We Have the Right

Words and photos from a FB post I saw:

Penned by someone on FB:

I don't usually vent on Facebook. But this just makes me sick. If someone my friends on Facebook here are environmentalists I really don't care about your views right now. The enormity of this fire and the destruction it is causing truly could have been minimized by responsible local sustainable logging practices. With sustainable forest logging practices these forests could have been pretty much saved or the damage minimized but now these productive forest that were cleaning the air creating oxygen and doing everything with the environmentalists love to say that a healthy forest can do will not be able to do it for the next 15 to 20 years as effectively because now it's dead or dying. If sustainable logging practices were followed this could have been minimized. Because if you log a forest correctly and take care of it correctly it like the locals here and Grant County were doing all through the 70's 80's and into the 90's it would have been a healthy forest for a long long time. And when I say local sustainable logging I mean local companies local log Millz not big corporations getting the money. So if you are one of my friends that's an environmentalist and you feel like replying to this be prepared for a lot of backlash. Because environmentalist don't live in this forest in this area in this community they do not regularly go out and enjoy walking the trails in the forest going hunting fishing or the view that we have why would we want to destroy that was logging everything in sight we wouldn't we would want to log it responsibly so if you are from the city and don't come into the country come into the forest and use the forest fine don't restrict us from enjoying our communities. And before anyone says I should move to a different community or a different area its like me telling people in the city that they need to leave because there's too much crime and they are polluting too much. Again I'm sorry for venting I am just tired and upset and right now environmentalist can kiss my butt.

After reading the above, I too felt the need to speak my thoughts:

I would have to say about the same thing for our wild horses and the land they have thrived on for centuries. If the rangeland was managed with SUSTAINABLE & HEALTHY practices it would have a much better chance at thriving. Manage the cattle and rangeland HOLISTICALLY using SUSTAINABLE, HEALTHY practices and the wild horses would be able to remain where they have been for hundreds of years. Livestock allotment fences restrict historical wild horse migration and reducing or removing horses to below healthy numbers is not beneficial for the horse herds nor the rangeland. Wild horses have been in the high desert areas for hundreds of years, long before cattle were introduced. They BELONG there, have a RIGHT to be there and I want them there.

Yes there are many ranchers who need their rangeland permit to maintain their livelihood. It doesn't make me happy that anyone should loose their way of making a living. I feel the same way for the business owner in downtown L.A. that has to shut down his business due to changes in the economy or other issues. It's part of owning a business. Every business should have a backup plan or a plan B if something goes wrong. Ranching is no different.

If there are rights just because it's been done that way for so many years or because a family was there first or they had that rangeland permit for 50 years, then the wild horses have a HUGE right to the land for their 100's of years of historical occupation of it. Laws change. Economy changes. Weather changes. That means we all have to change, including the livestock grazing permittee holder. But reality is that the management of the rangeland has been very poor and when taking a step back to look at the whole picture, the care of this rangeland must change or it will be just another bandaid and will not fix the problem of the devastation of OUR PUBLIC lands.