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jonnyrig
climber
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Mar 10, 2015 - 04:55pm PT
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Seen quite a few sage grouse up on Tule Peak near Pyramid, out by Leadville up north of Gerlach, in the Virginia Range, in the Ruby's, and most recently while hunting deer out of Mary's River Basin on the south end of Jarbidge Wilderness. They're definitely around. Makes me jump when they let me walk by before flushing out.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
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Mar 10, 2015 - 07:28pm PT
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http://www.hcn.org/articles/cliven-bundy-rancher-nevada-scofflaw?utm_source=wcn1&utm_medium=email
An update on Nevada scofflaw Cliven Bundy
The rancher still has influence in some circles, and has yet to be fully reprimanded for trespass cattle and unpaid fees.
It’s been almost a year since the standoff between Bureau of Land Management officials and rancher scofflaw Cliven Bundy. In that time, Bundy has gone from being just a rancher who wouldn’t pay his fees, to a lasting political figure that the far-right anti-federal government set continues to coalesce around.
Last April, BLM rounded up 300 of Bundy’s cattle in southern Nevada’s Clark County, because the livestock were trespassing on public land and had been doing so, on and off, for decades. Bundy owed taxpayers some $1 million in unpaid grazing fees and fines, which to this day he has not settled. In response to the impoundment, anti-federal ideologues and members of militia groups from surrounding states gathered near the Bundy ranch to support his protest of the cattle seizure and his beliefs that the BLM had no authority over where he could graze his cattle. An estimated 300 people congregated at the side of the road near the Bunkerville grazing allotment and at least one militia group member aimed a rifle at the federal agents below. Fearing an escalation to violence, the government officials aborted their mission—they released the cattle and left.
Cliven Bundy speaking at a July 2014 forum hosted by the American Academy for Constitutional Education (AAFCE) at the Burke Basic School in Mesa, Arizona. Photo by Flickr user Gage Skidmore.
Much ink has been spilled over whether the BLM should have waited for a better time for the impoundment or simply put its foot down years ago; and whether the sheriff’s department promised to help with security during the impoundment, but failed to show up, as BLM officials have said. It’s clear that Bundy was, and still is, breaking federal law, which states that BLM controls where ranchers can and cannot graze on public land it manages.
By all accounts, Bundy still has not been charged for the trespassing cattle or the unpaid fines. Bundy told me in an email that his cattle have “all returned back to their normal grazing habitat”—i.e., where the BLM restricts grazing in part because it’s sensitive desert tortoise habitat. The BLM would not confirm or deny that, nor would the agency comment on whether security has been increased or procedures have changed in Nevada, or agency-wide as a result of the standoff, except to say that they “implement routine security measures at many public meetings.”
Environmental groups are urging the feds not to let Bundy off the hook. On Feb. 26, the Center for Biological Diversity wrote a public letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder imploring them to act on the Bundy case and report progress toward resolving it. In a budget hearing last week, Jewell said that “any kind of investigation of federal crimes that have been committed” are in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice. (The FBI reportedly opened an investigation last year over possible threats to law enforcement officers and illegal weapons, but the agency declined to comment for this story.) The whistleblower nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), says that the DOJ is likely sitting on the case. But Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in Nevada, said that she cannot confirm or deny whether the Department of Justice has an open case on Bundy, and the BLM has remained mum as well.
But since the standoff last April, the Clark County rancher hasn’t just hunkered down to wait and see what the feds will do. He described to HCN over e-mail that the standoff has given him “a wider opportunity to speak and more influence.” He and his close supporters have continued to voice their political views about the federal government, which have bled into the local process to update a BLM resource management plan for southern Nevada.
In December, Bundy declared at a Nye County Commissioners meeting (which borders his home county) that the federal government has no authority and urged locals to cease engagement with the BLM altogether. Commissioner Dan Schinhofen recalls that Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven, said at the meeting that if commissioners even communicated with the federal agency, they should be thrown out of office. According to the Pahrump Valley Times, Cliven Bundy helped spur the passage of an anti-BLM resolution in Nye County. Commissioner Donna Cox, who shares some similar views with the Bundys, proposed the resolution to categorically say "no” to the BLM.
“I think she envisioned that (we would) not further work on the resource management plan and (the BLM) would just run away and go hide,” Schinhofen told me. “But (the BLM’s) going to do their RMP process no matter what. Their bosses are telling them to do it.”
Despite the lingering support for Bundy in some corners, for Schinhofen and at least one other commissioner, the Bundys lean too far right. “Supposedly I'm now the BLM apologist,” Schinhofen says. But in Nye County, that isn’t saying much. He and other commissioners are part of an effort to transfer federal public lands to state control—a local manifestation of a larger movement afoot, currently centered in Utah. They don’t want BLM controlling their recreation areas and grazing allotments, but at least they’re trying to make change through laws that already exist, he says—writing a proposal to reverse them, and working with the agency on things like resource management plans in the meantime.
Bundy's anti-federal influence continues to be inspiring to at least a few hundred people in Schinhofen’s area and likely many more beyond. A November 2014 BLM public meeting in Pahrump, Nevada, to discuss the proposed management plan (the same one that prompted some commissioners to resolve to say "no" to the BLM) was canceled after a hundred or so people showed up to protest—too many to fit into the community hall the meeting was scheduled for. According to commissioner Lorinda Wichman, Bundy supporters had sent an email blast to locals, encouraging them to show up to “help save our right to use our public lands,” to protest any potential BLM “retaliation of the Bundy family,” (which some Bundyites have claimed is one of the goals of the resource management plan) and calling the BLM the “Bureau of Land Grabbing Maggots.”
And every day that passes without a federal government move to prosecute Bundy is a day that he and his followers are emboldened. “We have not been bothered by nor have we even seen a US government licensed vehicle of any kind on the Bundy Ranch or the northeast portion of Clark County,” Bundy said in his email, referring to the last 11 months. “Cattle prices are good and green grass is growing!”
Tay Wiles is the online editor of High Country News.
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Mar 10, 2015 - 07:41pm PT
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Send in some Black drones to see what's going on in Bunkerville.
After they shoot em down, go in an arrest them for damaging Gov. property
There is nothing more feared than Black Helicopters in backwater America
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Mar 10, 2015 - 09:09pm PT
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Maybe we could get 'the chief' to counsel Bundy so he can grow up and not be a burden on society.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Mar 24, 2015 - 07:26pm PT
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Anyone who thinks our rotten, sociopathic government cares the least bit about the health desert tortoises needs to open their eyes a bit....
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thebravecowboy
climber
Greyrock, CO
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Mar 24, 2015 - 10:45pm PT
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ahh, yes, one must defer in this country to the noble cow, the slow elk, the trampler, the defecator.
And certainly to the rancher that monopolizes the few, sacred, public waterholes, allowing them to sh#t in such.
Noble cow, indeed.
Noble rancher, indeed.
and yeah, noble raven is pretty hilarious.
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thebravecowboy
climber
Greyrock, CO
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Mar 24, 2015 - 10:53pm PT
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it's not about some herp-tortoise, derp.
nor about the carrion-eating crows.
it's about drinkable surface water. for me anyway.
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thebravecowboy
climber
Greyrock, CO
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Mar 24, 2015 - 10:59pm PT
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somehow I don't think that a hiker could walk through there these days.
somehow I don't think that a hiker would desire to drink of those waters these days.
yes, Mr. Anderson, the ranch-man has made many fine spring-well improvements. Generally, I think this is great. And somehow, rarely when cattle are about do I find access to trusty tasty water.
It would be quite instructive if one were to walk through and see the place. Can you hook me up with a pass? Burnside Brigade Bro-pass?
Kidding aside, can you help me to see what the BLM did to his waterhole improvements? Surely in this digital age there exists documentation of such tyrannical, insane behavior, if such was done by the noble (;-)) BLM.
Did not these particular ranch-folk receive subsidy for such range improvements? If the BLM did as you say, that is indeed a big deal. Can you hook it up on some info?
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thebravecowboy
climber
Greyrock, CO
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Mar 24, 2015 - 11:15pm PT
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cool! so next time I roll through, I may just try and hike it. Because it is, you know, public land.
Edit: could you point out a particular incident of the BLM destroying range waterhole improvements?
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thebravecowboy
climber
Greyrock, CO
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Mar 24, 2015 - 11:29pm PT
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man, I like fishing, but not like that.
meanwhile, those goddamn cattle trails are still pretty helpful sometimes. less'n you're a tortoize
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Mar 25, 2015 - 10:38am PT
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The silence of the Justice Dept is deafening. The wheels of justice grind slowly but exceeding fine.
The damage range cattle do to natural water courses far outweighs the ecological benefits of Blunty's water "improvements".
A close perusal of Google Earth around Blunderville will show you.
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Mar 25, 2015 - 11:30am PT
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There could be a cause and effect that attracts animals that shouldn't be in that area with freash water available.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Mar 25, 2015 - 12:15pm PT
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A little more Bundy history, for those that don't remember, or choose to ignore it.
Here's a summary of this tax-cheater's right-wing history: https://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/in-nevada-delicate-20-year-standoff-with-blm-ends-in-a-tense-roundup
It was the tortoise that kicked off the saga in 1993, when the BLM modified the terms of Bundy’s Bunkerville grazing allotment to protect the animal after it was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Bundy refused to comply with the new terms, so the BLM cancelled his permit to no effect.
In 1997, Clark County purchased all active grazing permits in the area in accordance with the new federal Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan and the county’s own Desert Conservation Program, offering Bundy compensation for water rights and range improvements on his former allotment.
Bundy rejected the offer.
In 1999, the Nevada District Court permanently banned Bundy from grazing cattle in the area, ordering him to remove them or face a $200 penalty per cow per day. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction.
Between 2008 and 2011, the BLM cancelled Bundy’s remaining range improvement authorizations.
In 2011 Bundy ignored several court orders, including a notice of impoundment. Over the next two years, the BLM aerially counted first 903, then 729, then 600, then 750 head of cattle, nearly all suspected to belong to Bundy, on land closed to grazing.
And a photo of some of Bundy's happy cattle at an "improved" waterhole.
Newspaper link, click photo for slideshow. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/bundy-blm/feds-start-rounding-bundy-s-cattle-northeastern-clark-county
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crankster
Trad climber
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Mar 25, 2015 - 12:17pm PT
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He can't run and hide forever.
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10b4me
Social climber
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Mar 25, 2015 - 01:09pm PT
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Mar 25, 2015 - 03:00pm PT
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Wow, if only there was a way to verify that.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Mar 25, 2015 - 03:18pm PT
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They simply wanted that land cleared to develop energy and exploration
Man, Ron, you know next to nothing about energy exploration. On the oil and gas end, you can farm crops, raise cattle, or build buildings on the surface. All you need is a 5 acre pad for the big wells, and where it is located is flexible.
Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas are covered with oil fields that lie below farms and cities.
Surface usage doesn't matter. Oil and gas production has enabled many farmers and ranchers lots of money.
I've said this before, but stuff like this has nothing to do with oil and gas production. NOTHING....
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Mar 25, 2015 - 04:12pm PT
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Geez Ron,
If you want to expose government corruption and mistreatment of the common man, you may want to unhook your wagon from the Bundy Klan. They have to be about the most unsympathetic characters around.
Aren't there some other God fearin', salt o' the earth, rugged western individualists that the gubmint is screwin' that aren't convicted, freeloading tax evaders?
Maybe find one of them and start another crusade.
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