Help debunk this viral story about the Hammond/Bundy debacle from "theconservativetreehouse.com"

[bhikkhu]

37. A couple of additional things

The Silvies Plain mentioned in the article is called most everywhere else the SIlvies Floodplain. It probably was a tragic loss for many of the ranchers, but bulding in a floodplain isn't a good idea anywhere. Building in a floodplain in a basin with no water outlet is a pretty predictable disaster - a few wet years was all that it took. The FWS can hardly be blamed.

The idea that the bird populations followed settlement is absurd. Malheur lake is in a basin, and has been a significant wetlands since the pluvial age, on the major western migratory route. Ranching and farming, in eastern oregon and everywhere else, has generally taken "reclaiming" (another word for draining) wetlands to be a fundamental goal. Draining wetlands is good for farming, as you control the water supply to gain a more predictable year-round source, but that's irrelevant to migrating birds. Wetlands are what they need, and in the Harney basin (as everywhere else), farming and ranching eliminates wetlands in favor of stable lakes, to the detriment of most wildlife.

Also its good to keep in mind the timescale. White settlement began in around 1879. By 1908 the bird population was so decimated that the area was made a national preserve as the only way to allow wildlife to recover. In the space of one generation the Harney basin was made an environmental wreck. Any basin must be managed carefully. Some grazing is beneficial, but 300,000 head of cattle in a sensitive enclosed space is the fast road to creating a poison desert.

I know a lot of ranchers, living near the area myself. Most of them are either well-educated or born and raised into a very hard profession, and most are very knowledgeable about the best environmental practices. It takes a lot of sweat and brains and flexibility to keep a ranch going profitably, and there's no guarantee from one year to the next. Again, most of them are quite intelligent and personable. The hard breaks they do get from the weather or the markets or whatever else are dealt with pragmatically in practice, but there is always the tendency toward the simple narrative of blaming the government. Its griping that leads to nothing for most, I usually take in the same sense as people used to blame the devil for anything bad that happened - means little, harms little, except where a few non-thinkers (who, by extension, aren't likely to be much at ranching) take it to the extreme.