Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> The facts that you have presented on the costs that maybe associated
> with the $1.43 per month still do not address the other impacts that
> we/I have experienced in the Cool area. Specifically the Knickerbocker
> Area.
Then please confine your comments to the Cool area.  Your data from Cool
is not applicable in a great many other places.

> When I arrived in Cool some 16-17 years ago most of this area was closed
> off to the public because the lands were being used for grazing leases.
> Most of the ranchers objected to the equestrian community using these
> same public lands.
And why do you suppose that is???  Because the urban equestrian community
did not try to coexist with the ranchers, but rather wanted to have their
cake and eat it too.  I've seen the same thing here--ranchers are open and
friendly, riders go in and leave gates open, chase cattle, and in general
disturb things, ranchers get less friendly.  Fortunately, here there have
not been so many bad apples among the equestrians, and most of the
equestrian community works hand in hand with the ranchers to maintain
public lands in such a way that they support grazing AND wildlife AND
recreation.  (FWIW, a good cattle range is a better ecosystem for wildlife
as well as for cattle.)

> The other additional expenses that you purport to be
> fee's are normal maintenance items that anyone has to spend on any
> pasture lands.
Steven, you just don't get it, do you?  The rancher pays those costs
WHETHER HE WRITES A CHECK TO A PRIVATE LANDOWNER FOR A LEASE OR WHETHER HE
PAYS IT PIECEMEAL BY PAYING A GRAZING FEE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND
THEN HAS TO DO ALL THE MAINTENANCE HIMSELF!  Sure, those are normal
maintenance fees--that's my whole point!  It costs about $12 per AUM
whether the rancher owns the land and does the maintenance, whether he
pays a small portion to the federal government and does the maintenance,
or whether he leases the land and just writes a check so that someone else
does the maintenance.  THERE IS NO SUBSIDY HERE!

> At the Cool, Knickerbocker location, enforcement of the supposed rules
> was not being performed. It came to a head, when the ranchers stated
> bringing in backhoes to dig and enlarge new water sources, bring in
> addition feed, place salt blocks in and adjacent to watercourses, over
> grazing and the
> importation of other cattle's babies that feed for free as best as I can
> remember 10 cows (paid for), 100 babies (free).
Again, that may be the case in Cool--it is NOT the case in most places. 
The ranchers in this area have a long-term interest in seeing that the
ranges are maintained in perpetuity--they are still trying to run family
operations and have something still there for their children and their
grandchildren.  What you see in Cool is what has happened when the small
family ranches get run out of business by people such as yourself and the
corporations who can afford to fight you take over.  I don't agree with
what they do either--but if you want to see why they are there in the
first place, look at the political factors that have led to the driving
out of the family ranches.  Look in the mirror, Steven.

Heidi


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