Racist rancher,feds at a standoff.Drone strike looming! (2 Viewers)

[Apes with Guns]

I am steering away from that video. They are being udderly ridiculous.

well i got it.

 

[Apes with Guns]

"It is a green light, it is a go."

From the description. Serious Business here.

!! Rules and Tactics !!

Watch your step,( snakes and scorpions. )

And if you want to hit anything...

Zero your weapon for 50 or 100 yards if you haven't already.

Know your holdovers at range-

( Do your Zero off and before you hit the battle zone,

plenty of space out there for that. )

Some CQB action but lot's of open range #### out there !

( !! Leave Your #### In The Car !!) - till we know the game plan !

Make contact with the locales & plan with them !

( Remember it's their town their rules ! )

Do recon and get a feel for the land.

Communicate & Spread out in 2, 3 or 4 man teams.

Any offensive strike MUST be reserved for Day time !!

(we can not hope to compete against their FLIR Systems, Thermal Imaging & Night Vision Capabilities at night)

Go time

(!! Check Your Fire !! NO FRIENDLY FIRE !!),

Hit from behind when ever possible.

! Aim ! and DON'T spray and pray !

Stay focused & calm !

Cover fire, move and give first aid to a brother in need !!

good god why didn't you just join the army? you could play soldier every day of your life and shoot at real foreigners!

 

[timschochet]

If anyone here continues to take the side of this Bundy idiot, I think the punishment should be you have to watch a Harry Reid speech in it's entirety. I'm sure there's at least one on Youtube. You're not allowed to turn it off or go to sleep, either.

 

[Apes with Guns]

If anyone here continues to take the side of this Bundy idiot, I think the punishment should be you have to watch a Harry Reid speech in it's entirety. I'm sure there's at least one on Youtube. You're not allowed to turn it off or go to sleep, either.

Hot sports opinion there, friend.

I have to say I'm disappointed to read this post.

 

[johnjohn]

If anyone here continues to take the side of this Bundy idiot, I think the punishment should be you have to watch a Harry Reid speech in it's entirety. I'm sure there's at least one on Youtube. You're not allowed to turn it off or go to sleep, either.

Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us - Leo Tolstoy

 

[TheIronSheik]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

 

[jon_mx]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

 

[johnjohn]

won't somebody think of the turtles!

 

[TheIronSheik]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

It's government land though, right?

 

[johnjohn]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

It's government land though, right?

hey sheik, side question, why do you have a phone number on your profile?

 

[fatness]

The only people who think Harry Reid is part of the story are gullible wackos, and those seeking possible political gain from misleading gullible wackos.

The conspiracy theory about Sen. Harry Reid started soon after the Cliven Bundy story went national.

The theory: The Senate majority leader masterminded the takeover of Bundy’s cattle in Gold Butte to clear land for a solar facility that Chinese company ENN hoped to build in Southern Nevada. That thought appears to have originated at the blog Godfather Politics and was picked up by writers in more mainstream conservative media outlets, such as NewsMax and the Washington Times. The story also suggested that Reid had his former aide, Neil Kornze, do his dirty work as the week-old Bureau of Land Management director.

Reid’s spokeswoman, Kristen Orthman, said any connection between Bundy and the solar project is “bogus.” She added: “People find anything to label him as, or to connect things to that aren’t connectable. … If it wasn’t this, they would be talking about something else.”

It’s true that Reid had been working on a solar project in Nevada. But based on the facts, the rest of the theory doesn’t pass the smell test. Here’s why:

Geography: Bundy’s ranch is in Bunkerville, about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The land that Reid identified for the solar plant was about 90 miles south of Las Vegas in Laughlin. That puts the Bundy ranch and the solar plant site about a three-hour drive apart. They’re simply not in the same part of the state.

Another project comes close. But not that close: Bundy’s home in the Mojave desert is closer to the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, a corridor that has been slated for renewable energy development. The BLM is planning a mitigation strategy that may stretch toward the area where Bundy has been grazing his cows. But even there, the maps don’t match up closely enough to suggest that Bundy’s specific grazing land was the intended site of a solar facility. Also, the Chinese company ENN had not been planning a facility in the Dry Lake area.

Where Reid’s agenda and Bundy’s cattle grazing do overlap: Bundy’s cattle have been grazing on land that Reid and Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., have targeted for future wilderness protections. Both Reid and Horsford have filed legislation to turn the Gold Butte area into a national conversation area. But this is entirely separate from the solar project. A conversation status discourages development, and it’s near impossible to greenlight a solar project on conservation land.

The start of the Chinese solar project: Reid went to China in 2011 to lock down the deal. The ENN Mojave Energy project was supposed to help yank Southern Nevada’s flailing economy out of the recession and into the foreground of renewable energy development in America. Clark County fast-tracked the required reviews and approvals. But construction never started.

Where it got stuck: In June 2013, ENN said it was dumping the project because the “market will not support a project of this scale and nature at this time.” So right now, there is no massive Chinese-backed solar project in the works and certainly not one that requires the removal of Bundy’s cows.

The timelines don’t line up: Bundy’s battle with the BLM started in 1993 when he stopped paying his grazing fees, 18 years before anyone talked about putting Chinese money into the Nevada desert for renewable energy. Talk about the Chinese solar project started in 2011 and ended in 2013. And the Bundy-BLM confrontation came this month, long after the solar project died.

More on Kornze: It’s not exactly true that this was the first move of Reid’s former aide as BLM director. The roundup started April 5, and Kornze wasn’t confirmed by the Senate as BLM director until April 8.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/apr/17/facts-disprove-conspiracy-theory-about-sen-harry-r/

 

[TheIronSheik]

hey sheik, side question, why do you have a phone number on your profile?

I was told on here that all correspondence should include Kind Regards, your name and your phone number. Just trying to do the right thing.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

The only people who think Harry Reid is part of the story believe any part of the rancher's story are gullible wackos, and those seeking possible political gain from misleading gullible wackos.

FYP

 

[fatness]

Reid and Kornze have close ties. Both are pushing for agressive policies for solar energy on public land in this area. Maybe it is a best interest of the country, but these issues are very much intertwined. But there is most likely an alterior motive in getting this rancher off these lands besides protecting some turtle.

There's not flesh on those bones, jon.

 

[Joe T]

I don't know how anyone can support some loon that treats the constitution like a doormat.

 

[fatness]

But while the concept is in my book prescriptive rights and adverse possession is a very real legal concept that actually may apply here depending on the facts. I'm not prepared to spend that much time on this but it could actually be a decent legal defense...

Prescriptive rights and adverse possession have nothing to do with this. Adverse possession cannot happen since Bundy previously paid the fees, and since he stopped paying the fees he has been told repeatedly by the landowner to get his cows off their land. If the landowner recognizes you're using his land and tells you to get off, the time period for building an adverse possession claim doesn't begin. His cows may keep going there but Bundy has no adverse possession claim. Same with prescriptive rights.

Also, I don't believe you can assert an adverse possession claim against the federal government.

It's a whackball claim with no substance to it, despite the fact that it's been said a lot recently.

 

[jon_mx]

The only people who think Harry Reid is part of the story are gullible wackos, and those seeking possible political gain from misleading gullible wackos.

The conspiracy theory about Sen. Harry Reid started soon after the Cliven Bundy story went national.

The theory: The Senate majority leader masterminded the takeover of Bundy’s cattle in Gold Butte to clear land for a solar facility that Chinese company ENN hoped to build in Southern Nevada. That thought appears to have originated at the blog Godfather Politics and was picked up by writers in more mainstream conservative media outlets, such as NewsMax and the Washington Times. The story also suggested that Reid had his former aide, Neil Kornze, do his dirty work as the week-old Bureau of Land Management director.

Reid’s spokeswoman, Kristen Orthman, said any connection between Bundy and the solar project is “bogus.” She added: “People find anything to label him as, or to connect things to that aren’t connectable. … If it wasn’t this, they would be talking about something else.”

It’s true that Reid had been working on a solar project in Nevada. But based on the facts, the rest of the theory doesn’t pass the smell test. Here’s why:

Geography: Bundy’s ranch is in Bunkerville, about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The land that Reid identified for the solar plant was about 90 miles south of Las Vegas in Laughlin. That puts the Bundy ranch and the solar plant site about a three-hour drive apart. They’re simply not in the same part of the state.

Another project comes close. But not that close: Bundy’s home in the Mojave desert is closer to the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, a corridor that has been slated for renewable energy development. The BLM is planning a mitigation strategy that may stretch toward the area where Bundy has been grazing his cows. But even there, the maps don’t match up closely enough to suggest that Bundy’s specific grazing land was the intended site of a solar facility. Also, the Chinese company ENN had not been planning a facility in the Dry Lake area.

Where Reid’s agenda and Bundy’s cattle grazing do overlap: Bundy’s cattle have been grazing on land that Reid and Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., have targeted for future wilderness protections. Both Reid and Horsford have filed legislation to turn the Gold Butte area into a national conversation area. But this is entirely separate from the solar project. A conversation status discourages development, and it’s near impossible to greenlight a solar project on conservation land.

The start of the Chinese solar project: Reid went to China in 2011 to lock down the deal. The ENN Mojave Energy project was supposed to help yank Southern Nevada’s flailing economy out of the recession and into the foreground of renewable energy development in America. Clark County fast-tracked the required reviews and approvals. But construction never started.

Where it got stuck: In June 2013, ENN said it was dumping the project because the “market will not support a project of this scale and nature at this time.” So right now, there is no massive Chinese-backed solar project in the works and certainly not one that requires the removal of Bundy’s cows.

The timelines don’t line up: Bundy’s battle with the BLM started in 1993 when he stopped paying his grazing fees, 18 years before anyone talked about putting Chinese money into the Nevada desert for renewable energy. Talk about the Chinese solar project started in 2011 and ended in 2013. And the Bundy-BLM confrontation came this month, long after the solar project died.

More on Kornze: It’s not exactly true that this was the first move of Reid’s former aide as BLM director. The roundup started April 5, and Kornze wasn’t confirmed by the Senate as BLM director until April 8.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/apr/17/facts-disprove-conspiracy-theory-about-sen-harry-r/

There is a comprehensive policy for renewable energy for the whole southwest which Obama, Reid, and Kornze have been working. The Chinese angle is kind of a ruse, but it would not be surprising if this is part of a bigger plan for renewable energy.

 

[TobiasFunke]

The only people who think Harry Reid is part of the story are gullible wackos, and those seeking possible political gain from misleading gullible wackos.

The conspiracy theory about Sen. Harry Reid started soon after the Cliven Bundy story went national.

The theory: The Senate majority leader masterminded the takeover of Bundy’s cattle in Gold Butte to clear land for a solar facility that Chinese company ENN hoped to build in Southern Nevada. That thought appears to have originated at the blog Godfather Politics and was picked up by writers in more mainstream conservative media outlets, such as NewsMax and the Washington Times. The story also suggested that Reid had his former aide, Neil Kornze, do his dirty work as the week-old Bureau of Land Management director.

Reid’s spokeswoman, Kristen Orthman, said any connection between Bundy and the solar project is “bogus.” She added: “People find anything to label him as, or to connect things to that aren’t connectable. … If it wasn’t this, they would be talking about something else.”

It’s true that Reid had been working on a solar project in Nevada. But based on the facts, the rest of the theory doesn’t pass the smell test. Here’s why:

Geography: Bundy’s ranch is in Bunkerville, about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The land that Reid identified for the solar plant was about 90 miles south of Las Vegas in Laughlin. That puts the Bundy ranch and the solar plant site about a three-hour drive apart. They’re simply not in the same part of the state.

Another project comes close. But not that close: Bundy’s home in the Mojave desert is closer to the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, a corridor that has been slated for renewable energy development. The BLM is planning a mitigation strategy that may stretch toward the area where Bundy has been grazing his cows. But even there, the maps don’t match up closely enough to suggest that Bundy’s specific grazing land was the intended site of a solar facility. Also, the Chinese company ENN had not been planning a facility in the Dry Lake area.

Where Reid’s agenda and Bundy’s cattle grazing do overlap: Bundy’s cattle have been grazing on land that Reid and Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., have targeted for future wilderness protections. Both Reid and Horsford have filed legislation to turn the Gold Butte area into a national conversation area. But this is entirely separate from the solar project. A conversation status discourages development, and it’s near impossible to greenlight a solar project on conservation land.

The start of the Chinese solar project: Reid went to China in 2011 to lock down the deal. The ENN Mojave Energy project was supposed to help yank Southern Nevada’s flailing economy out of the recession and into the foreground of renewable energy development in America. Clark County fast-tracked the required reviews and approvals. But construction never started.

Where it got stuck: In June 2013, ENN said it was dumping the project because the “market will not support a project of this scale and nature at this time.” So right now, there is no massive Chinese-backed solar project in the works and certainly not one that requires the removal of Bundy’s cows.

The timelines don’t line up: Bundy’s battle with the BLM started in 1993 when he stopped paying his grazing fees, 18 years before anyone talked about putting Chinese money into the Nevada desert for renewable energy. Talk about the Chinese solar project started in 2011 and ended in 2013. And the Bundy-BLM confrontation came this month, long after the solar project died.

More on Kornze: It’s not exactly true that this was the first move of Reid’s former aide as BLM director. The roundup started April 5, and Kornze wasn’t confirmed by the Senate as BLM director until April 8.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/apr/17/facts-disprove-conspiracy-theory-about-sen-harry-r/

There is a comprehensive policy for renewable energy for the whole southwest which Obama, Reid, and Kornze have been working. The Chinese angle is kind of a ruse, but it would not be surprising if this is part of a bigger plan for renewable energy.

Good lord, let's hope not. I can't think of a bigger crime against humanity than the federal government trying to evict a trespassing welsher so they can encourage development of renewable energy. How many times worse than 9/11 would you say that is?

 

[fatness]

There is a comprehensive policy for renewable energy for the whole southwest which Obama, Reid, and Kornze have been working. The Chinese angle is kind of a ruse, but it would not be surprising if this is part of a bigger plan for renewable energy.

Soooooooooooo................... nothing.

 

[fatness]

"there is most likely an alterior motive"

"it would not be surprising if"

 

[johnjohn]

"there is most likely an alterior motive"

"it would not be surprising if"

fatness lives in fantasy land where he takes everything at face value and there is no trickery going on whatsoever

 

[fatness]

I look forward to the day when people in Nevada gain the right to participate in federal, state, and local elections; and when their elected representives are actually able to enact, modify, and repeal laws.

 

[Todd Andrews]

What's clear is that there are politically motivated right wing nutjobs lighting fires where there are none,

politically motivated right wing nutjobs like the LA Times WaPo and Reuters?

Link? Reporting on an issue is a far cry from denouncing the government and sending out a call to arms.

I've siad previously that the KooKs are in the wrong for what they are doing, but that does not excuse the KrooKs, who may, very well, have more involvement than what has been proven to date based on past shady dealings (as documented) and treatment of the tortoise issue in the past (as documented)..

At least you have honestly admitted that the KooKs are in the wrong here.

 

[jon_mx]

Connection drawn between cattle roundup and BLM reportPosted: Apr 17, 2014 12:44 PM EDT Updated: Apr 17, 2014 1:59 PM EDT By Steve Kanigher, I-Team Reporter - email
LAS VEGAS -- Supporters of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy say the Bureau of Land Management may have impounded his cattle because of recommendations the agency made last month to preserve Gold Butte land. Bundy has used without paying federal grazing fees.
The recommendations were included in a March 14 report -- just weeks before the roundup -- that addressed the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone northeast of Las Vegas.

As part of a federal initiative to develop large-scale solar energy power plants in western states, the BLM began studying the potential harm these projects could do to surrounding environments.

Recommendations in the Dry Lake report included ways to preserve Gold Butte from further environmental degradation, even though it is 32 miles east of the Dry Lake area.

Gold Butte, which covers roughly 350,000 acres south of Interstate 15 near the Arizona border, was initially designated as an area of critical environmental concern (ACEC) by the BLM in 1998 as part of a land management plan for the Las Vegas area.

That plan prohibited grazing by domestic livestock in areas of critical environmental concern primarily as a way to preserve the desert tortoise, which the federal government considers a threatened species. At the time, Gold Butte’s assets were said to include cultural and historic resources, scenery and habitat for special status species such as the desert tortoise.

Last month’s report, titled Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, had this to say about those assets on page 30:

“The resource values found in the Gold Butte ACEC are threatened by: unauthorized activities, including off-road vehicle use, illegal dumping, and trespass livestock grazing; wildfire; and weed infestation.”

Though not stated in the report, the only alleged trespass livestock grazing in Gold Butte has been tied to Bundy.

Some Bundy supporters have used the Internet to opine that the BLM tried to hide the potential ties between the Dry Lake mitigation report and the cattle roundup because the agency removed from its website an explanation of the Bundy “Cattle Trespass Impacts” that included the following passage:

“Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle.”

But The Wildlife News, in a story posted Tuesday on its website and written by Ralph Maughan, downplayed the significance of this passage.

“This is bureaucratic language but all it means is that private groups like the Western Watersheds Project, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Friends of Gold Butte and Friends of Joshua Tree Forest don’t think the solar power damage elsewhere can be mitigated here at Gold Butte because the damn cattle will tromp all over it” and defecate on the land, Maughan wrote.

“Yes, but, but, but are not then Bundy’s cattle stopping the solar projects that (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid wants so much? Of course not. They are gleefully ripping up the desert anyway without wildlife mitigation near Gold Butte.”

One reason Gold Butte was singled out in the mitigation report was that research performed by the National Park Service for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area suggests “under future climate change, high-quality desert tortoise habitat will remain in the Gold Butte ACEC while most of the adjacent desert tortoise habitat in the national recreation area will decline and disappear.”

Another reason is that Gold Butte suffered multiple wildfires in 2005 and 2006 “and could benefit from restoration.” The report stated that other ACECs in the region haven’t had as many wildfires.

A third reason is that Gold Butte “is an important landscape corridor between Lake Mead and the Virgin Mountains for game species managed by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.”

The report estimated it would cost $9 million over a 30-year-period -- the expected lifespan of a solar development right of way -- or $25.92 an acre to prevent further degradation of Gold Butte.

It also was estimated that even if all 3,591 acres of developable land in the Dry Lake solar energy zone was used for solar development, that would only generate roughly $6.6 million in mitigation fees from developers. That means the balance of the money to protect Gold Butte would have to come from other sources.

The report recommended that preventing further degradation of Gold Butte could be possible by “augmenting BLM law enforcement capacity sufficient to maintain ranger patrols in the ACEC, providing a monitor to track activities in and impacts to the ACEC, building the capacity to respond in a timely manner to activities that threaten resource values, and providing treatment for noxious weeds and maintaining fuel breaks to protect the area.”

 

[Rove!]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

It's government land though, right?

not siding with the KooKs or the Krooks here (These people showing up with guns are guilty of sedition), as there is plenty of wrong to go around

87% of Nevada is government land. For decades the land has been for communal use. Cattle ranchers moved there and lived there and farmed there based on the the government allowing their cattle to graze the open public range lands (for a fee).

In 1993, the government changed the rules and said the cattle can't graze there anymore because we have to protect an endangered tortoise.

This drove many ranchers out of business. Bundy decided to be a stubborn ### and let his cattle graze anyway. He's been in and out of courts fighting and losing (he serving as his own attorney not helping, I'm sure).

Mitigating factors are that other development projects have been allowed to go forward on other Tortoise land. Harry Reid has been reported many times in the mainstream press of having swung some shady real estate deals.

as this environmentalist stated:

Gold Butte has indeed been mentioned as mitigation land to allow companies to build solar projects on other tortoise habitat, just as Clark County bought out and retired the local grazing permits to excuse its building sprawling suburbs on tortoise habitat in Vegas. If Daniels had stopped there, pointing out that the BLM's concern for tortoises seems to be erratic and context-driven at best, and that Reid has a long history of pushing for development of tortoise habitat if his political base stands to profit, there'd have been nothing wrong with the story.

also

Let's be clear: the BLM is its own worst enemy on this issue, and many others. The agency's ludicrous mishandling of this week's protests with "First Amendment Zones" and the like is part and parcel of a years-long and mounting disrespect for public involvement in the management of its own lands. The probably illegal denial of public comment at solar project hearings we reported on in 2011 remains BLM Desert District policy, an issue we're continuing to track.

 

[Rove!]

"there is most likely an alterior motive"

"it would not be surprising if"

fatness lives in fantasy land where he selectively takes everything at face value and there is no trickery going on whatsoever

fyp

 

[urbanhack]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

 

[Rove!]

Connection drawn between cattle roundup and BLM report Posted: Apr 17, 2014 12:44 PM EDT Updated: Apr 17, 2014 1:59 PM EDT By Steve Kanigher, I-Team Reporter - email
LAS VEGAS -- Supporters of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy say the Bureau of Land Management may have impounded his cattle because of recommendations the agency made last month to preserve Gold Butte land. Bundy has used without paying federal grazing fees.
The recommendations were included in a March 14 report -- just weeks before the roundup -- that addressed the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone northeast of Las Vegas.

As part of a federal initiative to develop large-scale solar energy power plants in western states, the BLM began studying the potential harm these projects could do to surrounding environments.

Recommendations in the Dry Lake report included ways to preserve Gold Butte from further environmental degradation, even though it is 32 miles east of the Dry Lake area.

Gold Butte, which covers roughly 350,000 acres south of Interstate 15 near the Arizona border, was initially designated as an area of critical environmental concern (ACEC) by the BLM in 1998 as part of a land management plan for the Las Vegas area.

That plan prohibited grazing by domestic livestock in areas of critical environmental concern primarily as a way to preserve the desert tortoise, which the federal government considers a threatened species. At the time, Gold Butte’s assets were said to include cultural and historic resources, scenery and habitat for special status species such as the desert tortoise.

Last month’s report, titled Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, had this to say about those assets on page 30:

“The resource values found in the Gold Butte ACEC are threatened by: unauthorized activities, including off-road vehicle use, illegal dumping, and trespass livestock grazing; wildfire; and weed infestation.”

Though not stated in the report, the only alleged trespass livestock grazing in Gold Butte has been tied to Bundy.

Some Bundy supporters have used the Internet to opine that the BLM tried to hide the potential ties between the Dry Lake mitigation report and the cattle roundup because the agency removed from its website an explanation of the Bundy “Cattle Trespass Impacts” that included the following passage:

“Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle.”

But The Wildlife News, in a story posted Tuesday on its website and written by Ralph Maughan, downplayed the significance of this passage.

“This is bureaucratic language but all it means is that private groups like the Western Watersheds Project, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Friends of Gold Butte and Friends of Joshua Tree Forest don’t think the solar power damage elsewhere can be mitigated here at Gold Butte because the damn cattle will tromp all over it” and defecate on the land, Maughan wrote.

“Yes, but, but, but are not then Bundy’s cattle stopping the solar projects that (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid wants so much? Of course not. They are gleefully ripping up the desert anyway without wildlife mitigation near Gold Butte.”

One reason Gold Butte was singled out in the mitigation report was that research performed by the National Park Service for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area suggests “under future climate change, high-quality desert tortoise habitat will remain in the Gold Butte ACEC while most of the adjacent desert tortoise habitat in the national recreation area will decline and disappear.”

Another reason is that Gold Butte suffered multiple wildfires in 2005 and 2006 “and could benefit from restoration.” The report stated that other ACECs in the region haven’t had as many wildfires.

A third reason is that Gold Butte “is an important landscape corridor between Lake Mead and the Virgin Mountains for game species managed by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.”

The report estimated it would cost $9 million over a 30-year-period -- the expected lifespan of a solar development right of way -- or $25.92 an acre to prevent further degradation of Gold Butte.

It also was estimated that even if all 3,591 acres of developable land in the Dry Lake solar energy zone was used for solar development, that would only generate roughly $6.6 million in mitigation fees from developers. That means the balance of the money to protect Gold Butte would have to come from other sources.

The report recommended that preventing further degradation of Gold Butte could be possible by “augmenting BLM law enforcement capacity sufficient to maintain ranger patrols in the ACEC, providing a monitor to track activities in and impacts to the ACEC, building the capacity to respond in a timely manner to activities that threaten resource values, and providing treatment for noxious weeds and maintaining fuel breaks to protect the area.”

I think it's also interesting that there are some environmentalists whole believe that removing the livestock is contributing to desertification of the area and the wildfires and is also, ironically hurting the desert tortoise.

 

[TheIronSheik]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

It's government land though, right?

not siding with the KooKs or the Krooks here (These people showing up with guns are guilty of sedition), as there is plenty of wrong to go around

87% of Nevada is government land. For decades the land has been for communal use. Cattle ranchers moved there and lived there and farmed there based on the the government allowing their cattle to graze the open public range lands (for a fee).

In 1993, the government changed the rules and said the cattle can't graze there anymore because we have to protect an endangered tortoise.

This drove many ranchers out of business. Bundy decided to be a stubborn ### and let his cattle graze anyway. He's been in and out of courts fighting and losing (he serving as his own attorney not helping, I'm sure).

Mitigating factors are that other development projects have been allowed to go forward on other Tortoise land. Harry Reid has been reported many times in the mainstream press of having swung some shady real estate deals.

as this environmentalist stated:

Gold Butte has indeed been mentioned as mitigation land to allow companies to build solar projects on other tortoise habitat, just as Clark County bought out and retired the local grazing permits to excuse its building sprawling suburbs on tortoise habitat in Vegas. If Daniels had stopped there, pointing out that the BLM's concern for tortoises seems to be erratic and context-driven at best, and that Reid has a long history of pushing for development of tortoise habitat if his political base stands to profit, there'd have been nothing wrong with the story.

also

Let's be clear: the BLM is its own worst enemy on this issue, and many others. The agency's ludicrous mishandling of this week's protests with "First Amendment Zones" and the like is part and parcel of a years-long and mounting disrespect for public involvement in the management of its own lands. The probably illegal denial of public comment at solar project hearings we reported on in 2011 remains BLM Desert District policy, an issue we're continuing to track.

I get all of that. But the highlighted part is all that matters. They didn't "change the rules", they made a new law. Even if it's a stupid law, you can't just ignore it.

 

[Rove!]

I am nonplussed as to how people can take the rancher's side.

The guy's family has been using the land for over a century and not bothering anyone. If the government has a more productive use of the land, go for it. Kick the guy off and lease it (not sell) for some renewable energy company or something. Let the revenue stream stay with the local economy and improve schools or something. The government tactics just seem a bit heavy handed and using these turtles as some kind of justification is ridiculous. The federal government should have a compelling reason to behave in such a manner.

It's government land though, right?

not siding with the KooKs or the Krooks here (These people showing up with guns are guilty of sedition), as there is plenty of wrong to go around

87% of Nevada is government land. For decades the land has been for communal use. Cattle ranchers moved there and lived there and farmed there based on the the government allowing their cattle to graze the open public range lands (for a fee).

In 1993, the government changed the rules and said the cattle can't graze there anymore because we have to protect an endangered tortoise.

This drove many ranchers out of business. Bundy decided to be a stubborn ### and let his cattle graze anyway. He's been in and out of courts fighting and losing (he serving as his own attorney not helping, I'm sure).

Mitigating factors are that other development projects have been allowed to go forward on other Tortoise land. Harry Reid has been reported many times in the mainstream press of having swung some shady real estate deals.

as this environmentalist stated:

Gold Butte has indeed been mentioned as mitigation land to allow companies to build solar projects on other tortoise habitat, just as Clark County bought out and retired the local grazing permits to excuse its building sprawling suburbs on tortoise habitat in Vegas. If Daniels had stopped there, pointing out that the BLM's concern for tortoises seems to be erratic and context-driven at best, and that Reid has a long history of pushing for development of tortoise habitat if his political base stands to profit, there'd have been nothing wrong with the story.

also

Let's be clear: the BLM is its own worst enemy on this issue, and many others. The agency's ludicrous mishandling of this week's protests with "First Amendment Zones" and the like is part and parcel of a years-long and mounting disrespect for public involvement in the management of its own lands. The probably illegal denial of public comment at solar project hearings we reported on in 2011 remains BLM Desert District policy, an issue we're continuing to track.

I get all of that. But the highlighted part is all that matters. They didn't "change the rules", they made a new law. Even if it's a stupid law, you can't just ignore it.

I agree

 

[TobiasFunke]

This thread is an interesting study in conspiracy theorists. It seems there are people who think the burden of proof is on the people who claim there isn't a conspiracy. Guessing that's how the 9/11 truthers and the birthers and the fake moon landing people and all the other nutjob ideas out there gain traction.

Also demonstrates the lengths some people will go to twist a simple case in which there's an obvious wrongdoer into a pile of nonsensical horse#### just so they can point fingers at politicians they don't like. That's far less fascinating and interesting. Just predictable and moronic.

 

[TobiasFunke]

This thread is an interesting study in people who believe the government is always right. Always.

Not one of your best. The trolling is too easy to detect- you're way too smart to be this awful at logic and reasoning.

 

[jon_mx]

This thread is an interesting study in people who believe the government is always right. Always.

Not one of your best. The trolling is too easy to detect- you're way too smart to be this awful at logic and reasoning.

And your post wasn't trolling?

 

[TobiasFunke]

This thread is an interesting study in people who believe the government is always right. Always.

Not one of your best. The trolling is too easy to detect- you're way too smart to be this awful at logic and reasoning.

And your post wasn't trolling?

Nope! I genuinely find it interesting how people always assume the most bizarre conspiracy is afoot instead of the simplest explanation. And I genuinely think convoluted efforts to turn straightforward stories into opportunities for political finger-pointing are dooshbaggery of the highest degree.

 

[CBusAlex]

There is most likely an alternator motive to Bundy's criminal behavior here. It would not be surprising if he were a Russian plant to test our willingness to forcibly suppress a false flag rebellion against the US government.

 

[SWC]

There is most likely an alternator motive to Bundy's criminal behavior here. It would not be surprising if he were a Russian plant to test our willingness to forcibly suppress a false flag rebellion against the US government.

brohan if there is an alternator motive i am the guy that would know something about it especially if it was a mopar alternator so i am with you take that to the bank bromigo just giving you some guff for fun so do not get mad but in all honesty i do not think he was a russian spy

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

There is most likely an alternator motive to Bundy's criminal behavior here. It would not be surprising if he were a Russian plant to test our willingness to forcibly suppress a false flag rebellion against the US government.

 

[jon_mx]

This thread is an interesting study in people who believe the government is always right. Always.

Not one of your best. The trolling is too easy to detect- you're way too smart to be this awful at logic and reasoning.

And your post wasn't trolling?

Nope! I genuinely find it interesting how people always assume the most bizarre conspiracy is afoot instead of the simplest explanation. And I genuinely think convoluted efforts to turn straightforward stories into opportunities for political finger-pointing are dooshbaggery of the highest degree.

I am not sure what is dooshbaggery about pointing out the politics of renewable energy directly contributed to the Feds cracking down on this rancher. I am not really sure how that is a conspiracy theory, it is pretty much documented on BLM website.

 

[Lutherman2112]

I am not sure what is dooshbaggery about pointing out the politics of renewable energy directly contributed to the Feds cracking down on this rancher. I am not really sure how that is a conspiracy theory, it is pretty much documented on BLM website.

The rancher's actions over the past 20 years directly contributed to the "feds" cracking down.

 

[jon_mx]

I am not sure what is dooshbaggery about pointing out the politics of renewable energy directly contributed to the Feds cracking down on this rancher. I am not really sure how that is a conspiracy theory, it is pretty much documented on BLM website.

The rancher's actions over the past 20 years directly contributed to the "feds" cracking down.

He has been breaking law for 20 years. BLM was trying to ease pressure from environmentalists for their aggressive renewable energy projects by cracking down in this area. That is what spurred the Feds at this time. I am not saying it was not largely the ranchers fault, but when and why the Feds acted now, was driven by politics.

 

[Lutherman2112]

I am not sure what is dooshbaggery about pointing out the politics of renewable energy directly contributed to the Feds cracking down on this rancher. I am not really sure how that is a conspiracy theory, it is pretty much documented on BLM website.

The rancher's actions over the past 20 years directly contributed to the "feds" cracking down.

He has been breaking law for 20 years. BLM was trying to ease pressure from environmentalists for their aggressive renewable energy projects by cracking down in this area. That is what spurred the Feds at this time. I am not saying it was not largely the ranchers fault, but when and why the Feds acted now, was driven by politics.

Or the few hundred thousand he owes in grazing fees and fines.

Do you have a nice yard and landscaping? How about I bring four goats over to your house and let them graze just for a day. Once they are done, you shouldn't expect a single cent from me.

 

[johnjohn]

http://www.infowars.com/harry-reid-calls-cliven-bundy-supporters-domestic-terrorists/ hahhaha, what a clown

 

[Todd Andrews]

http://www.infowars.com/harry-reid-calls-cliven-bundy-supporters-domestic-terrorists/ hahhaha, what a clown

Those KooKs are domestic terrorists.

 

[Apple Jack]

http://www.infowars.com/harry-reid-calls-cliven-bundy-supporters-domestic-terrorists/ hahhaha, what a clown

You sure you want to be the first to use the word clown?

 

[Lutherman2112]

I am not sure what is dooshbaggery about pointing out the politics of renewable energy directly contributed to the Feds cracking down on this rancher. I am not really sure how that is a conspiracy theory, it is pretty much documented on BLM website.

The rancher's actions over the past 20 years directly contributed to the "feds" cracking down.

He has been breaking law for 20 years. BLM was trying to ease pressure from environmentalists for their aggressive renewable energy projects by cracking down in this area. That is what spurred the Feds at this time. I am not saying it was not largely the ranchers fault, but when and why the Feds acted now, was driven by politics.

Or the few hundred thousand he owes in grazing fees and fines.

Do you have a nice yard and landscaping? How about I bring four goats over to your house and let them graze just for a day. Once they are done, you shouldn't expect a single cent from me.

 

[jon_mx]

I am not sure what is dooshbaggery about pointing out the politics of renewable energy directly contributed to the Feds cracking down on this rancher. I am not really sure how that is a conspiracy theory, it is pretty much documented on BLM website.

The rancher's actions over the past 20 years directly contributed to the "feds" cracking down.

He has been breaking law for 20 years. BLM was trying to ease pressure from environmentalists for their aggressive renewable energy projects by cracking down in this area. That is what spurred the Feds at this time. I am not saying it was not largely the ranchers fault, but when and why the Feds acted now, was driven by politics.

Or the few hundred thousand he owes in grazing fees and fines.

Do you have a nice yard and landscaping? How about I bring four goats over to your house and let them graze just for a day. Once they are done, you shouldn't expect a single cent from me.

This is not a beautiful landscaped yard which is being utilized. It is a desert area not being utilized. If someone has a use for it, outstanding. Put the land to use. It would not bother me.ETA: in fact I used to have 8 acres of fensed in land behind my house. I let a friend put 3 horses there for about 6 months and did not charge him a dime.

 

[FlapJacks]

This thread is an interesting study in conspiracy theorists. It seems there are people who think the burden of proof is on the people who claim there isn't a conspiracy. Guessing that's how the 9/11 truthers and the birthers and the fake moon landing people and all the other nutjob ideas out there gain traction.

Also demonstrates the lengths some people will go to twist a simple case in which there's an obvious wrongdoer into a pile of nonsensical horse#### just so they can point fingers at politicians they don't like. That's far less fascinating and interesting. Just predictable and moronic.

don't you have a war for oil/haliburton rally to attend?

 

[FlapJacks]

This thread is an interesting study in conspiracy theorists. It seems there are people who think the burden of proof is on the people who claim there isn't a conspiracy. Guessing that's how the 9/11 truthers and the birthers and the fake moon landing people and all the other nutjob ideas out there gain traction.

Also demonstrates the lengths some people will go to twist a simple case in which there's an obvious wrongdoer into a pile of nonsensical horse#### just so they can point fingers at politicians they don't like. That's far less fascinating and interesting. Just predictable and moronic.

don't you have a war for oil/haliburton rally to attend?

 

[FlapJacks]

Do you have a nice yard and landscaping? How about I bring four goats over to your house and let them graze just for a day. Once they are done, you shouldn't expect a single cent from me.

why the popcorn? This portion of your post portrays a basic misunderstanding of the whole dispute

 

[FlapJacks]

Cow farts.

Cows really get a bad rap.

The Inconvenient Cow

In late November of 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a startling report. Its official title is Livestocks Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options. References to this report have been frequent in the last year, especially on environmental and nutrition-related fronts. The report accuses the cow of the worst environmental crimesland degradation, water pollution, acid rain, biodiversity and habitat loss, desertification, deforestation, and foremost among the headlines, global warming. Cows and other ruminants are responsible for generating 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous-oxide, 64 percent of ammonia, and 37 percent of the worlds methane, the U.N. scientists declare.

Ancillary reports that expound upon these figures are everywhere. The American media have enjoyed selling the annihilator-cow theme to an audience conditioned by anti-animal foods propaganda and environmental fabrications, such as the fact that greedy farmers in the Amazon eradicate rain-forest for more and more land to graze their cattle.

Syndicated nutrition columnists present us with lists of environmentally friendly food choices, invariably free of any and all animal products, and environmentalists cite the report as further evidence to keep cattle out of national parks and protected public lands. But its not just the mainstream news networks and publications that have circulated these accusations against livestock.Alternative energy and sustainable living magazines have produced a smattering of recent articles: Eat Less Meat, Meat is Methane, Save theWorld; GoVegan. These catchy titles sit on the magazine rack at your local natural foods co-op.And so the readership of these publications continues to patronize those trendy pseudo-foods like soy milk and veggie burgersthe production of which is a principle reason for deforestation in the Amazon. The other use for soybeans from these degrading land use practices is feed for confinement animalsbeef and dairy cattle, pigs, poultry and fishfor which pastured cows continue to be blamed.

INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

Make no mistake; rainforests are not cleared in any drastic measure by independent farmers who want to graze a few steers. They are cleared by United Nations-supported corporate giants under the guise of feeding the world and alleviating povertyall for the production of more of their patented seed. This seed, of which the U.N. and its green lobbyists are so fond, assumes the role as displacer of traditional food and farming all over the world. That means health-giving foods like lamb tallow for frying, lard for baking, and real butter, which the industry-led dietitians have condemned from on high, are the foods these GMO seeds are displacing. It is no wonder the U.N. has so urgently launched its campaign against livestockthese animals represent the only food source that can supply the people with enough good nutrition to empower them (both physically and emotionally) to resist the global onslaught of food police, biotech crops and chemicals.

Arecent article in Business Week reports that Brazil alone grows over 25 million acres of soybeansall of which are genetically engineered. The Wall Street Journal reports that Monsantos stock has tripled in the last year due to Brazils demand for Roundup Ready soybeansa genetically engineered plant that can withstand multiple, frequent applications of toxic herbicide. Allan Nation, editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, reports back from his recent trip to Argentina that eight dollar soybeans for world export are edging out the domestic, sustainable grass-fed beef industry. Why dont we hear environmentalists denouncing this supreme symbol of industrial agriculture with the same passion they muster for condemning beef? Why are the green-conscious not boycotting the oilseed plant that literally drinks Middle Eastern oil in the form of petrochemical herbicides? Thats because our society has been conditioned to support a co-opted environmental movement in the name of a chemical-intensive vegetable bypass industry, at the tragic expense of good health to both man and environment via the qualities of grazing animals (those methane-belching creatures that we love to hate) and their productsmeat and milk for people, manure for the soilnone of which our society can afford to lose.

DESTRUCTIVE PARADIGM

The real paradox of the report is the way in which it avoids dealing with the twin-conundrum of mass-scale monocultural grain production and confinement animal feeding operations (CAFOs). These are the two destructive pillars of an industry gone wrong, yet the U.N. points its global finger not at bad management practices like feedlots and confinement dairies, but at the cows themselves; not at Monsanto, but at real farmers, who raise livestock in accordance with natures principleson grass.

The U.N.s accusations ought to be directed at chemical-intensive, industrial CAFO agriculture. Yet the U.N. only presents solutions that fit within the confines of the industrial frameworkthe framework they are obliged to uphold through the preordained results of taxpayer-funded university research.

Indeed, the solutions have already been written, and at best they are dubious and vague. They include improved diets for ruminants, which reduce enteric fermentation. These diets, you can be sure, are grain-based, laced with all kinds of chemical concoctions. No mention of the carbon released into the atmosphere in the production of these improved diets, just as there is never any mention of the petroleum requirements to produce corn-based ethanol. Another U.N. solution is an overarching vaccination protocol also aimed at reducing fermentation activity in the rumen. Arent these solutions brilliant? The U.N. cuts a check to the likes of Monsanto for the improved diets, and to the likes of Merck and Pfizer for the vaccines, all the while reducing harmful emissions so that you can enjoy beef from an animal thats been pumped full of genetically engineered viruses and aluminum, and has had all of its gut flora eradicated, but at least you can eat that beef without a guilty conscience. This is indeed U.N. science at its finest, and it does not have the best interests of the environment, the cow, or the consumer in mind. Its interest lies in perpetuating consumer fear, so as to further its campaign for global governance and corporate farming all over the world.

NATURES SOLUTIONS

Such U.N. research will not yield low-cost, common sense solutionslike freeing the worlds beef animals from their feedlot bondage, and returning them to the worlds grasslands and deserts so that their manure may become a product that gets recycled by earthworms into soil wealthbecoming a healing agentrather than a product of volatile nitrous-oxide generation. The U.N.-sponsored research will not yield solutions like shutting down our confinement dairy camps and using these animals to return the Midwests eroded and degraded cropland to the fertile prairie of yesteryear. That thick layer of black gold upon which a blanket of robust native grasses once grew was a priceless gift to us from the American bisona gift we have chosen to send to the Gulf of Mexico on the order of millions of tons per year via the erosion caused by mass-scale grain production to feed concentration camp cowsanimals not designed to eat grain in the first place.

Indeed, if the U.N. chose to, they could suggest the above solutions, which would sequester carbon and add it to the soil bank, thus reducing this apparently harmful greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. As it currently stands, our farming practices both in the field and in the feedlot xidize carbon into the atmosphere causing an historic increase in CO2 levels. A shift from a carbon-releasing agriculture to a carbon-sequestering agriculture requires nothing more than a shift from CAFOs and monocultures to grain-free, all-grass livestock farming. In the process, we could restore the floral and faunal ecology of the Great Plains to its pre-colonial statusa phenomenal, yet highly achievable prospect. One of the greatest ironies of this whole scenario is that many of the worlds environmental activists stand behind the U.N. without examining the agenda behind the green façade. This is in large part because many environmentalists have no better understanding of nature and its functions than the apologists of industrial agriculture. These seemingly opposing sides share a common vision for the futurea world devoid of farmers and domesticated animals, with fields of monocultures that stretch to the horizon, and token wildlife preservation zones that remain locked up for eternity. These zones will inevitably begin to deteriorate, as most of them already have, for lack of good land management and husbandry by man and livestock.

In short, what we are lacking from an environmental perspective is precisely that which the U.N. would like to annihilate: farmers who use livestock to enhance and embellish landscapes. These are the wonderful people who supply us with raw milk and butter, grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured poultry and eggs. I would argue that these farmers, those sturdy individuals presented with the daily task of managing plants and animals in harmony with one another for the benefit of their land and their patrons, hold the most supreme understanding of ecological processes and are the worlds true environmental activists. The managed landscapes of these pasture-based farms are the healthiest, most biologically diverse places on earth, and the sheer volume of life in their soils proves it. And had it not been for the advent of an artificial support system called chemical fertilizers and farm subsidies, healthy soilvia livestock and their manurewould be the foundational vehicle for our prosperity and propagation upon the earth.

Lets now examine the U.N.s foremost accusation against livestock, specifically as it applies to global warming, and determine whether or not this accusation deserves the merit it is currently receiving in the public arena. Perhaps if we remove the cow from the industrial context within which the U.N. would like her to reside, and put her back into natures contextwhere she ought to be and where grass farmers have put hershe will become our best ally for a future free of environmental devastation and an escalating health crisis.

THE WAR ON METHANE

The U.N. claims that the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent, a higher share than transport. The sector emits 37 percent of anthropogenic methane (with 23 times the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2) most of that from enteric fermentation by ruminants.

Here we have a process as elegantly natural as the fermentation of forage in the rumen, a process that has occurred since time immemorial, probably on much vaster scales than today, being declared an environmental crime. Unfortunately, our society relies on these world police for the most up-to-date scientific data.The fact is that these data have nothing to do with good science, but are instead science manipulated to support the industrial agenda to plant the earth with more GMO soybeans (see sidebar, page 22). Such an agenda sends profits in the direction of the fossil fuel giants and corporate farms.

I would like to ask the U.N. scientists whether the vast herds of wild methane-generating ruminants are also guilty, or if the worlds wetlands, gurgling methane from their anaerobic decomposition processes on the order of ten times that of cows, or our politically correct forest trees, now found to emit huge amounts of methane through their leaves, are also charged with crimes against the environment. If methane generation regardless of its origin were the problem, the U.N. would be launching a campaign to back-fill the earths wetlands and we would lose these divine mechanisms for water purification and retention, these supremely diverse corridors that bridge terrestrial and aquatic life. My point is that even a standardized, globalist bureaucracy like the U.N. would never dream of launching such a campaign, yet without any qualms, they take the fermentation of plant material in the rumen, a perfectly stable, natural process that somehow is in conflict with their current political agenda, tailor it into an environmental offense, and call for its annihilation. On top of that, they use environmental pawns to vigorously spread the word. PETA, The World Conservation Union, Al Gore and the growing vegan contingency are among the many whistleblowers disseminating a politically correct falsehood.

Rumen fermentation is the process, remember, that gives us fats like conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and bone-building nutrients like vitamin K. The miraculous conversion process, achieved only by ruminants, that takes grassnatures most nutritious vegetable but indigestible for humansand converts it into metabolically available, exponentially superior nutrition for people.With these accusations brought to the table, we can confidently surmise that the rumination process along with the ruminant are certainly under assault, and we must be prepared to defend these animals and our right to consume their products with the same valiant effort with which we have defended raw milk.

The ploy to displace the products of the ruminant from the worlds table is not new. Public relations campaigns from the self-righteous, plant-based diet community have been at work since 1871, when the first butter substitute entered the U.S. marketplace. In 1984, the Center for Science in the Public Interest began its anti-saturated fat crusade, and by 1990, beef and lamb tallow had been replaced by partially hydrogenated soybean oil as the collective, commercial frying fat in the Unites States. I hope weve noticed that obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease have all increased since we switched from animal fats to vegetable oils.Yet these public interest groups, despite their addiction to lawsuits and bureaucratic control of our nations food supply, are not held accountable for the destruction to our nations health caused by this politically correct charade.

We are currently witnessing the physical, emotional and moral decay that results from living without animal foods. Remember the displacing foods of modern commerce that Weston A. Price spoke of? Today many of these are based on soy and its many derivatives, and any of the other rendered vegetable products from the biotech trough, all sanctioned by the U.N as the foods that will feed the world and eliminate global poverty. A glance at the status of many of these Third World peoples reveals that we further impoverish these once robust, self-reliant communities with every bag of soy flour we deliver to them.

SIXTY MILLION BISON

In his fascinating recent book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles Mann paints a picture of wild ruminant populations before the arrival of Europeans: North America at the time of Columbus was home to sixty million bison, thirty to forty million pronghorns, ten million elk, ten million mule deer, and as many as two million mountain sheep. Thats just North America. We have not even considered the enormous herds pounding the African plains, nearly all of which are methane-producing ruminants including wildebeest, Cape buffalo, giraffes, gazelles, antelope, kuduyou get the point. Even today, these animals number in the hundreds of millions; their numbers were many fold greater in the past. How can it be that we have been able to overlook this perfectly natural scenario and move forward with casting the blame on the worlds 1.5 billion domesticated cattle?

Natures herds are by no means light on the land. Reports from the travels of Lewis and Clark attest to the fact that the herds of bison left not one scrap of fodder for their horses to eat, and the land was coated with a sheet of manure so thick, it turned vast expanses of prairie black. This manure, with the help of sage grouse, prairie chickens and dung beetles was then quickly recycled into some of the richest soil on the planet; this is the same manure that the U.N. blames for poisoning our atmosphere with nitrous-oxide.

MIMICKING NATURE

Managed grazing, which attempts to mimic the grazing patterns of these great wild herds, can produce an abundance of nutritious animal foods, while sequestering massive amounts of atmospheric carbon. We are told by the global warming gurus that the earth is heating up due to excess carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere. Through specific grazing strategies we can sequester this excess carbon and form rich, productive topsoil in the process. We do this not by planting more trees, or even setting aside more wildlife preserves. We do this with domesticated ruminantspulsing the landscape with large numbers of animals for short periods of time.

In nature, bison and wildebeest graze in huge mobs, remaining in one location briefly, and then they move on to fresh ground. They keep bunched together tightly for fear of pack-hunting predators. These ruminants are Natures soil-building and fertility management mechanism. We also know that the soils under which these animals graze are our largest land-based carbon sinks on earth. All we need to do, then, is to mimic these native grazing patterns with our domestic stock, and we have an easily achieved, rapid solution to the excess carbon in the atmosphere. The hoof action, manure, urine and saliva all act as bio-stimulants on the pasture, encouraging the grass plants to thicken, bare spots to fill in, and species diversity and succession to accelerate forward from simplicity to complexity.The productive grasslands of the world and the massive herds of herbivores that grazed them co-evolved together. One cannot exist without the other. The grass relies on the ruminant for its full expression just as much as the ruminant relies on grass. Without ruminants to fertilize the soil and break down cellulose in dry climates, prairies quickly become deserts; and with managed grazing of ruminant animals, deserts can be restored to productive land.

GRASS-FED BUTTER: MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FOOD

Grass farmers produce the most ecologically sensible food on earth, food derived nearly in its entirety from solar energy. Grass-fed butter is perhaps the finest example of solar energy converted into nutrient-dense food for people. Grass-fed meat and other grass-based dairy products are equally wonderful, earth-friendly foods. However, I use butter here to illustrate how we can derive pure, nutrient-dense animal energy from solar energy with very few steps in between. Heres how it works: Grass plants convert solar energy (and atmospheric carbon dioxide) into plant biomass, and the cow synthesizes that plant material into her own energy via the cellulose-digesting microbes in her rumen. From this energy she then produces milk, of which the energy-rich portion (the cream) is separated. The cream is then made even more energy-dense through churning into butter. No chemicals or petroleum required (except electricity for churning the butter); just the sun, the grass and the cow (and her rumen flora) in an elegantly simple process.

Lets run a quick comparison to the production of a food that the U.N. and its whistleblowers tell us has a smaller ecological footprintthe production of vegetable oil. First the soil must be plowed; a process that requires immense amounts of diesel fuel. Then the seed, whether its rapeseed (canola), soybeans, corn or any other oil-producing seed, must be planted. This is accomplished by a tractor as well, thus more diesel fuel. After the plant begins to grow, the field must be cultivated to kill the invading weeds. Then the fields are sprayed several times by a tractor-mounted rig, dowsing the weeds in oil-derived petrochemical herbicide. If bugs are a problem out comes the pesticide, also derived from oil. Harvest time, and massive combining ensues. The seeds are then trucked cross-country to a factory where a multi-step refining process takes place. The factory is similar in design and practice to a crude oil refinery. After much chemical and mechanical refining of our seed, we have a product, which is not food, but which the U.N. tells us is the earth-friendly substitute for our solar energy-derived butter.The average environmentalist pays little attention to these details, turning his back to the truth. He is not really concerned with the details of how our choices about what we eat influence our soil, our landscape, or our environment as a whole. He is ultimately concerned only with saving one more tree, lobbying for one more acre to be locked away from human influence, which is certainly a reductive proposition. And therein lies the problem with the national park mentality: the lobby to spare land from negative human influence also denies it positive human influence.Without warm bodies consciously and periodically disturbing the landbase, whether we use livestock, chainsaws, or other land-healing measures, we will ultimately witness deterioration. Ecosystems are meant to be dynamic, with a lively growth and decay cycle, not held in artificial suspension by political boundaries.

A REVERENCE FOR LIFE

What has the world come to when todays young teens contemplate childlessness in order to reduce their carbon footprint, and the U.N. is prescribing defaunating agents for ruminants to kill their gut flora, and when the predominant rural landscape consists of endless expanses of corn and soy with not one cow and not one farmer in sight? We are certainly entering the age of sterility, not to mention infertility. A reverence for life and all things that give richness to life has taken a back seat to the idea that we must reduce our impact on the planet. Our children are now being brought up to believe that their daily activity is a detriment to the earth, and we wonder why the self-esteem of our young people has hit a record low.

Ironically, the call to reduce our environmental impact has caused more degradation than it has spared. Seventy-five percent of the worlds rangelands are considered degraded, not because there are too many cows but because there are too few. National forests are ablaze because of campaigns to silence the chainsawthis is fuel that could be utilized and instead it is left to burn out of control. Nevertheless, in the midst of lifeless landscapes all over the world, real farmers and livestock husbandmen are asked to seek jobs somewhere outside the livestock sectorin sterile fields of soybeans, I supposewhat the late Mark Purdey referred to as the vegan ecological wasteland. What we are witnessing now is our own, modern version of the Trail of Tears, where both man and beast are forced off the land to toil in confinement houses and feedlots where their activities can more easily be regulated and so that the land can be freed up for the production of more efficient vegetarian fare.

THE FUTURE

Now imagine a world in which we revere and hold our animals sacred, the soil so sweet and so fertile that our farms become inevitable wildlife corridorswe may even have to hunt to keep these wildlife populations in check. But this just means supplementing our diets with a little wild venison or gazelle now and then. The vast Great Plains of North America are restored to their original deep black loam by vast herds of beef cattle mimicking their native cousins the bison. African men, displaced from their traditional cattle-keeping by the U.N.-sanctioned call to vegetarian efficiency, return to their native lands to take on the noble pursuit of land healing, leading great herds of cattle through the bush under the thoughtful tutelage of Holistic Management. Parched river beds become vegetated and begin to run again, bare soil heals over with a thick carpet of green, all due to the life-giving forces of the cow in great numbers. Our redemption is not in her annihilation as the U.N. would have it, but in truly understanding her environmental and nutritional restorative traits, and putting those traits to work for us.

These land-healing processes generate a new food supply. This food supply is unique in the fact that it produces grass-finished meat and dairy as a byproduct of innovative land management and carbon sequestering strategies. With these processes, we are not merely sustaining the land but enhancing and embellishing it, turning the deserts green.That should be our goal. While the U.N. continues to dabble in their industrial, government-funded solutions based on tax incentives and negative reinforcement, we will just vote with our food dollars for environmentally enhancing, animal agriculture. Soil building, grass-based farming, utilizing livestock to our environmental and nutritional advantage is the key to our future prosperity. Can you imagine the diversity of traditional foods we could revitalize on a grand scale through a worldwide effort to restore degraded landscapes with cows, sheep and goats? The potential to flood the marketplace with old-fashioned animal fats would be endless. Im ready to live off the (grass-fed) fat of the land and I hope you are, too. Lets move forward, full speed ahead, with this special life-respecting movement, and instill in the next generation a reverence for life and all that gives richness to it. Our movement to curb climate change will be validated by the beauty of rich soil, green pastures and healthy generations to come. For this, we owe immense gratitude to the ruminant livestock of the world, and their enduring service to mankind.