Ranchers see public lands as their own.

[SarahD]

Public lands in the American west constitute an enormous welfare system benefitting logging, ranching, railroads, energy companies, and some I probably forgot. Ranchers are probably not the worst of these bad actors, but they try to be. They insist every square inch of public prairie be dedicated to feeding their cattle. And don't expect to charge them a fair price for munching on that public grass, either. They hate bison because... well, because they're not cows, but also because bison carry brucellosis and the ranchers don't want to spend money to vaccinate their cows. These appear to be private bison, so they could be vaccinated by whoever owns them, but the ranchers are complaining that the fences aren't stout enough to prevent the bison escaping and mingling with their cattle. Of course, the delicious irony of this is that they're behaving exactly like the ungrateful welfare recipients to whom they hate being compared. No matter how much money we spend on them, they demand more. Real rugged cowboy individualists.
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/american-prairie-greg-gianforte-austin-knudsen-blm/article_4b3d2104-5562-5942-93e1-2e7d89308415.html

[MotownPgh]

1. Don't get me started on what they are not

taxed on.

[rampartc]

2. bundy may not be the worst.

but yes, they should pay fair market for grazing.

[albacore]

3. Ranchers use of public land is a rip-off. That land is MINE as much as theirs..

Ranchers who use public land aren't the problem... it's the deadbeats who want to use the land - our land - for free.
The amount of beef produced on public land is a tiny percentage of the beef this country produces. And alternate uses of our lands make a lot more money than grazing, with few of the problems associated with grazing.

"Percentage of total feed for livestock (cattle and sheep) in the United States supplied from federal lands: 2%.
Percentage of American beef produced from federal rangelands: less than 3%."
"October 2004: for the first time in the history of the agency, the Bureau of Land Management collected more revenue in recreational fees than annual grazing fees. This despite the fact that recreational fees are often collected through voluntary pay stations, while grazing fees are mandatory and enforced, and BLM does not charge fees for many recreational offerings on BLM lands.
In Nevada (the state with more federal land than any other outside of Alaska), federal public lands grazing provides 1,228 jobs. By comparison, one casino in Las Vegas employs 37,000 people.
Alternative uses of federal public lands contribute much more income to local and regional economies than livestock grazing. In the Central Winter Ecosystem Management Area in the Kaibab Plateau, Arizona, dispersed recreation is worth $200,000 annually to the local and regional economies; fuelwood is worth $48,984; livestock grazing is worth $45,988; and deer and turkey hunting is worth $1,324,259."
http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/fs_grazing_economics.htm

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. Thanks for the extra context!

[albacore]

18. Want more info?...get this... private grazing is 1600% more expensive than BLM lands..

Bundy and the other deadbeats are getting a huge bargain...and STILL stiffing the taxpayers by not even paying the pennies they owe.

The 2018 grazing fee was $1.41 per Animal Unit Month, yet the 2019 fee fell to the baseline $1.35 per AUM. Comparatively, in 2019, the grazing fee on private land in the western U.S. was $22.60 per AUM. That’s nearly 1600% more than the BLM’s price. The BLM cites that, in 2015, the livestock grazing program cost $36.2 million to administer, but it brought in just $14.5 million in grazing fees

https://smea.uw.edu/currents/money-doesnt-grow-on-public-lands-the-cost-of-livestock-grazing-in-the-american-west/

[Bayard]

4. Thanks for posting this

One of my soapbox issues. Ranchers also really hate wild mustangs, claiming that they take grass away from their cattle. First of all, these are our horses grazing on our land.
Secondly, cattle eat tons (literally) more than horses do. They don't move around much, and will completely clean out an area before moving on. Horses are picky. They won't eat the same vegetation that cattle will, and they move around a lot to find what they need.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

5. No one sucks the federal teat

Quite like Mr. Bundy.

[charliea]

19. Which Bundy?

Live in Oregon and although Ammon's dad thought he had an inalienable right to steal from "the government" (or us) by grazing on public land and not paying for it. His son and his friends "liberated" a national wildlife refuge here in Oregon, and vandalized it. Later he attacked a hospital in Idaho to "rescue" a supporter's child who had been taken into police protective custody. Jailed for trespass, contempt and losing a lawsuit to the hospital he appears to have absconded to parts unknown. It seems people are still looking for him

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

[maxsolomon]

6. Welfare Ranching.

My brother has this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Welfare-Ranching-Subsidized-Destruction-American/dp/1559639431

It's utterly depressing.

[2naSalit]

10. My friend...

Created that book.

When it was published the author had a copy sent to each member of Congress.

[republianmushroom]

7. Federal grazing fee

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Federal grazing fee for 2021 will be $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) for public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and $1.35 per head month (HM) for lands managed by the USDA Forest Service. The 2020 public land grazing fee was $1.35.

An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The grazing fee for 2019 is ...

[ybbor]

12. That is my biggest issue

The price was set in the 1800s and hasn’t budged since. It’s ridiculous!

[jaxexpat]

17. Not to stretch a metaphor too far, but it seems to me, the BLM regulates the western version of "Jim Crow".

In the south, the "40 acres and a mule" promise became the big lie of its age as white people terrorized society and weaponized economics to drive black people from their "lands of opportunity" into perpetual poverty. The agricultural finance business still, last I heard, refuses to treat black applicants the same as their white counterparts. In the west, how many Native Americans lease land for grazing cattle? How many ever tried but were denied access to necessary funding, supplies and markets? Just asking. I have no data to support my supposition, but the theory tracks with facts of current inequities. It's just odd that tribes find funding for the building of casinos at every reservation, but an unusually high percentage of citizens on those reservations have predictably low average incomes, some to the extreme. You drive along a highway in any reservation; nothing but numerous and often derelict modular home habitations and then come upon a multi-million-dollar gambling enterprise. Doesn't seem to make sense to me unless there are dominant elements at work here whose interests are limited to short-term gain with no interest in the communities they rape.

[KPN]

8. The problem with federal land grazing is we taxpayers or, more accurately, public land owners are

subsidizing a lifestyle. Grazing fees on federal lands are and always have been well below fees charged by private landowners for cattle grazing. Significantly so. The fee level is a result of immense lobbying by ranchers. There have been numerous attempts by the Bureau of Land Management, at least, to bring fees more in line with market prices.

Having said that, in defense of the Bureau of Land Management, I believe it is the only federal agency that pays for itself, i.e., contributes more to federal coffers via use/user and lease fees than it gets in its annual budget allocation.

[duckworth969]

9. Very well said

and spot on.

[2naSalit]

11. K&R

It's a major issue around here.

[Kali]

14. OMG

so much ignorant or malignant nonsense.

[PatSeg]

15. After years of often seeing ranchers as good guys in the movies

and on TV, it is disturbing now to see what self-centered, greedy jerks many of them are. What came across as fiercely independent, hardworking people in the 19th century has turned into individuals who don't contribute to the society they live in, while doing a whole lot of taking.

Hard to believe they are so anti-government while they are taking subsidies that other people paid for. Law and order is for other folks, apparently ranchers are above it all.

Now when I see a cowboy hat, it is almost as bad as a red MAGA hat. I used to love cowboy hats.

[orangecrush]

16. I think toll roads are my own

Now I don't have to pay to use them.

Or some sovereign citizen delusional bullshit