This Land is Your Land UPDATE FROM ANNUAL PLC MEETING, DALEY RECEIVES TOP HONOR
from Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur After two years of virtual annual meetings necessitated by the pandemic, nearly 200 public lands ranchers and their supporters from across the western United States converged upon Cody, Wyo., between Wednesday, Aug. 24 and Friday, Aug. 26, gathering in person once again for the 54th Public Lands Council (PLC) Annual Meeting. California’s delegation was headed up this year by Dave Daley, Oroville, and Todd Swickard, Standish. Wednesday saw an all-day board of directors meeting, during which one director from each PLC affiliate state convened to consider proposals for PLC grant funding, followed by a cocktail hour during which permittees from throughout the West greeted each other and caught up after the more-than-two-year hiatus from in-person meetings. The business of the annual meeting kicked off in earnest on Thursday morning with the opening general session, during which Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and city of Cody's Mayor Matt Hall greeted attendees to the Cowboy State and highlighted ranching’s central importance to the landscape, economy and lifestyle of the state. U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie also greeted attendees with opening remarks on the important role ranchers play in stewarding our nation’s public lands. The day also featured panel discussions on managing public lands amidst increased public demand in a postCOVID world and working lands’ role in the national discussion of climate change and carbon sequestration. In committee meetings on Thursday and Friday, ranchers debated a wide range of policy issues, including conflicts between ranchers and public lands recreators; emerging trends on the development of wildlife habitat corridors; management of feral horses, gray wolves, grizzly bears and sage grouse (among other wildlife); post-fire rangeland recovery; and a wide range of other 12 California Cattleman October 2022
topics that impact grazing permittees’ stewardship of federal lands. On Thursday night, attendees were treated to the debut screening of the first documentary film in a series dubbed “Range Reels,” focused on the land stewardship of Evanston, Wyo., rancher Shaun Sims. In the fourminute film, Sims notes that “ranchers like me and my family are the ones who take care of…640 million acres of public lands across the West,” conserving hundreds of species of wildlife and the native grasses that sequester “the largest store of above and below ground carbon in North America.” Sims was on hand for a brief Q&A after the screening. The annual meeting concluded on Friday, Aug. 26 with a banquet at Cody’s Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The banquet was preceded by a cocktail hour during which attendees enjoyed private access to the Cody Firearms Museum; with more than 4,000 firearms on display, the collection is the most extensive firearms museum in the United States. At the banquet, CCA’s own Dave Daley was honored as the recipient of the PLC Presidential Award, bestowed each year by the PLC President in recognition of “an exemplary member of the public lands ranching community who has made a notable contribution to promoting livestock production on federal lands.” Daley certainly fits the bill. After concluding his term as CCA President from 2017-18, Daley served for three years as chair of the California Public Lands Council, a PLC state affiliate. In recent years Daley has also served as chair of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Federal Lands Committee and chair of PLC’s Forest Service Committee. Daley is currently the chair of PLC’s Ecosystem & Environment Committee. In addition to his many roles squarely focused on advancing the ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 14