Keep Nevada’s public lands in public hands
Posted June 11, 2016 - 9:01pm
By Bonnie Eberhardt Bobb
Special to the Review-Journal
... Hundreds of thousands of dollars from grazing fees on approximately 45 million acres of public rangeland goes directly into the Nevada state treasury to support our agricultural economy. Nevada Revised Statute 568 authorizes the funds to be used “for the construction and maintenance of range improvements or any other purpose beneficial to the stock raising and ranching industries.”
But as we’ve seen in recent headlines, not all ranchers pay their fair share for use of public rangelands. For more than 20 years, Cliven Bundy has given Nevada ranchers a black eye by refusing to pay the same fees other ranchers do. While Bundy proclaims that he doesn’t recognize the existence of the U.S. government, many other Western ranchers are proud to have “USDA Prime Beef” or “USDA Choice” labels, adding value to their meat.
Sadly, Nevada’s county and state officials are also discounting the important role of federal lands in preserving Nevada’s rural way of life ...
Dr. Bonnie Eberhardt Bobb is director of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/keep-nevada-s-public-lands-public-hands
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