The combination must suggest that no civilized society should kill horses for any reason. By acclamation, there is no longer any right time to kill a horse in the United States even if it comes to that point it is the best thing for the animal.
            The alternative, of course, will be the continuation of the caravans of trucks headed south into Mexico where the horses will be hung on hooks only to have their throats cut.
            At the same time of such low road morality, the baby kill shops in this country are performing abortions at a rate faster than one every 90 seconds. If the killing of those babies isn’t bad enough, the revelation that the kill shops (including those of the largest service provider, Planned Parenthood) are harvesting and selling the organs and pieces of those babies is just unfathomable. In America, a simple fact has been highlighted.
Horses have more rights than unborn babies.
Furthermore, American enterprise cannot kill horses, but they can proceed with the business of killing babies. After all, it is government mega business. Planned Parenthood sucks off at least $528M annually and the political implications of that are immense.
Despite the outrage …despite the horror, this government will likely continue the funding. Senate Majority Leader, Mitch (Foghorn) McConnell has coerced a vote that will fund the government through December 11. That necessarily implies that this is a continued done deal. Foghorn and his lackeys will earn the plaudits from the Washington elites by, once again, avoiding any hint of the distasteful political government shut down, but they will also demonstrate that having a majority in Congress means nothing when there is no will or inclination to lead.
McConnell will also sanction something much more sinister. He needs to be exposed and held accountable. It is the matter of his priorities and dirty money concerns. It is scandalous and historic. It is diabolical and unthinkable. It is inconceivable and ruthless. It is the unconscionable notion that, in America under his leadership, babies are indeed wanted … dead or alive.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “I find myself heart sick over this spectacle of my government. Even if this stops … we are now in jeopardy of eternal judgment.”

Baxter Black - Horses I Have Known

My first horse was named Maggie. I was in the third grade. Father gave me an old cavalry saddle, split down the middle, light enough I could lift it. It was so uncomfortable I rode bareback. I went to a one-room schoolhouse with six grades. I was the only kid in the third grade! Our house was on one side of the horse pasture and the schoolhouse was on the other. I rode Maggie to school and walked home.

When we moved from Texas to New Mexico, my new horse was named Buck. He was a good horse to grow up on. In the ensuing years in Colorado, I’ve had Cricket, who went with the divorce; Coyote, who raised my daughter; Bay, who had ring bone; Leo, a rope horse who wore a bikini top over his right eye to keep him from turning out; one with a King Ranch brand who tore down my tack room; Reven Bubba, a colt; then Sonny, a left-handed heeling horse. Not to mention several I just bought and sold.

In Arizona, we made Sonny a ranch horse. Various others followed. They all do ranch work.
In my life of traveling, I’ve ridden many borrowed horses on trail rides, at ropings and on parades, but one deserves my highest praise. I was participating in a celebrity roping event in Guthrie, Okla. Red Steagall lent me his ambidextrous white horse named Toby. I drew up with Fred Whitfield, eight times world championship roper. I saw Fred during the afternoon practice. It was a little intimidating. I was horseless, afoot and ranked low in skill. He rode over to me and said, looking down from his throne, “You just go out there and rope him if you can, and if by some chance you do, I’ll rope the heels.”

I stammered, “Uh … I’m left-handed.”

He looked at me like I’d just pooped on the carpet, turned his horse and rode away.

That evening, he said, “OK, I’ll rope him and try to drag him real slow so you might be able to catch at least one foot.” I said, “Fred, rope him as fast as you can and turn him hard.” He gave me the eagle eye. I could imagine him thinking, “He ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”



How much will EPA’s new ozone rule cost you?

By

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it was toughening the country’s rules for ground-level ozone — what’s commonly known as smog, which comes from sources such as tailpipes and smokestacks — it caught flak from environmental groups and business officials.

But when all is said and done, the people most affected financially figures to be everyday Americans who will almost certainly pay higher prices in their utility bills and the products they buy.
“They’re going to pay more for everything that’s made in the United States, if those things continue to be made in the United States,” said Dan Kish, senior energy and regulatory policy expert at Institute for Energy Research.

...How much will the new rule cost the average American? Business groups insist the new regulation will be remarkably expensive.

The National Association of Manufacturers released a study in February claiming updated rules will cost the U.S. economy $1.7 trillion between 2017 and 2040.  Another study compiled by NERA Economic Consulting at the request of the manufacturing group estimated that reducing ozone regulations to 65 ppb would cost the average household $830 a year.

...A big reason for the expense? Stricter ozone regulations means factories and power plants have to install scrubbers and other technologies on smokestacks to reduce the chemicals put into the air. Scrubbers can cost tens of millions of dollars and each degree that the ozone standard is lowered, the costs pile up.

...Last month, Colorado’s top two Democrats — Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet — said they were “deeply concerned” whether the Rocky Mountain State could afford to make the changes needed and echoed complaints from other high-altitude states such as New Mexico that stricter ozone standards hurt them more than states closer to sea level.

“Because of pollution that’s coming in from other Western states, from across the globe, from across wildfires in the West, we have significant parts of our state that would be non-attainment zones from the very beginning of the law,” Bennett said. “That doesn’t make any sense, it’s not going to work.”



Let's say you're in a situation where you don't have to put up with the FS or BLM and you haven't been touched by any endangered species designations.  Or maybe you're a city dweller. You might be saying, "Thankfully, I'm free of all this environmental crud."  The above is just one example of why you need to think again.  Trucks, stock and horse trailers, fencing supplies, windmill parts, etc. are all going to cost more.  Or, SUVs, camping trailers, hunting equipment, backyard swing sets, or any other manufactured item you use will see price increases.  Not to mention the jobs lost and fines to your state that you will end up paying for.  All over 5 parts per billion.  Are you still feeling free?

Professor pushes for preservation of Southwest’s underappreciated outhouses

Arroyo Seco, NM

by Russel Contreras

At a time when life could be harsh in the American Southwest, outhouses served more than one important role. They provided structure, protected water resources and created important social norms, a New Mexico professor says.

Many of the aging wooden structures still dot the landscape in the region and across the Great Plains. Richard Melzer, a University of New Mexico-Valencia history professor, wants to see the iconic buildings preserved before they’re gone from the memory and legacy of the Old West.

Melzer has been researching the historic lavatories and hopes his work will encourage outhouse conservation efforts, since they helped modernize areas like present-day New Mexico amid drought and limited plumbing.

“They had a tremendous cultural impact on the region,” said Melzer, who has collected hundreds of photos of old outhouses in New Mexico.

The outhouses assisted in creating social norms on sanitation and personal hygiene, he said.
In New Mexico, they served residents such as ranch hands tending to cattle and rural teachers educating the children of chile pickers. And they did so while protecting the environment and important water resources.

Stein, NM
Inside, one might find a Bible, old tools or catalogs from Montgomery Ward or Sears, Roebuck and Co. Two seats meant a higher economic status for owners, and the walls might be plastered with wallpaper to keep away insects or unwanted audiences.

Such items can still be found in some abandoned outhouses.

“They tell the story of the past,” Melzer said.

The exact number of historic outhouses throughout the Southwest and Great Plains is unknown.

The New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, for example, says around 40 outhouses occupy historic ranches and homesteads in the state.

But Melzer says there likely are hundreds more in the Southwest, and people are beginning to collect them. One Roswell aficionado has amassed around a dozen or so, he said.


"Billy the Kid" Lincoln, NM


Have we got to the point where instead of saying, "George Washington slept here", we are saying "Billy the Kid shit here"?

It may be the official state and federal policy to "wipe" the country clean of ranchers, but by golly they're gonna save those outhouses.  You could call it the "Crush the Cowboy but Save the Shitter" campaign. 

Friday, October 02, 2015

Ranchers fight radical ESA lawsuit that would criminalize innocent mistakes

Associations of farmers and ranchers in the Southwest have just moved to intervene to oppose an activist group’s lawsuit that seeks to radically expand prosecutions under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) list. The activist lawsuit aims to impose criminal liability for “takes” (i.e., harms) that happen by innocent mistake, such as by not recognizing the species, or not knowing it was listed, or causing harm in an entirely inadvertent and unintended way.The activist lawsuit is WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Department of Justice, pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The organizations that filed a motion to intervene late yesterday are: the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau, and New Mexico Federal Lands Council. They are all represented by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), the leading watchdog organization for limited government, property rights and a balanced approach to environmental regulations. Donor-supported PLF represents these organizations free of charge, as with all PLF clients.  The clear language of the ESA spares innocent people from prosecution by limiting criminal liability to offenders who “knowingly” harmed a listed species. Under what is officially known as the McKittrick Policy, the U.S. Department of Justice interprets the “knowingly” requirement in the term’s literal sense, so that criminal liability does not apply unless the defendant knew that her actions would cause “take” and the identity of the species affected. The clear language of the ESA spares innocent people from prosecution by limiting criminal liability to offenders who “knowingly” harmed a listed species. Under what is officially known as the McKittrick Policy, the U.S. Department of Justice interprets the “knowingly” requirement in the term’s literal sense, so that criminal liability does not apply unless the defendant knew that her actions would cause “take” and the identity of the species affected. WildEarth Guardians is suing to invalidate that DOJ interpretation and policy, and twist the ESA’s intent, by imposing criminal liability even when there is no knowing commission of a wrong. The lawsuit is directed at harms to Mexican wolves in the Southwest, but its effects would extend nationwide, to “takes” of any of the more than 1,500 species on the ESA list...more

Utah Congressman Criticizes Federal Sage Grouse Protection; Governors testify

New federal land-use plan amendments designed to protect the greater sage grouse are a de facto listing under the Endangered Species Act, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee said during a Sept. 30 hearing on state authority in resource management and energy development. The Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service plans approved recently and announced in lieu of designating the chicken-sized, ground-dwelling bird as “endangered” or “threatened” imperil the economies of the 11 western states where the grouse are found, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said. Testifying at the hearing were the governors of four western states—Montana, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. In addition to the greater sage grouse and the Endangered Species Act, the governors and committee members discussed issues of natural resources extraction, wildfires, water management, economic development and other areas where federal and state policy priorities intersect and sometimes collide. The approval of the federal sage grouse conservation plans is “an effort that completely trumps state initiatives, which was the original purpose and the original goal” of the act, Bishop said. “It adds more power to the federal government to tell states what to do.” Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) agreed, saying his state spent $3 million developing a state sage grouse conservation plan, which is “now down the tubes.” `Piled On' “Now there are 15 different amendments and rules” in the land-use plans for Utah “that make it very difficult in my state for farming, for ranching, for commercial use, for energy extraction—in a part of the state with a tough economy,” he said. “They have just piled on and made it more difficult to conserve the bird.” Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R), while acknowledging the opposition to the plans by Utah and Idaho, said he supports the approach the Fish and Wildlife Service is taking to conserve the bird. Mead joined Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in Denver Sept. 22 for the announcement that the BLM and the Forest Service were moving forward with 98 land-use plan amendments. “We viewed it as good news,” Mead told the committee. “For Wyoming, a listing would have been catastrophic. We have land-use plans now, so this is not the end of the process. We need to make sure the federal government is on the road we feel they've agreed to. But had the bird been listed, 80 percent of the coal lands in our state would have been taken off line. We have a long ways to go, but it's better to have it not listed than listed.” Forest Management Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) told committee members that federal forest management in his state is “in tough shape.” “Our fire seasons are longer, hotter and more expensive,” he said. The Forest Service spends more than half its budget on firefighting and other fire-related expenses, he said. “Because of the costs of fighting fires, the agency has less money to spend on the very activities that would help reduce fire risk.” South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) said that, with respect to Endangered Species Act listing decisions, states should be empowered to take a lead role working with landowners and key partners. He said South Dakota continues to be affected by listings that are unfounded and outdated. “I have never seen a gray wolf in South Dakota,” he said. “And our state was never designated as an important area for the recovery of the gray wolf, yet after countless efforts to have South Dakota removed, we remain a state where wolves are listed as endangered.”...more

Federal judge halts enforcement of BLM fracking regulations

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Wyoming [official website] issued a preliminary injunction [order, pdf] on Wednesday prohibiting the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) [official websites] from enforcing regulations applying to hydraulic fracturing, also knows as "fracking." The regulations [text, PDF] at issue purport to govern fracking on federal and Native American tribal lands, and pertain mostly to wellbore construction, chemical disclosures, and water management in oil and gas development. Motions seeking the injunction were filed by Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Western Energy Alliance [organization websites], as well as the states of Colorado, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. In the order, Judge Scott Skavdahl found that Congress did not explicitly grant the BLM the power to regulate fracking and that an administrative agency does not inherently possess any powers without clear Congressional authority or statute. Ambiguity, the court said, is not enough to grant powers to the BLM...more

Congress lets sun set on Land and Water Conservation Fund

...yesterday, the 50-year-old fund, widely viewed as one of the nation’s most popular and most successful land conservation programs, was allowed to expire completely. Despite broad bipartisan support, and despite a deadline that was no surprise to anyone, Congress failed to take action to reauthorize it. That means that offshore oil and gas producers will no longer be paying into the chest that funds the program — and now that the funding connection has been broken, reinstating it will be very difficult, especially given the tone of this Congress. Instead, lawmakers will be dickering over how to divvy up former LWCF appropriations, which will now be going into the general treasury...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1503

Today's selection is Old Buckaroo, Goodbye by Gene Autry.  The tune was recorded in Los Angeles on October 15, 1937.  That's Carl Cotner on fiddle and Frank Marvin on steel guitar.  The Westerner http://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

https://youtu.be/dZodFFk04R8

Federal ruling invalidates New Mexico statute authorizing tree removal on national forest land


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A judge has struck down a state law that gave New Mexico counties the authority to clear overgrown areas on national forest land without having to get approval from the federal government. Chief U.S. District Judge Christina Armijo issued a ruling this week invalidating the statute, saying it was unconstitutional. Her ruling came in the case of an Otero County resolution that was based on the 2001 state law. The county passed its resolution in May 2011 and announced plans to thin more than 100 square miles on the Lincoln National Forest to reduce the threat of wildfire. The U.S. Forest Service sued, saying federal law pre-empted the statute and the resolution. Armijo ruled Congress — not the state or the county — has sole authority to control federal lands.  AP

The Dept. of Justice issued a statement:

The lawsuit sought an order declaring that the New Mexico statute and Otero County resolution were preempted by federal law and thus were unconstitutional.  The court held that Congress possesses the sole authority to control federal lands under the U.S. Constitution’s Property Clause.  The court went on to find that the Otero County resolution and New Mexico statute are in “direct conflict” with federal law, including Forest Service regulations prohibiting the cutting and removal of trees on National Forest lands without Forest Service authorization.  It also held that the resolution and statute were inconsistent with several federal statutes by which Congress has delegated the authority to manage National Forests to the Forest Service – not the State or the County.  

The following is language from the decision:

The Court thereafter considers the substantive two-part dispute between the United States and Otero County raised by their cross-motions for summary judgment. The first aspect of this dispute requires the Court to examine the line be tween the powers delegated to the United States by the Property Clause of the Constitution and those police powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment. The Court concludes that the Property Clause grants the federal government plenary power over federal lands, and consequently that the Tenth Amendment does not reserve an exclusive sovereign right to New Mexico to regulate federal lands in contravention of federal law. With respect to the second aspect of the dispute, the Court concludes that the New Mexico statute and Otero County Resolution conflict with federal law and therefore are invalid pursuant to the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. 

You can read the decision here.

Jane Fonda sells New Mexico ranch listed at $19.5 million

SANTA FE, N.M. — Jane Fonda’s ranch in northern New Mexico has finally sold after going on the market more than a year ago. The Swan Land Co. of Bozeman, Montana, confirmed Thursday that the actress’s Forked Lightning Ranch just north of Santa Fe has a buyer. “It’s an iconic northern New Mexico ranch located on the Pecos that generated a lot of national attention,” said Mike Swan, the owner of the real estate company. Swan would not release any details about the terms of the sale or the sales price due to confidentiality agreements. The original listing price was $19.5 million. Swan did say the buyer was “local” and had ties to New Mexico. Fonda bought the ranch in 2000 and spent two years scouting the property in search of the perfect location to build a new 9,600-square-foot home. It was featured in the March 2014 issue of Architectural Digest. At the time it was listed, Fonda said in a statement that the ranch had been a sanctuary and a place of joy and recreation for her and her family. Due to changes in her life, she said she was no longer able to spend as much time at the ranch and felt it was time to pass it on to a new owner. The ranch also includes a hacienda and a barn that were designed by renowned New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem in his signature Pueblo Revival style. The ranch was created in 1925 after the rodeo promoter and “King of the Rodeo” John “Tex” Austin purchased a series of parcels from the Pecos Pueblo Grant. The ranch once belonged to Dallas oilman E.E. “Buddy” Fogelson, who married actress Greer Garson in 1949.  AP

Governors of Montana, Wyoming testify on Endangered Species Act reform

The process of removing Endangered Species Act protections from recovered species should be made more straightforward and predictable not only for the benefit of business but of animals and plants still imperiled, two governors told federal lawmakers Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has removed wolves and grizzly bears in Montana and Wyoming from federal protection in recent years only to see lawsuits restore their protected status. Nobody disputes both animals have proliferated — a headache for ranchers as they prey upon sheep and cattle beyond the Yellowstone area. Yet grizzlies remain classified as threatened region-wide, and wolves remain endangered in Wyoming, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Species lingering on the threatened and endangered lists also are a challenge for coal, oil and gas developers in Wyoming, which exports more energy than any other state, said Mead, a Republican. “How can I tell a company, ‘Come into Wyoming, start your development, but I can’t tell you if you can get it through in one year, three years, five years, a decade?’ ” Mead said. Republican committee members including Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, suggested changes to the law, such as requiring states to agree to endangered species listings, might be in order. Mead likewise has made coming up with ideas for changing the act a priority of his yearlong term as chairman of the Western Governors’ Association. He described the act as broken. “The delisting process must become more straightforward so we can focus our collective resources on species that may need more attention,” said Bullock, a Democrat. Of more than 1,500 species listed as threatened or endangered since the act was passed in 1973, only 30 have been delisted because they have recovered, Mead pointed out...more

A Snowball’s Chance

by

Abraham Henson Meadows was born under an oak tree in a snowstorm. After his family moved to Arizona in 1877, he grew into a big-strapping cowboy, standing at six feet six, and competed in Payson’s first cowboy contest in 1884. Five years later, Buffalo Bill Cody saw Tom Horn and Meadows rope in Tucson and offered them both a job with his Wild West show. Horn declined, but “Arizona Charlie” ended up touring the world, eventually launching his own show. When he trekked to the Yukon Territory for the gold rush, he built the Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson, which is still in operation. After he cashed out, he retired in Yuma, thinking the city’s hot clime would allow him to beat his premonition that he would die as he was born, in a snowstorm. On December 9, 1932, a freak snowstorm hit Yuma, and Arizona Charlie died after operating on his own varicose veins with a pocket knife. He was 73.

True West

Thursday, October 01, 2015

PRCA: Eight cowboys make WNFR cut in last weekend

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. >> Pressure was a good friend to a handful of PRCA cowboys during the final week (Sept. 21-27) of the 2015 regular season. Tie-down roper Shane Hanchey, steer wrestler Blake Knowles, bull riders Reid Barker and Kody DeShon, team roping brothers Riley Minor and Brady Minor and saddle bronc rider Tyrel Larsen all came through in the clutch to jump into the top 15 in the standings and punch their tickets to the prestigious Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Dec. 3-12 in Las Vegas. Steer roper J. Tom Fisher joined his brother, Vin, in the field for the Nov. 6-7 Clem McSpadden National Finals Steer Roping in Mulvane, Kan. “This is relieving to say the least,” said Hanchey, the 2013 world champion. “It was a stressful summer. I had only won like $1,000 until April, and it felt like the whole year I was trying to catch back up to everybody. I wasn’t in the top 15 all year until the last day of the season.” In the Sept. 21 Windham Weaponry High Performance PRCA World Standings, Hanchey was 19th, but he was able to move up to 15th thanks to winning $6,041 the final week. All of Hanchey’s winnings came at the Justin Boots Championships Sept. 25 in Omaha, Neb., when his 7.3-second run was good enough to split the first-round win with Trevor Brazile. He posted a 7.6 in the finals to finish second behind Cade Swor. “It was awesome,” Hanchey said. “I’ve been telling people all year that the great quarterbacks win in the fourth quarter and I believe that with the ropers, too. The great ropers win when it counts the most. I just kept telling myself I have to be there in (Vegas). My family didn’t believe I made the NFR until they saw the updated standings.” Hanchey is making his sixth trip to the WNFR, all in the last six years...more

Rodeo ‘rebellion’ could impact Stampede


By LEW FREEDMAN

A cowboy rebellion has thrust the top rodeo competitors into a civil war with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and led to the equivalent of nuclear retaliation from the governing body of the sport.

And while Cody Stampede organizers worry their historic  July 4 rodeo could face wide-ranging implications, they are determined not to become collateral damage.


“The longer it goes on the worse it is for rodeo,” said Mike Darby, president of the Stampede Board. “I hope rodeo is strong enough to withstand this.”

A group of cowboys has announced it will spend next season focusing on an Elite Rodeo Athletes League of Champions, leading to a November 2016 championship in Dallas and intends to put tickets up for sale this November.

They also announced a television contract with FOX Sports to show the entire ERA schedule (which has not been announced), but accounting for 42 hours of programming.

Trevor Brazile, the winningest rodeo cowboy of all time with 21 world championships, said the network “gives us the opportunity to showcase the sport of rodeo on a national stage.” 
Soon after, the PRCA board of directors approved new bylaws that take effect  today, Oct. 1, for the 2016 season.

The broadside includes the following language: “Any person applying for membership who is an officer, board member, employee, or has an ownership or financial interest in any form in a Conflicting Rodeo Association shall not be issued a membership permit or renewal of membership with the PRCA.”

And, the definition of a conflicting rodeo stated, “events not sanctioned by the PRCA in which contestants compete in two or more...” amongst the usual rodeo events from bareback riding to bull riding.

Board of directors chairman Keith Martin said the new rules “will better serve the quality and popularity of our sport.”

The new bylaws would bar stars of the sport who are supporting the ERA from competing in PRCA-sanctioned rodeos, of which there are about 600, including the Cody Stampede.

Dating to 1920 and called the richest one-header rodeo of the summer, the Stampede offers about $400,000 in prize money and attracts sellout crowds to Stampede Park, to see fields all events featuring the best in the world – many of the same riders expected to be part of the ERA.

 “There is some concern. We’re hoping it works itself out,” Darby said.

If backed into a corner by the warring factions, Darby said the Cody board will do what it takes to preserve the high-quality Stampede show.

“We’ll do the best we can to provide top-notch entertainment for our audience,” he said.

Noting the Calgary Stampede and the winter Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, two of the largest rodeos, operate without PRCA approval, Darby said, “They’re not hurting.”

The Stampede could take a similar drastic step to proceed without PRCA sanction.

“It will be an option,” Darby said. “We certainly hope we don’t have to use that.”

Maury Tate, who has been operator of Cody Nite Rodeo for the last 11 seasons and works hand-in-glove with the Stampede, said the startling PRCA action definitely can affect the Stampede.
“The way that reads,” Tate said of the new rules, “they cannot have the Cody Stampede. I think the PRCA needs to worry about their job to put on good rodeos.”

As early as January 2014, a group of world champions and highly ranked cowboys sent signals they might split from the PRCA.

The idea was floated on Facebook and steer wrestler K.C. Jones said, “It’s time for a change.”
Publicly, the matter receded for months, but it recently burst into the limelight again.

Patrick Smith, a world-champion team roper who is Brazile’s partner, said from Texas the creation of the ERA is “nothing more than adding more opportunities for the cowboy. We’re looking at taking this sport from an entertainment venue to a sporting venue.”

Unlike major team sport athletes in the U.S., cowboys are essentially independent contractors. They receive no travel compensation and have no company insurance. Players on the professional golf and tennis tours also support themselves from tournament winnings but generally have much larger purses.

While the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December has about $10 million at stake, many rodeo purses are small. 

Smith said he was about to drive his horse and trailer to Florida for a rodeo and if he wins his event he will collect $5,000.

“But how much does it take to bring my rig?” said Smith, who is 35. “This is not a matter of greed. I don’t want to spend my life working at a car lot when I retire.”

Just as the PRCA officials said when approving the restrictive bylaws, Smith said, “This is all about the future of rodeo.”

The present of rodeo may resemble the past of rodeo.

In 1936, cowboys went on strike before the Boston Garden Rodeo, claiming they were underpaid. They formed the Cowboys’ Turtle Association, the forerunner of the PRCA.

 Professional sport in the U.S. is littered with failed leagues from the Federal League in Major League Baseball to the American Basketball Association, the World Hockey Association and the World Football League and United States Football League.

It took the decade of the 1960s for labor peace and a merger to prevail between the National Football League and the American Football League.

Along the way there were team casualties, cities that lost franchises and financial blood-letting between owners.

Smith acknowledged there may be  similar bruising in the rodeo world before things are settled.
“Sure, absolutely,” Smith said. “But the cowboys eventually have to stand up. This is what needs to happen with the sport. I think there’s a way to change the sport, but the only way is to take drastic steps.”

At the NFR last December, PRCA Commissioner Karl Stressman said, “The financial picture of the PRCA is stronger than it’s ever been. To say that 2015 is a year we can’t wait to see is an understatement.”

It is not clear if Stressman still feels that way about 2015 because he is not talking. Requests for interviews with Stressman were turned aside.

Officials said questions submitted in writing were welcome, but there was no timetable for answers. The Enterprise submitted a list of questions around 4 p.m. Monday but received no responses.
Instead, PRCA officials said Stressman would issue a statement but none was released.

A key battleground apparently will be the Wrangler Champions Challenge, which has completed two full seasons and one shorter one highlighting the same elite cowboys who wish to break away.
That circuit came to Cody for the first time Aug. 16 and the Stampede Board hoped for a renewal. Any agreement to make a return appearance is on hold because of this PRCA-cowboys friction, Darby said. He said the first casualty of this war may be the Champions Challenge.

When the bylaws passed, Stressman used the Champions Challenge and its CBS Sports tie-in as an example of how cowboys are gleaning more money.

“There are always naysayers,” is what Smith says when he hears the Elite Rodeo Athletic league won’t work.

 Ignoring the fact that the cowboy rebellion triggered the PRCA bylaw action, Smith said, “The PRCA has fired the first shot.”

Still, despite strong rhetoric, Smith said he would rather elite cowboys and PRCA officials  negotiate.
“Let’s work together,” he said.

There is time before 2016.

(Lew Freedman can be reached at lew@codyenterprise.com.)

This article is from the Cody Enterprise