Iconic!

The Artificial Western Territory

Iconic!

Another Billion Dollar Heist

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            I had to get up.

            The bed, or more specifically, the tortured sleep was definitely not my friend. The dreams claimed directorship as a center ring conflict unfolded. As in most dreams, most of the contents were left behind quickly in clouds of color and fading detail except the last.

            In it, I was trying to fish a favorite stream of yet another fading memory … youth.

            Excitement or nostalgia were the initial discoveries as the process of entering the stream unfolded. Too soon, though, the discovery of strange looking fish tails caught in the depths of once familiar holes was detected. Most of the fish were dead! Numbers of them outnumbered anything living. The occasional live fish shoot through the water like a jet-propelled torpedo in the attempt to escape the detection of a next streamside visitor.

            Tension replaced attention in the dream induced rapture.

            As the continued march up the creek unfolded, streamside cabins or at least structures approaching cabin descriptions started to appear. They were everywhere. The anxiety increased. This was no longer a dream, but a near nightmare.

            Then, the realization that piped in music, woofered surround sound, was playing. It was coming from everywhere without definition of where the speakers were mounted. Modern, mob ruled outdoor pursuit had invaded my once beloved stream!

            Sweating with a banging heart, I had to get away from it. In the next moment in an abruptly awakened and confused state, focus on the alarm clock was the intent. It was 3:30 AM, Saturday morning, May 16, 2020, but there was at least some benefit.

            I had a Westerner article topic.
            Iconic

            The word attempting to define a real condition of modern conservation, iconic, long ago lost its intended verve. The intention of its use is obvious. It is used to stir the imagination and secure societal support for a legacy project. It is carried in the virtual holsters of the green gangsters who masquerade as nature vigilantes on public dole, but its use is antiquated. Its vigor and spirit or enthusiasm has become stale.

It doesn’t work anymore. The hinterland is numb.

Iconic can only be used so many times before the uniqueness of the intent is gone. End time events don’t happen in plurality. If you don’t believe that, ask the first 50 people on the streets of this pandemic induced culture in which we now live. They will roll vacant eyes, and perhaps mumble behind their now expressionless verbal conversation.

Huh?

Another Billion Dollar Heist

Thankfully, the only place ranchers in our neck of the woods have to deal with wild horses is in the writs disguised as cooperative project contracts whereby we pledge to do what the government officials tell us to do when installing new infrastructure projects.  One of those demands is to provide water for wild burros and horses even though we cannot do anything with water other than what state law allows through the concept of beneficial use. Our application of water to our livestock is correctly deemed beneficial use by the law. Other uses are not defined under the letter of the law.

In other words, we sign a contract potentially breaking state law if we want to do a modern-day water project. If we do not sign the demand, we do not get the approval to proceed. The character of the process makes us outlaws by submitting to the demand.

One can only imagine what those fellows face that deal with the herds of wild horses that no one is allowed to manage. That is not just a bad dream, but a real-life nightmare. It is a scene of unfettered and true mob rule.

Worse yet, it is cruel and unusual punishment.

By the feds own numbers, some 47,000 of these iconic horses are now in jail cells being fed hay or on welfare pasturage because nobody is allowed to deal with the debacle. Worse yet, there are some 88,000 of them on land that can sustain less than 30% that amount.

How on earth can that be defined as compassion much less real stewardship?

They are also saying it is going to cost a billion dollars over the next six years to deal with the crisis. Now, a $Billion is a drop in the bucket to the sucking sinkhole of New Depression spending, but to spend another billion on horses that will only create the need to spend billions after that only demonstrates the absolute horror and futility that is federal land management.

Ranchers, vested in the outcome, would have solved the problem a long time ago. It would have been as humane as worldly possible, too (if you don’t believe that, think about where the same thing would have been repeated but simply doesn’t exist).

There are lasting consequences of walking to an animal and knowing that the only correct decision is to end pain and suffering (and assure future vitality), and that solution is the one that you alone control. It is in your hands. It is on your shoulders. The responsibility is huge and one of the outcomes is to minimize the recapitulation of the repeated demand.

The result of mob rule has made the wild horse issue a monstrous and unnecessary theater. The sides have staked a claim to the outcome and, now, the workout is nasty and laden with terrible alternatives.

The only thing truly iconic has been left in the dust. Rather than simple, single steps along the way now gives way to a grand debacle of huge proportions and … catastrophe.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Raul Grijalva of Arizona fame demands that birth control be the order of business for the mestengos. Somebody ought to hand that free thinker a long swig and a fresh 65’ ranch rope from Tip’s and urge him to go forth and try to commence his little project.”

Wilmeth is certainly right about iconic. It is only surpassed by robust when it comes to over use in terms.
In New Mexico, it is used by our two U.S. Senators whenever they want to gobble up more private property or limit  (or should I lockdown?) the use of federal land or water. Here are some recent examples:

“The Gila is one of the last wild rivers in the Southwest... and it is one of New Mexico’s most iconic outdoor destinations" Tom Udall 

“By permanently reauthorizing the LWCF, this historic bipartisan legislation will continue to safeguard some of our most iconic landscapes for generations to come,” said Udall.

“Valles Caldera is an awe-inspiring example of our treasured public lands and an iconic part of New Mexico’s unique landscape,” Udall said

 “When people think of an iconic landscape in southern New Mexico, they think about White Sands and having it elevated to national park status is really something that should have happened decades ago,” Sen. Martin Heinrich said.

"These funds have been used to protect iconic lands in New Mexico including in the Aztec Ruins National Monument, Santa Fe National Forest, and Elk Springs." Martin Heinrich

The local enviros love to use the term whenever the Trump administration attempts to modernize environmental regulations:

 “It’s also these larger iconic New Mexico rivers that are on the chopping block and potentially open for pollution.” Rachel Conn Amigos Bravos.

I now shutter whenever I hear the word iconic. 

What we really need is a robust defense of private property and limited government.

--Frank DuBois