Career on the range was mostly cooperative — except with Cliven Bundy

[struggle4progress]

April 1, 2016 - 10:00am
By JOHN L. SMITH
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Ben Collins .. spent most of his career .. with the Bureau of Land Management.

“Maybe I am biased, but cooperation was outstanding during my eight years as District Manager,” Collins recalled in an interview and letter. “I could go on, but my point is that Cliven Bundy was not a cooperator in any sense of the word. After many facilitated sessions on how to work with range users that could be affected by the listing to the tortoise, it was determined that for a specified time in the spring (when tortoises emerged from their burrows seeking the usual flush of green annual vegetation after months in winter hibernation) cattle should come off the range for a month to let the tortoises ‘fatten up.’ Of course, Cliven rarely brought any of his cattle in from the range and he basically hit the roof. He was a frequent trespasser, but as far as I know he usually paid his grazing fees. But the idea of taking his cattle off the range put him over the edge. From that time (around 1993) he refused to pay his grazing fees” ...

“I had a 31-year career with BLM ‘out on the range’ and found nearly all the livestock operators I had the privilege to work with were law abiding and took pride in developing grazing management with BLM,” Collins said. “Bundy is just a rare anomaly.”

http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/columns-blogs/john-l-smith/career-the-range-was-mostly-cooperative-except-cliven-bundy

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. i grew up in cattle country and i never met anyone as rabid as bundy

I heard grumbles and anti government comments occasionally, but most understood why the rules had to be followed.