Hallowed Ground

Horse Tracks

Hallowed Ground

Lee

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The question must be asked.

Who was the speech the President gave on the environment intended to reach? It certainly doesn’t seem to fit the border ranchers and cowboys who have taken to wearing pistols in their normal, daily endeavors.

The long shadow of border protection was illuminated in a recent discussion with yet another CBP official. In discussing the smiles that the cartels must now wear on a near permanent basis due to the closure of highway checkpoints and the reassignment of personnel to receive and process cross border invaders, his comments were straight forward.

“Within 15 minutes of the announcement the checkpoints were to be closed, social media across Mexico had announced the news”.

Today, now months after the closure, there is no change and no suggestion that anything is changing on the horizon. The border is open for business.

Hallowed Ground

Part of the day yesterday was spent horseback.

At issue were remnants of cattle out of assigned pasture and the need to close the gate(s) left open by unknown monument visitors. Fences are of paramount importance, and in our case of being federal lands ranchers, penalty can be assessed under the demand of seasonal pasture restrictions. The restriction this time was brush control protocol that disallows grazing during the growing season.

So, Cartero and I were gathering fence violators aided by folks the President must have been talking about when he said, “We are ensuring future generations receive the benefit of an enduring wilderness system.”

Their freedoms of visitation and enjoyment equate to our threat of penalty after they have their fun and drive back to the urban sanctuaries. Our lives go on.

The latter, of course, brought home another point made in the White House speech. “We’re making our lands better, and cleaner, and safer.”

Our neighbor to the south (a big ranch that runs to within a few miles of the border) stands in stark juxtaposition to that phraseology. Walking together after a county commission meeting that dealt with the disallowance of moneys (from our grazing fees rerouted back to the county for very specific uses for farm and ranch improvement issues) to be used for predator control, he mentioned he was getting more pressure from his family to leave this country. In his case, it isn’t just the danger of an uncontrolled border that ignites the family discourse. It is the encompassing federal border wilderness that now strangles his entire operation.

All that 1.3 million acres of wilderness and expanded recreational access the President waxed and waned over is going to shut down any and all future improvements he could possibly envision. His ranch is completely submerged in that incredibly dangerous border wilderness area. Simply driving down the road to ranch infrastructure is no longer assured.

“Protect America’s extraordinary blessings for the next generation and many generations frankly to come,” in no way applies to his blessings, freedoms, or investments. He is going to be sacrificed for those same urban dwellers who enjoy all this protected land on the basis and comparison to a grand spectator sport.

“Reshoring production all the way, taking it away from foreign polluters and back to American soil” in no way applies to his extraordinary efforts to make improvements to be more productive, sustaining, and environmentally friendly.

He is being sacrificed by the 116^th Congress with seemingly accelerated change from the counterparts in the recent past. I know. I see it in his eyes, and I hear it in his voice.

We talk among ourselves because there is nobody else who understands … certainly not our government.

Horse Tracks

The passage of my great-great grandfather in 1884 didn’t cross our ranch on the Butterfield Trail. The Rio Grande was flooding that fall and the new railroad trestle at Franklin (modern day El Paso) was open for business. He made a deal with the railroad and loaded his possessions in entirety and road the train across the swollen river. He didn’t unload until Deming was reached.

It was my great grandfather who, in 1888, trailed cattle across the ranch on the Trail that would have visited our headquarters and watered his herd. Bose Ikard was with him when they arrived and when they remounted and departed Neire Springs on their way to the Gila River and what would become Grant County.

Government presence in those days was simply and largely, the military, but there is no record of his encountering any cavalry contingent. The Indian wars were over for at least two years and Geronimo was no longer a factor. Lee Rice was on his own.

Aside from the blood that runs in my veins, three things come to mind that connect me to him. I have his .30-30 rifle that was to be a future acquisition from the day he watered at Neire. I have his PIT brand, the brand on the left rib of the cattle in the herd that day, and I share and or continue his relationship with this New Mexico land.

It is uncanny how often I think about him.

I never knew him, but he is with me often especially when I’m horseback. I would love to see this land as he saw it. I would love to watch him mount a horse. I would love to hear his voice and what he had to say about a variety of things.

Perhaps those things would make me a better rancher.

Trump

“Punishing Americans is never the right way to produce a better environment or a better economy”, the President continued.

But that is exactly what continues to transpire in our corner of this world. We all have to wonder where all this is leading. It certainly isn’t “unlocking innovation and new technologies”.

On the contrary, it is destroying a hugely interesting and living history.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “It is also clear our President doesn’t yet understand us.”