Feeling used?
Cardinal Rights
And, the loser is …
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
We got .94” of rain overnight Wednesday at our headquarters.
By 4:30 the next morning, I knew from the doppler summary the north half of the ranch got nothing while the south half was hit. Since our cow herd is in the Burris pasture awaiting rotation to the Coldiron and Lazy E pastures, the rain was welcome. We now have some added flex because of the freshening of these three pastures. The calendar date of rotation might be delayed. That will give BJ and me some time to continue working on our headquarters corral. We are moving our runup, palpation cage, and chute to make our jobs easier and the cattle safer in our fall cow works. We will even have electricity.
It was with that bit of bliss the morning started, but it wouldn’t last long. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pickup coming through the corral gate. “That’s the guy that has been shooting at the gravel pit,” BJ hissed in my ear as I turned.
What he was referring to were successive encounters he had the first days of dove season. A group of hunters had come onto the ranch and proceeded to go through private lands to our gravel pit. BJ had driven down and confronted them and they summarily told him they had been given permission and were going to stay and hunt. The same thing occurred the next evening and it wasn’t until the third day that he told me what had transpired.
I had given this fellow no permission to hunt, and … I knew who he was.
Cardinal Rights
We met in the middle of the corral. He had exited his pickup to open the gate and I had dropped my gloves and walked toward him. Within seconds he was telling me he thought he was on state land during the shooting. In the ensuing discussion, he indicated he had been given permission to hunt there years ago. The fact that we had been here for nearly 17 years and the permission had not come from us didn’t matter. All in all, it was a discussion that was noteworthy only on the basis of hostilities and polemic discontent. He knew full well he was on private land or he wouldn’t have made any attempt to justify his actions.
What I was most upset about was how he had summarily treated our employee. I must also admit, though, that my whole attitude toward him became more confrontational when he suggested the relatively inconsequential rights I have regarding our private property. The exact words are lost, but he and his hunting colleagues have millions of acres to our measly thousands as if there was a cardinal value of ranking accrued to his fraternity by acreage ownership.
Furthermore, my ranching existence was a gift granted to me from the public and I should be grateful for such a privilege to use his and their lands. The obvious result of such lingering generosity is the fact that I am still on their lands. If I had not enjoyed gleaned profits, my operation would cease to exist.
There is reason to suggest our water means nothing, either. The fact that every drop of water on these 90 sections are here because livestock are paying the bills held no sway. It was then on to wildlife and just because you can seldom find a deer track at any water didn’t mean there weren’t abundant deer on the place. I just didn’t know how to find them, and, when I am gathering or moving cattle, I “scare them out of the country”.
Wow, and … we are supposed to coexist in this contentious environment!
Feeling Used?
It is interesting watching the press coverage that Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke is getting. From current buzz phraseology, he is certainly encountering some head winds, isn’t he? I was particularly drawn to his comment about all the antagonism he is experiencing amongst his troops. Their actual allegiance seems to have gravitated to the “inhuman” side of their environmental world.
Perhaps naively, I trusted what he said when he looked us in the eye and told us he had our backs in this monument discussion. What has transpired since, though, has allowed a great deal of doubt to creep in. The antagonism toward our way of life as displayed by the standoff in my home corrals has been magnified by Zinke's actions. On one hand, the proponents of adding great expanses to Camelot have been emboldened by his hints of leaving footprints (aside from four monuments) intact. On the other, they are on edge toward any suggestion of adding protective language for the folks who are being gored by the extralegal application of the Antiquities Act. That anticipation of uncertainty is uncomfortable. They are not used to such discomfort. They have grown bold by having their way.
The crew represented by the hunter in my corral, however, must recognize their days are numbered. Their position is much more tentative than their celebrated conquest may suggest. If they think the support from the deep greens over hunting will persist, they are not just mistaken they are blind. Their numbers were needed as was their nativism in this environmental debate. Their interest in blood sport is not just antagonistic to the environmental movement it is countervailing.
They have been used merely as pawns in a political battle. They have been set up to be the agents of their own demise.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Let’s get this straight. I have now had a discussion with a deep green to end all hunting on this monument and another to secure hunters’ rights (oh, and yes, mine) by lobbying and advocating for designation language changes. And the loser is … Hmmm.”
Concerning Wilmeth's last point, here are a few recent headlines from our neighboring state and elsewhere...
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