They have worn many hats over the years. They have called themselves 'People for the West', the 'Sagebrush Rebellion', and the 'Wise Use Movement'. But really all they are is a group of folks who think that Forest Service public lands belong to them and them alone. They say Teddy Roosevelt stole the land from them, while conveniently forgetting their ancestors stole it from someone else. Now they are saying the new Forest Plans are about discrimination against Latinos. It is not. It is about protecting watersheds and wilderness.
It is like the politics of the Middle East really. Remembering and fighting over grudges from hundreds of years ago. None of it makes sense in this millennium. Old ways die hard, and this long term fight by cattle growers in the north will die in the near future as a younger generation replaces them.
1 comment:
Ah, welfare ranchers! They get the grazing for 'way below-market prices. Last time I looked, grazing is allowed in wildernesses anyway. Sounds like allotments are being cut back all over the West because of the drought, which they hate to admit. And because the range never got to recover from overgrazing by their ancestors a hundred years ago.
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