Whacko Property Rights Ruling

Ted,
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Thanks

Sorry about that. Should be okay now.

Thanks Ted. What a frightening ruling!

Finally a victory for the little guy, for years ranchrs in Nevada have been harrased by the federal government. You can't do this, you can't do that, your might harm some poor endangered plant or animal, why can't ranchers be allowed to make a living without being harassed?? This is a victory for anyone who uses public lands either for recreational or commercial use.

Victory is being allowed to nuke public range, destroying habitat for everything even cows?

I interviewed Wayne Hage by phone. And he had promised me a guided tour of his "taken" Pine Creek Ranch, 50 miles northeast of his house in Tonopah, but I was obliged to proceed without him because he'd been indicted on felony charges by a Grand Jury for removing government trees, and that week he was in Las Vegas being tried and found guilty.

Earlier he had told me that the "trees" were really "brush" cleared from "right-of-ways which were a permanent grant from Congress dating from 1878 so we could get our irrigation water down to our lands." And the Forest Service had "trumped up this bogus charge" because it wished to prevent such maintenance, the better to "argue that I had abandoned the ditches because the whole basis of this conflict is a Forest Service effort to get the water rights."

When Hage repeatedly refused to get his cattle off the 47,000-acre Meadow Canyon Allotment as per the conditions he'd agreed to by signing his grazing permit, the Forest Service did it for him, hiring cowboys to round them up. Such enforcement action is almost unheard of, the last resort when someone tests the system. Accordingly, the Forest Service took the precaution of clearing it through the Secretary of Agriculture; even Congress had been briefed. Hage was told he could redeem his stock--105 head--merely by reimbursing the government for the cost of rounding them up and holding them. When Hage loudly refused, the Forest Service sold them. By law it was required to pay him the proceeds less the cost of the roundups, but when all the figures were tallied the government had lost about $3,000.

Throughout Hage's Meadow Canyon Allotment I encountered severe erosion and compacted, water-repellent range. Headcuts in the trout streams were 20 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Series of meadows were separated by series of blowouts. Wire grass, sage and rabbit brush were marching in from all fronts. In Round Meadow I came upon a cow-proof "exclosure" cage with which the Forest Service measures grazing intensity. Thus protected from gazing, it was full of knee-high Nebraska sedge and surrounded by stubble.

Hage was a national bad joke, an embarrassment to a progressive nation, and a perfect match for Helen Chenoweth, whom he married. America is a better place without them.

Best,
Ted

Hage was a national bad joke, an embarrassment to a progressive nation, and a perfect match for Helen Chenoweth, whom he married. America is a better place without them.

Thats real nice of you Ted, to talk like that about people who are no longer here to defend themselves. You make a good mouthpiece for the extremist greenies who want to save the earth at the expense of people's livelyhoods. I live in Nevada and I have heard and seen what our forest sevice has tried to do to people. A few years back they tried to tell a small community that they could not rebuild a road that was washed out during a flood, people from all over came and rebuilt that road under threat of arrest and or fines, those people jammed it right up the forest service backside, kind of like what we did to the British, were are a free country becuase of people who stand up the tyrany.

“Save the earth at the expense of people’s livelyhoods (sic).” What fascinating usage! Do you imagine that people somehow exist independently from the earth? The earth that Hage and Helen strove for couldn’t (and on their grazing leases) didn’t sustain fish, wildlife or even their own cows. And, by they way, I talked about them that way plenty when they were alive.
Best,
Ted

Ted, you are 100% correct when you say the earth is better off now that they are gone but, they left a bitter legacy. The Federal judge blindly sided with the 'small guy' who owned thousands of acres. Wish I could be a 'small guy'!?!?
The court's decision was basically wrong. The owners of these ranches should not be allowed to continue to rape and ravage an environment merely because they have done it for so many, many decades. This is cowboy law at its worst.
The US needs a forthright Water Rights Act immediately. Water is a public resource NOT a private commodity. Lower court rulings have created a total mish-mash of legal opinions that range from dumb to dumber and then even worse. Life sustaining decisions, as this one has shown, cannot be left to a few pontificating and pompous judges who's only contact with the natural water resource is a sip from a plastic bottle of Perrier.
Hagen and others are just a bunch of crybabies that got caught with their had in the public's cookie jar. They have are totally in love with themselves and the rest of us can just p--s-off! Thanx Hagen, the judge and others! You've shown your true colors especially when you won't talk to Mr. Williams man-to-man. Actions speak louder than words!

Bryan E. Schulz

Hey Mr Schulz and you too Ted, you should put yourself in a cattle ranchers shoes and see what it's like, I don't know what it is like but I have talked to some cattle ranchers. This is what it might be like to be a Nevada cattle rancher in the future. You wake up early in the morning to the smell of sagebrush, you get into your truck and go into town to join your fellow ranchers for a cup of coffee. You walk into the coffee shop and sit down with your neighbor, who is also a cattle rancher, he has a worried look on his face, you ask him whats wrong, he says that he got a visit the other day from a U.S. fish and wildlife officer, the officer told him that an endangered species was found in the creek on his property, if that is the case, he won't be able to use that creek anymore in order to get water for his cattle. You leave the coffee shop and stop at the gas station to fill up your truck, you notice that diesel is now up to six dollars a gallon thanks to the democrats who don't have the guts to pass laws to allow drilling off the left coast and the Artic Refuge.
After filling up you head back to the ranch and go out and check on the status of your cattle, after a short while you notice a dead calf off the road, you check it out and discover that a mountain lion had killed it, thanks to the budget cuts in the Agriculture Dept the animal damage control people have left it up to you to protect your cattle. You get home and check your mail and you see that have a letter addressed to you from the Forest service, it states that due to the fact that an endangered species was found in you grazing allotment your permit will be terminated in thirty days. Instead of getting upset you pop a beer and turn on the tv to watch Oprah, her guest just happens to be your buddy Wayne Pacille, he is bragging about how he and the HSUS just shut down a bunch of slaughterhouses because they were abusing the poor little cows, he states how tainted meat was kept from being sent to the local market, he could care less about people eating the meat it's the cows he is worried about. Thats what it might be like to be a cattle rancher in the future.
Oh,about your friend Mr Pacille, I feel the same way about him as I do Osama Bin Laden, there is not much difference between the two, Osama wants to destroy america, Wayne and the HSUS want to destroy some of our culture and traditions, hunting , fishing, trapping, wearing fur and eating meat.People will never stop killing animals for food, sport fur and recreation,thats why he is always mouthing off in his blog.Like Osama he will fail, someday we will catch up to Mr Osama and we will blow him to bits, as far as Mr Pacille goes he and the HSUS will step on the wrong peoples toes some day and they will pay dearly, he will answer to the public and people like me.

You really think the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enforces the Endangered Species Act? Don’t you read the newspapers? And, even if it did, don’t you know about habitat conservation plans on private land? “…People have left it up to [a rancher] to protect [his] cattle.” Imagine that! You mean to say this rancher actually has to look after his stock! You mean to say he has to protect his range and his animals! You mean to say that, for once, he can’t depend on public funds to rid public land of the public’s wildlife for his personal gain? Outrageous! Finally, I agree with you that “people will never stop killing animals for food, sport fur and recreation.” So why are you so terrified of Wayne Pacelle and the HSUS?
Best,
Ted