Surviving the (DOI) Bureaucracy

“I am not a rancher or farmer. Nor have I ever done any ranching or farming. Yet I have aligned myself with the farming & ranching industries in their battles to survive against the BLM, National Forest Service and the National Park Service and other government agencies.

Lately (last 10 years) I have asked myself why have I aligned myself with this group. No one in the ranching community has asked me why, yet lately I’ve been asking myself why. Why, as I’ve never done any ranching, should I place myself among their numbers? Two reasons.

First, I have found that ranching (and farming, but farming cannot make use of public lands) as an industry, generally speaking, have a higher moral and ethics level than any other commercial industry I’ve come across.

Most of the farmers & ranchers I’ve met are LDS, because of the locale being in the area of the Bundy Ranch, where I first got involved in the public lands issue.

But I’ve met other farmers & ranchers, beyond that locale, that are not LDS, and they hold a high moral level as well. So it’s not due to religious affiliation. It’s because farmers & ranchers generally live a rural life and do not become corrupted by urban social values.

Second, it’s ranchers that manage the public lands, at least the lands they are allowed to manage. Other groups that make use of public lands – miners, loggers, off-roaders, campers & hikers and other recreations – do not care for the land to nearly the degree that farmers & ranchers do.

For farmers & ranchers, their livelihood depends on maintaining every aspect of the quality of the land they occupy over the long term.

Thousands of others came to the ranchers’ aid at the April 2014 Bundy Standoff and at the January 2016 Malheur Refuge Standoff.

These people have came from all parts of the country, some from other countries. They must have recognized these values as well, else why would they have come so far and risked the ire of the federal government?

I would point out that it was Bundy family honor and principle that caused Ammon & Ryan Bundy and LaVoy Finicum, along with many others, to take a stand against the oppression of the federal government against the Hammond family in Harney County, Oregon.

LaVoy was murdered, rather than be allowed to stand trial, but the Bundys stood trial twice. They took that stand for ranching in Nevada, the Hammonds and other ranchers in Harney County, despite the overbearing and mammoth nature of the federal government.

They were acquitted both times, the first by jury in Oregon and the second by case dismissal.

There was a photo I came across some time ago, that expresses the feelings I have. I repost it here, in honor of the Bundy family that has inspired me and this whole movement to save the rural lands – public and private – lands from federal overreach.

The photo represents an unpleasant disparity between what this flag is supposed to represent, and the fact that the Bundy family has long supported it.

Now the government, that this flag represents, has demoralized this family that has so long supported the basis and principles on which that government was founded.”