LMD Apr 23

Hell With One “L”

LEE PITTS

If you ask Kris Stewart Hell is spelled with one “L”.

Over the years we have tried to expose the many ways state and federal governments are using to ride roughshod over ranchers and put them out of business because the feds covet their land. When the bureaucrats couldn’t accomplish their goal with wolves, endangered species, water rights, and so forth they’ve tried to burn them out with record-sized wildfires.

Sadly, we’ve learned about another cruel tool the feds have at their disposal to rid the world of public lands ranchers. It’s called “highly erodible land” and is abbreviated with the letters “HEL.” It’s the most accurate acronym we’ve come across and it describes exactly what the bureaucrats are putting Kris Stewart through. But in this case, we suspect the feds may have bit off more than they can chew in picking on Stewart and her 96 Ranch of Paradise Valley, Nevada.

Where The Buckaroo Was Born

Mother and daughter Kris and Patrice Stewart own the oldest ranch in Nevada having been in business since 1864, the same year Nevada became a state. The 159-year-old operation, now known as the 96 Ranch, is one of the Great Basin’s iconic ranches and you wouldn’t be exaggerating to say it’s where the buckaroo was born. It is the very

definition of sustainability.

Originally the 160-acre piece of ground was known as the Williams Stock Farming Co. which was homesteaded by Fredrich Wilhelm Stock, one of Nevada’s first permanent settlers. Today the ranch, located north of Winnemucca, is still owned by his descendants.

Stock was aptly named, for he rapidly increased his operation to include sheep, hogs, horses and cattle (he also grew grain). At the time of Stock’s

death, the ranch’s holdings included 3,000 cattle, 6,000 sheep, 1,000 horses on 17,560 acres of land. Sadly, despite excellent management based on Allan Savory’s teachings, today the 96 Ranch grazes more like 1,200 head of cattle and 18 horses on the same ground! The feds would like to reduce those numbers even further. The various alphabet of agencies that were still decades away from formation when Stewart’s ranch was founded tried to burn them out by letting fuel loads grew to ridiculous levels. Inevi-

USDA Extends Public Comment Period for Proposed Enhancements of Animal Disease Traceability Regulations

SOURCE: USDA

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is extending the comment period on a proposal to strengthen animal disease traceability regulations. The extension will give the public an additional 30 days to prepare and submit comments.

All comments must be received by April 19, 2023.

On January 18, 2023, APHIS announced its proposal to amend the animal disease traceability regulations and require electronic identification for interstate movement of certain cattle and bison. Under the proposed rule, official ear tags must be visually and electronically readable for interstate movement of certain cattle and bison. It would also revise and clarify certain record requirements related to cattle. This includes requiring official identification device distribution records to be entered into a Tribal, State, or Federal database, and making those records available to APHIS upon request.

APHIS is asking the public to provide comments on how this proposed rule would impact the regulated community. We are also seeking comments on ways that APHIS might assist with implementing these proposed changes.

Interested stakeholders may view the proposed rule and submit comments at www.regulations.gov/document/ APHIS-2021-0020-0001

All comments must be received by April 19, 2023.     ▫

tably the Martin Fire, the largest in Nevada’s history, burned 439,230 acres in 2018 destroying the Stewart’s entire BLM permit and 6,200 acres of their private range. It will take more than a fire to buck the Stewart’s off the beast and yet the bureaucrats kept trying. You don’t stay in the business of being a public lands rancher for 159 years without having the staying power and gumption of a bull rider but it’s hard to beat the bureaucrats when they have unlimited access to layers of lawyers and a knack for fighting dirty.

Gotcha

continued on page 2

Biden Admin’s Sweeping New Rules Would Let Green Groups Lease Federal Land Away From Oil, Ranching

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI / DAILY CALLER NEWS

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) proposed new rules in late March that would allow public land to be leased for conservation efforts, among other major changes to promote land health.

The proposal would expand land-health standards to the entirety of the 245 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), prioritize the designation of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and establish a leasing framework for private partners to perform climate restoration and mitigation efforts on public land, according to the DOI. The new rule would make proposed leases for conservation efforts a valid “use” of public land, similar to mining, ranching and other energy projects under the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, according to the BLM.

“It is our responsibility to use the best tools available to restore wildlife habitat, plan for smart development, and conserve the most important places for the benefit of the generations to come,” DOI Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil trade group, told Reuters she believed that it would be a “stretch” of the FLPMA to introduce conservation leases. This position was echoed by Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, who also argued that the BLM already had significant authority to limit land usage in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“There are so many overlays for conservation on BLM land, some of them in the law and some of them just made up administratively, that a lot of land has already been withdrawn … from resource production, recreational access, grazing, timber … a lot of land is already being managed for conservation,” Ebell told the DCNF. He argued that some regions, particularly in the Intermountain West, depend on grazing as a conservation method and that this rule might make it more difficult to get a grazing lease.     ▫

by LEE PITTS

Riding Lessons

The first thing in life I remember wanting to be was a jockey and the second thing was a professional basketball player. Alas, I was too big for one and too small for the other. So I figured that being a cowboy would be a better fit.

I hate to admit this, but I’ve never had riding lessons in my life. I’ve never crossed an angry river on a horse, never rode a bronc in a rodeo and was never a member of the National Cutting Horse Association. I learned to ride sitting astride a saddle in my Grandpa’s “bunkhouse” which wasn’t really a bunkhouse at all but a shed filled with old bits, spurs, saddle blankets and two saddles sitting on stands. My favorite thing to do as a child was to go to Grandpa’s house where I’d head straight to his bunkhouse, mount up and play cowboy. My grandpa coached me, “Keep your heels, down, don’t jerk back on the reins and NEVER, under any circumstances grab the horn.” Or as he called it, “reaching for the apple or squeezing the biscuit.”

My second favorite thing to do was ride the mechanical horse in front of the grocery store and I’m proud to say that neither the saddle stand nor the mechanized equine ever bucked me off despite some really hairy predicaments. When I went to the county fair I always rode the horse on the carousel, not the ostrich, tiger, elephant or swan so at that point in my career I felt like I could ride anything that wore hair, wool or feathers.

Oh, I’d been on real horses before and have photographic evidence that I rode before I could walk, but I was always in the arms of Grandpa at a rodeo. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I got on real horses and was a real cowboy. My best friend in high school lived on his grandfather’s ranch and every chance I got I went there to haul hay in exchange for riding horses. From the beginning I was assigned Buck, a horse that never did. Buck was the horse they always assigned to dudes, small children, infirm old timers and me. I loved that old horse. On a gentle horse like Buck everybody is an accomplished equestrian but simply polishing my

continued on page 3

There are only two things you need to be afraid of: a decent woman and bein’ left afoot.

Saying things that need to be said.

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EDITORIAL and ADVERTISING STAFF

CAREN COWAN Publisher

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ADMINISTRATIVE and PRODUCTION STAFF

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KRISTY HINDS Graphic Designer

According to the 2014 Farm Bill, highly erodible land (HEL) is “any land that can erode at excessive rates because of its soil properties.” Now here is the government gotcha: Anyone who participates in most programs administered by the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service or the Risk Management Agency is required to have a conservation plan approved by, and on file, with the USDA if they plant annually tilled crops on highly erodible soil. Producers having such soil are required to “fill out and sign form AD-1026 certifying they will not plant or produce an agricultural commodity on highly erodible land without following an NRCS approved conservation plan.”

In addition, “producers planning to conduct activities that may affect their HEL compliance, for example removing fence rows, conducting drainage activities, or combining fields, must notify FSA by filing form AD-1026. FSA will notify NRCS, and NRCS will then provide highly erodible land or wetland technical evaluations and issue determinations if needed.”

According to Kris Stewart, if the feds determine you have highly erodible land, “NRCS and FSA have absolute power to require you to develop and comply with a broad conservation plan for private property, determine what you grow, when and how you plant, when and how you water, when and how you harvest, and has the power to alter and/or veto crop rotation plans.” With those limitations on property rights, agencies now engage in ‘rule making’ that carry the effective weight of law.

“Today, it’s farming practices and crop selection… by next year it could include imposition of carbon limits, new and onerous clean water mandates, and what or whether certain animals can be raised and grazed on HEL lands. Ag producers may be subject to untold limitations on how and what they may produce on their own land, or face forfeiture of previous USDA payments or future program eligibility.”

If you are found to be in non-compliance with these “laws” which aren’t really laws at all, any money you have received from federal programs has to be returned to the federal treasury by voluntary repayment or involuntary seizure.

Conservation Or Control?

If the feds were looking for a way to get rid of Kris they thought they had it with the completion of a project on the 96 Ranch that added a 160 acre pivot irrigation system. “Prior to this project,” says Kris, “all of our irrigation was done via an old-fashioned flood system, in place since shortly after the ranch was homesteaded in 1864.” Kris did the field prep and farming and no sodbusting activity was undertaken. “I used no-till and planting of several annuals to prep and aerate the soil. In other words, best practices and no HEL review should have ever been conducted. In total, the whole project set me back about $300,000 and I didn’t take a dime of USDA or NRCS money for the project.”

“Shortly after completion of the project, I filled out annual acreage reports for the Farm Service Agency of the USDA,” says Kris. “I also completed a 1026 form for FSA. Farm Service officials will make clear to you that it’s entirely up to you whether or not you sign the 1026 but if you choose not to, you will lose eligibility for a number of USDA programs including any and all disaster relief programs for ag producers. So, with one arm twisted painfully behind my back, I used the other to sign the 1026, my ‘request’ to have the NRCS inventory my new project and determine if any of it qualified as HEL. While they were at it, they discovered two other privately-owned fields that had not been reviewed and they reviewed them as well.”

“The NRCS has admitted that they did not accurately evaluate sodbusting activity on our project which is necessary for them to initiate a HEL review. But they say their error was made in good faith.”

According to Kris, “They also admitted that the ‘conservationist’ who conducted our review used a slope and weather calculator that is not allowed by the 1985 Food Safety Act which authorizes these HEL and wetland reviews and determinations. But, they argue that no slope or weather data was available for our state for the date required by statute, so they used next most reliable data.”

“The NRCS’ state director sat in our appeals meeting and admitted that taking actual soil samples to confirm soil type was impractical and doing so, ‘Could throw every HEL and wetlands designation made since 1990’s into question.’”

“For me,” says Kris, “that statement said it all. This is not about conservation, it’s about control.”

A Sick Process

“The most galling thing in all of this,” says Kris, “is that by agency rule which has the power of law but was never enacted or even considered by lawmakers, NRCS can unilaterally say that actual on-the-ground science is impractical and non-appealable, and only how their admittedly flawed computer algorithm is ‘applied’ is potentially appealable. So honestly, instead of arguing the commonsense facts, that my ground is in fact not HEL, I have to look for narrow loopholes in law or agency rules to make my case. It’s a sick process.”

“Within weeks of signing the form,” Kris told the Digest, “I was notified (or more accurately, my deceased in-laws and late husband) were notified that 33.65 percent of my new pivot was in fact HEL, and by agency rule, if more than 1/3 of the land was determined to be HEL, the agency could and would designate the entire project as such.”

Keep in mind that the magic number necessary to be labeled as highly erodible lands and for the feds to assume virtual control of her ranch is 33.3 percent. And what number did the government come up with? 33.65 percent! That’s right, the 96 Ranch project was determined to be on highly erodible lands by one third of one percent!

Kris had other suspicions. “At every stage of our project, we had used best practices for construction, land clearing, leveling, planting, pivot selection and management, and harvest timing and tech-

Farm Credit of New Mexico has been farmer and rancher owned for more than a century. Every member is an owner, eligible for a share of our annual patronage. We’ve paid $173 million to our members since 2005, including $16 million in 2022 alone. We provide loans, insurance, financial tools and your fair share of the profits.

We’ve paid our members $173 million since 2005. Don’t worry, it’s not in pennies.

nology. We also employed a very progressive approach to crop rotation and grazing to maintain and grow soil health, maximize water absorption, while minimizing or eliminating soil loss. Based on what I knew about our ground, our project and our farming practices, I couldn’t understand why we had received the HEL determination and I just really wanted to see data from soil samples that backed up the determination.”

Kris called the gentleman who issued the determination for a better explanation. “He explained,” says Kris, “that the HEL determination was based on running our ground through the NRCS ‘tool’ that utilized over 100 years of direct soil sampling, topography, weather, water, imagery and satellite data to make a determination on HEL. In short, a computer model had determined that our land was HEL. I asked when and exactly where soil samples had been taken, but did not receive an answer.”

“I sent him a text notifying him of my decision to appeal the HEL determination until or

HERD cont from page 1

pants on saddle leather didn’t make me any more of a cowboy than wearing spurs did. It wasn’t until I got my first job out of college as a cowboy that I had to ride rank horses. I wouldn’t say that any of the cribbers ever bucked me off but there were a few times I had to make an unscheduled dismount to tighten my cinch.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it “getting bucked off” either when one of those renegades with lethal tendencies took off at a lightning pace that would have won the All American in Ruidoso had he been there instead of a forest full of trees with low hanging branches, every one of which tried to knock me out of the saddle. The whole time it was happening I kept hearing the words of my Grandpa, “Don’t jerk back on the reins and NEVER grab the horn.” I wouldn’t say I was bucked off, it was more like I was scraped off.

unless I could review actual soil sampling data that backed up the computer data. Guess what? There were no soil samples EVER taken on the 96 Ranch to determine if the land was highly erodible!”

We’re Doing This For You

The NRCS reminded Kris that they were there to help producers, not fight with them, and offered to send the employee who made the determination as well as an NRCS soil scientist out to the ranch in order to work out the issue.

“Both of the NRCS officials arrived at my ranch,” recalls Kris, “and I fully expected them to either take soil samples and/ or show me records of how and when local soil had been sampled. I shared my future plans for a heavy seeding of perennial grass, and then over seeding with beneficial legumes, etc. The NRCS team listened politely and then proceeded to explain the paperwork that I’d already received. No soil sampling, no slope mapping to determine actual run off potential, no close look at my current seeding,

If I ever had to ride one of those owlheads in the presence of my contemporaries I always hoped a rattler would bite my mount so he’d die and I’d have a good excuse for walking back to headquarters.

Years later when I had my own cow herd I always rode my horse Gentleman who must have been a son of Buck because he too never did. But one day my neighbor was borrowing Gentleman to breed his Paint mare so he lent me one of his outlaws. Everything was fine until I tried to make him cross over a rock-strewn stream. When he balked I may have tapped him a little with my spurs and the next thing you know I was knocking a hole in my chest with my chin. One minute I was soaring with eagles and the next thing I swimming with fishes.

It was then I formulated Lee’s theory on how to never get bucked off... never climb aboard in the first place. ▫

just two government officials reviewing the paperwork that I had already received.”

Several days before her appeal hearing, unannounced to Kris, she discovered that some field size and boundaries had been changed on old maps and she wondered if that might be enough to kick her back under the 1/3 or 50 acre threshold for the HEL determination. An FSA official told her the maps had been redrawn to represent more accurate GPS mapping they had done for her.

“I kept looking,” says Kris, “and in three volumes of over 400 pages each, I could find not a single example of actual soil sampling data in the record for our ranch, valley or county. Their records failed to show how and when soil was actually sampled if it ever was.”

Now hear this. The computer models now being used had been built in 2021 in Nepal! That’s a country IN ASIA, not a county in Nevada!! Researchers agreed at the time that while the models used best available science, they were not sufficiently accurate to be used for agricul-

tural or environmental decision making.

Outside researchers said the models had an 88-93 percent accuracy estimate. Kris asks, “While 93 percent accuracy is good, would you hop in a plane with a pilot who landed safely 93 percent of the time? Would you let a surgeon operate on you with a 93 percent success rate? And why doesn’t NRCS want to consider actual soil sampling data to determine actual soil type in HEL determinations?” she asks rhetorically. Kris says it’s because “a large number of currently ‘protected’ HEL and wetlands might be reconsidered and overturned with actual accurate on-site scientific data.”

When one of the scientists was asked if the results of actual soil samples in affected areas might actually be a more accurate input to determine HEL and wetlands determinations, he replied, that taking actual soil samples to determine soil type was impractical and unappealable.

The NRCS state director told Kris he wanted to make it absolutely clear that no actu-

al soils sampling data could be introduced or considered. They would only consider data from their approved computer algorithm. PERIOD!

Kris asks, “The bottom line is that if the actual soil samples and other specific site data aren’t essential to making a decision on how or whether to conserve a piece of land based on its tolerance for erosion, what is NRCS really after, conservation or control?”

Good question, don’t you think?

“I truly believe, says Kris, “that this NRCS program is more aimed at controlling use of private lands than in avoiding another 1930’s era dust bowl. It is part of Biden’s 30 by 30 agenda aimed at ‘protecting’ 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. This is a brazen but much under-reported assault on the private property rights of farmers and ranchers nationwide.” ▫

Office: 505/243-9515 Cell: 505/850-8544 rjsauctioneer@aol.com

Coyotes Will Not Be Listed as Endangered

BY HANNAH GROVER / NM POLITICAL REPORT

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has denied a request by environmental and conservation groups to list the coyote as endangered in the territory that overlaps with the Mexican wolves.

The groups said that the similarity of appearance to a Mexican wolf warranted the listing as a way to prevent people from accidentally killing the wolf.

However, the FWS found that the resemblance between the Mexican wolf and the coyote is not similar enough that the two canines cannot be distinguished from each other.

The agency looked at whether law enforcement struggled to tell coyotes from wolves.

“Mistaken identity accounts for only a small portion of Mexican wolf mortalities,” Brady McGee, the FWS’s Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, said in a press release.

“Listing coyotes under the Endangered Species Act would have a minimal impact on Mexican wolf recovery, while imposing an extreme burden on law enforcement, affecting their ability to protect the Mexican wolf in Arizona and New Mexico.”

Chris Smith, a southwest wildlife advocate with WildEarth Guardians, described the decision as incredibly disappointing. However, he said it is not a surprise. Groups like WildEarth Guardians have criticized the FWS in the past for policies that they say could harm the wolves.

Coyotes are one of the species with essentially no protection, which means they can be killed year round and using a variety of methods.

The January petition listed incidents where wolves were killed because someone mistook them for coyotes.

While it is a federal crime to kill a Mexican wolf, a person who has mistaken a wolf for a coyote cannot be convicted. This is be-

Cattlemen’s Conference: Blueprint for The Future

Thirty-five years ago, cattle industry leaders gathered at the Blueprint for the Right Kind type conference. This spring, the event will be reprised as Cattlemen’s Conference: Blueprint for the Future, presented by Cattlemen’s Congress, Oklahoma State University and the Noble Research Institute. The event will be held May 24-25 on the Oklahoma State University campus.

“Cattlemen’s Conference will be a must-attend event for anyone interested in building the right kind of cattle, not just for today, but for the future,” said Jarold Callahan, chairman of Cattlemen’s Congress. “The event in the 1980s focused on building cattle that fit the industry at that given time. Today, the industry has evolved and therefore, our cattle and management need to do the same.”

The two-day conference will feature renowned speakers from each segment of the industry, covering topics including genetic prediction, pasture and soil health, trends in beef production, and show ring and marketing ethics, and more.

Highlighting the event is a keynote address by Frank Mitloehner, professor and air quality specialist in cooperative extension in the Department of Animal Science at University of California-Davis. Dubbed “The Greenhouse Gas Guru,” Mitloehner is well-known for his research-backed stance that eating meat and taking care of the planet are not mutually exclusive.

Early registration, which is open through May 5, costs $200 and includes all sessions, meals, breaks and asocial hour. Onsite registration will be available for $250.

For a complete schedule, or to register, visit cattlemenscongress.com/conference. ▫

cause the McKittrick Policy requires the government to prove that

Net Zero and the Carbon Capture Pipeline: Renaming Things to Condemn Them.

BY KATHLEEN MARQUARDT

According to the UN, “Net zero is broadly the same as carbon neutral: Emissions are still being generated, but they’re offset by the same amount elsewhere. The “net total” of your emissions is then zero.” [1]

Apipeline is being set up to transport carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from ethanol, fertilizer, and other agricultural industrial plants to North Dakota and Illinois where it will be sequestered permanently. Three companies partnering with Wolf Carbon Solutions –Summit Carbon Solutions, Archer Daniel Midlands, and Navigator CO2 Ventures – plan to use pressure to liquefy the CO2 so it can be transported via the pipeline, and then injected deep underground where it will be permanently sequestered.

Interesting. They are planning to bury something they consider highly dangerous to Mother Earth, underground, and hope (pray?) that it stays there. Let’s think about that. This whole scheme (and many more equally very possibly deleterious to the earth and its inhabitants – humans, wildlife, and plants) is designed to unhook us from oil and petroleum.

Why? Shortly after oil was discovered to be the great replacement of whale oil for lighting and lubrication of machinery, those in power saw the value of this natural resource and wanted full control of it – or as much as they could get.

But they soon realized that it benefited every stratum of society, down to the poorest. That wasn’t in their plans.

Now we are to be unhooked from so-called fossil fuel — petroleum. Why? Because, we are told, it produces much of the carbon emissions that are causing Climate Change, nee Manmade Global Warming.

So, the power elite have declared petroleum (the most readily available energy source that is reliable, doesn’t cause black lung disease, and isn’t “laced with radioactive thorium and uranium, which result in especially detrimental health effects to the people mining it (often children), as well as the air, water, and soil around it”, [2] is fairly easy to access, is found all over (actually under) the earth, and is renewable. So, it must be banned! In true Newspeak, the powers vilify it and claim it must be canceled as soon as possible.

Instead of ever asking the necessary questions here, we are to accept the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) initial document that had to be rewritten in Newspeak after it was pulled together because initially, it was no dire warning.

It had to be injected with direness on steroids to make it fulfill the Club of Rome warning:

“The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All

these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”

— There was no unusual global warming – manmade or otherwise, thus also, the name change.

Next question: where is the proof that CO2 damages our environment? It isn’t there. CO2 is an integral part of our atmosphere. The Climate Accord is based on information that has been tweaked out of any scientific certainty.

Another necessary question here: why is petroleum called a fossil fuel? From what I read some time ago, Rockefeller, after having made a great deal of money shipping the crude oil on his rail system, bought out many oil drilling companies.

Then, to keep his share a large one, he claimed it was from the underground fossils and, being there were just so many fossils and wouldn’t be new ones of any number, there was a limited amount of petroleum. Thus, the number of producers must be limited.

But is it a fossil fuel? According to L. Fletcher Prouty, “oil is a renewable and abiotic fuel” (not from fossils). “The Origins of Oil and Petroleum”, “Oil is often called a

HighSelling DeBruycker Charolais Bull

‘fossil’ fuel; the idea being that it comes from formerly living organisms. This may have been plausible back when oil wells were drilled into the fossil layers of the earth’s crust; but today, great quantities of oil are found in deeper wells that are found below the level of any fossils. How could then oil have come from fossils, or decomposed former living matter, if it exists in rock formations far below layers of fossils –the evidence of formerly living organisms? It must not come from living matter at all!” (Note: read the entire clip, it’s well worth it.)

“Any geologist will tell you, well, most geologists will tell you that OIL IS CREATED BY THE MAGMA OF THE EARTH. The oil wells in Pennsylvania that were pumped out dry at the turn of the century and capped are now filled with oil again.” [3]

That alone should shut down the idea of going for Net Zero –along with the extremely foolish schemes of air and wind power, at least in the state they are in now. And electric cars! All are ridiculously expensive, are producing a very small fraction of the power we need now, and are damaging the land and killing birds. If we were to eliminate all the power except wind and solar, they would produce a mere 4 percent of the energy we need today.

Then there is the issue of CARBON. The world is programmed (again via Newspeak) continued on page 6

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Surviving D.C.’s Debt Disaster

Utah’s chances are good — but New Mexico…

BY D. DOWD MUSKA / SOUTHWEST PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE

The national debt is $31.5 trillion, and The Swamp shows no sign of changing its ways. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that publicly held debt is on a path to reach “118 percent of GDP by 2033 — which would be the highest level ever recorded.” Many more tens of trillions of dollars are pledged to the beneficiaries of entitlement programs — and not a penny has been set aside to honor that commitment.

The current occupant of the White House doesn’t care about the problem. Neither did the guy before him. Neither did the guy before him. Neither did the guy before him. Ignoring the problem of D.C.’s fiscal doom is a bipartisan disgrace.

So responsible officials at the state level — politicians, business leaders, religious figures, executives of charitable organizations — need to start planning for a future in which the mighty river of federal cash dwindles to a trickle. A useful tool to gauge vulnerability is WalletHub’s “2023’s Most & Least Federally Dependent States.”

Assessing “two key dimensions, ‘State Residents’ Dependency’ and ‘State Government’s Dependency,’” the personal-finance website examined federal revenue as a share of state budgets, the return on taxes paid to Washington, and the prevalence of federal jobs.

In the American Southwest, four states fared well, two performed in the middle, and two scored abysmally.

It will come as no shock to many Utah residents that their state is a star. It ranked #48 in D. C. dependence, behind only New Jersey and Washington.

With an admirably low poverty rate — a key metric used to qualify for welfare programs — not much of a military presence, and not a single federally funded research and development center, the Beehive State will stand on its own as the national government’s money train begins to derail.

At #45, California is in an enviable position as well. (Although the state’s recent embrace of socioeconomic collapse is cause for alarm about what might come.) Nevada (#40) and Colorado (#41) are two more Southwestern states that find themselves on fairly solid ground.

Texas (#29) and Oklahoma (#18) have ample room for improvement. At the bottom for the region, Arizona (#8) and New Mexico (#5) should be in near-panic mode. (One quarter of the residents of the Land of Enchantment are on food stamps — a rate five times that of Utah’s use of the program.)

As Duquesne University economist Antony Davies put it, the federal government’s present financial condition is “like a household with a $60,000 income being $450,000 in debt, and then promising to pay for 18 kids to attend four-year private colleges.” Such profligacy

can’t last, and it won’t.

In D.C.-addicted states, prominent men and women in positions of power should work overtime to adjust to a new fiscal reality that is, undeniably, imminent. Instead of eagerly accepting more “investment” from an insolvent national government, they must pursue every available means to grow the private sector and reduce welfare rolls.

Federal “generosity” is coming to an end. And states that emulate Utah stand the best chance to handle a challenge far more dangerous than “climate change” and “income inequality.”

NM Youth Ranch Management Camp — Helps youth appreciate the ‘why’ behind ranching

Atotal of 30 participants will be invited to this year’s camp with three of those openings reserved for out-ofstate youth, age 15-19.

Applications will close May 5, 2023, the application form can be found at https://nmyrm. nmsu.edu/application.html. Completed applications will be reviewed by the NMYRMC Committee and applicants notified of acceptance by May 12, 2023. The registration fee of $300, or payment arrangement, is due on or before June 2,

2023. Scholarship opportunities are available to those invited to NMYRMC. Upon acceptance, contact a NMYRMC Committee Member for additional information.

During New Mexico Youth Ranch Management Camp, high school-age students will be introduced to the many aspects of running a ranch, from financial statements and marketing strategies to producing quality beef and managing natural resources and wildlife. College-level hands-on curriculum is provided participants with

information to develop a ranch management plan for a scenario similar to the host ranch.

The collaboration between Extension specialists, County Extension agents and members of the ranching industry provides an opportunity for youth to learn about the many aspects of ranching.

Since the inaugural camp in 2011, this is the fourth time the camp will be held on the CS Cattle Company’s 130,000-acre ranch at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range near Cimarron, New Mexico.

More than 200 youth who have participated in past ranch camps gained a greater appreciation of the science and opportunities in agriculture. It is also a win-win for our aging agricultural industry with more young people having interest in going into this type of work. ▫

USDA Cattle & Carcass Training Center Programs Offer Training

POSTED BY JENNIFER PORTER, AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY PROGRAM

Producers, feeders, and other stakeholders who want a better understanding of factors that contribute to the market value of cattle, and how these factors can inform marketing and production decisions, can join us at three upcoming in-person events at the USDA Cattle and Carcass Training Centers (CCTC). These events will help producers learn how they can improve their return on investments on their herds and are open to the public.

The Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) was instrumental in working with Congress to develop these regional centers established in 2019.

“The USDA Cattle and Carcass Training Centers are an excellent hands-on educational resource. We encourage cattle producers to participate in one of the upcoming trainings, including the event that will be hosted at West Texas A&M University on May 17-18 – located directly in the heart of our three-state cattle feeding region that includes Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico,” said TCFA Chairman Michael Bezner.

In addition to the May training, on March 28-30, Colorado State University will host a session about “Animal Handling and the Effects on Quality and Yield.” On June 15-16, the newly established CCTC at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln will offer a training on topics related to emerging technology in the livestock and meat industries, and CME live cattle and carcass specifications and deliveries.

Participants at each event also will be able to schedule one-onone consultations with technical assistance providers from USDA’s Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity Technical Assistance Program (MPPTA) to talk about available assistance, including educational resources for all types of meat and poultry processing enterprises.

Space is limited at these in-person sessions and registration is required for each training.

to believe carbon is BAD. According to News of Medical Life Sciences, “The human body is approximately 99 percent comprised of just six elements: Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus”. Oh dear, that should make you go jump off a very high cliff to save the Earth’s climate because of your body’s carbon percentage alone.

And, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Carbon dioxide or CO2 is an essential part of the cycle of life. Without CO2, plants will die off, and without plants, the earth’s biological food chain would be terminally broken. We cannot live without carbon dioxide.” (Emphasis in the original) So, either those trying to get rid of carbon want to get rid of us or are beyond stupid. Those making the rules are very intelligent; so, you should be able to conclude what they have in mind (yes, go jump off the cliff or they will help you in other ways. Think diseases, pandemics, and starvation).

To continue explaining the Newspeak, blue smoke and mirrors, gobbledygook, this time re why Net Zero is impossible. In an in-depth report explaining

just that, David Wojick from CFACT notes:

■ Renewables cannot be made reliable with storage so their penetration must be constrained and managed.

■ Grid scale storage at the scale needed to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar is impossibly expensive. Even assuming fantastic price reductions, analysis shows the cost of the required battery storage still nearly equals the $23 trillion annual American GDP.

■ We now know that the battery storage for the entire American grid is impossibly expensive … Based on his work, which only covered 48 states, our working estimate of the required storage is an amazing 250 million MWh. America today has less than 20 thousand MWh of grid scale battery storage, which is next to nothing.

Grid scale batteries today cost around $700,000 a MWh. For 250 million MWh we get an astronomical total cost of $175 trillion dollars just to replace today’s fossil fuel generated electricity needs with wind and solar. Even the fan-

Register Today for Four Corners Stockmanship & Stewardship Event

McGee Park, Farmington, NM - May 10-12, 2023

Registration is now open for the Four Corners Stockmanship & Stewardship event, May 10 through 12, 2023 in Farmington, New Mexico. Stockmanship & Stewardship is a unique educational experience for cattle producers featuring low-stress cattle handling demonstrations, Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) educational sessions, cattle preventative health care and value-added programming sessions and industry updates.

Early Bird registration of $75 per person runs through May 1, 2023. The Late Registration fee of $100 per person runs from May 1 to May 12.

The BQA program is a Beef Checkoff-funded educational program that helps guide producers towards continuous improvement using science-based production practices that assure cattle well-being, beef quality and safety. Attendees can become BQA certified during the event.

“Those who become BQA certified, and meet requirements for re-certification, show their commitment of striving to produce the highest quality, safest beef products for consumers, and educational programs like this event focus on the BQA program and practices that help producers elevate this commitment” says Dr. John Wenzel, Extension Veterinarian with New Mexico State University.

Industry experts including Dr. Lily Edwards-Callaway, Colorado State University; Dr. John Wenzel, New Mexico State University; Leann Saunders, IMI Global; and others, will cover topics such as cattle behavior, vaccines, reproductive efficiency and value-added calf programs. Stockmanship experts Dr. Ron Gill, Dr. Dean Fish and Curt Pate will provide hands-on live animal handling demonstrations. The event will be held in conjunction with Indian Livestock Days and for the first time, the BQA training will be offered in the Navajo language, Diné. The program is sponsored by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), Merck Animal Health, and the Beef Checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Assurance program.

“At Merck Animal Health, we are committed to continuously improving animal health and well-being through our investments in research and development, our comprehensive portfolio of innovative products and technologies, the expertise of our people and in supporting the cattle industry and its causes,” said Kevin Mobley, executive director of sales at Merck Animal Health. “We are proud to have a long-standing partnership with NCBA on its Stockmanship & Stewardship program to provide cattle producers with animal care training and education to help them be more profitable and sustainable in their operations.”

Headquarters Hotel is Hilton Home2Suites, 777 S Browning Pkwy, Farmington, www. hilton.com/en/hotels/fmnblht-home2-suites-farmington-bloomfield For more information, complete agenda, fees and to register, visit www.StockmanshipAnd Stewardship.org.

Cattle producers attending Stockmanship & Stewardship are eligible for reimbursement through the Rancher Resilience Grant. To apply for a grant to cover registration costs and two night’s hotel, visit ncba.org/producers/rancher-resilience-grant.      ▫

tastically low-cost estimates that some people are proposing puts the cost around the total GDP of America. Even worse, if we get the electric cars the Biden Administration is calling for, these astronomical numbers could easily double.

On top of those, he adds “America’s grid is steadily becoming more and more unreliable. The grid is sick and getting sicker.” [4]

We have pipelines being constructed for no legitimate reason other than to redistribute middle-class income because there were just so many fossils to provide us with oil and petroleum. Oops, that isn’t so, but there are many more things to do with Sustainable Development and forming a new-world order that are as real as Climate Change (check out Just Transition {goes with Smart and 15-minute cities} in APC’s Activist Handbook, p.85)

Ask yourself why people would want to construct a pipeline to sequester CO2 underground in five states when that pipeline will be 1,300 miles long across these states, ripping out, permanently, all the topsoil along it, thus it will no longer provide crops for food, or land for homes, churches, hospitals, playgrounds or anything else.

It will cost billions of dollars to do what? Obviously, it is not needed for the purpose we are told it will serve; we have no need to rid the earth of carbon; it is a true fairy tale – and an evil one, to boot. What is the real purpose? In my humble opinion, besides uprooting many people, redistributing our wealth, and making millions of acres forever worse than fallow, it will aid in fulfilling the Wildlands Project[5]

It may not be in your state now – or ever. But you may just want to support, by words, those fighting it. You never know when it will reach you. And if it never does, you are paying for this by way of your tax dollars to provide the strings to feed the non-governmental organizations (and their global elite leaders) who are behind this nasty piece of illusion dressed up as vital to the entire Earth’s survival – with lipstick, so you know it’s a sow.

1. www.un.org/en/climatechange/netzero-coalition

2. www.theguardian.com/sustainablebusiness/rare-earth-mining-chinasocial-environmental-costs

3. prouty.org/oil.html

4. www.cfact.org/wp-content/ uploads/2023/02/WOJICKREPORT.pdf

5. www.narlo.org/Wildlands percent20 project_war.pdf

About the Author: Kathleen Marquardt has been an advocate for property rights and freedom for decades. While not intending to be an activist, she has become a leader and an avid supporter of constitutional rights, promoter of civility, sound science, and reason. She is dedicated to exposing the fallacies of the radical environmental and animal rights movements. She has been featured in national publications including Fortune, People, the Washington Post, and Field and Stream, as well as television news programs such as Hard Copy, The McLaughlin Group, Geraldo, and many others. Today, she serves as Vice President of American Policy Center. Kathleen now writes and speaks on Agenda21/2030, and its threat to our culture and our system of representative government.

■ KB RANCH - Kenney Co., TX – KB Ranch is a low fenced 802 +/- acre property that is surrounded by large ranches. The ranch has abundant whitetail and is also populated with turkey, dove, quail, hogs and varmint species. Axis are in the area and have been occasionally seen. The ranch lies approximately 9 miles south of Bracketville on TX 131 and is accessed by all weather Standart Road.

■ PRICE REDUCED! CEDARVALE, NM – 7,113acre ranch (5,152 ac. +/- Deeded – 1,961 ac. +/State Lease) well fenced & watered w/good pens, new barn.

■ PRICE REDUCED! UNION CO., NM – 2,091.72 ac. (1,771.72 Deeded, 320 ac. -/+ State Lease), well watered w/three wells, two sets of steel pens.

ESTATE GUIDE

■ COLFAX COUNTY NM GETAWAY – 1,482.90 ac.+/- grassland (1,193.59 ac. +/- Deeded, 289.31 ac. State Lease), great location near all types of mountain recreation.

■ ANGUS, NM – 250 +/- acres with over a 1/2 mile of NM 48 frontage. Elevations from 6,800 to 7,200 feet. Two springs along creek. Ideal for future development or build your own getaway home.

■ PECOS CO. – 637 ac., Big water, State Classified Minerals.

■ CASTRO CO., TX – 592 ac. +/_- w/remodeled 4 bd./4 ½ bath home, 160 ac. under pivot. Balance is dryland & native grass.

521 West Second St • Porta es NM 88130 575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax

■ CARSON CO., TX – 640 ac. +/- 5 mi. N of Panhandle on TX 207. 333 ac. +/- under 3 center pivot systems. One well produces 800 GPM.

Buena Vista Realty

Permanent perimeter and cross fencing.

Selling residential, farm, ranch, commercial and relocating properties.

Direct 575.935.9680 Office 575.935.9680 Fax coletta@plateautel.net www.clovisrealestatesales.com

■

AG LAND LOANS

facilities are covered cattle working facilities. The north farm 163 +/acres, the south farm 173+/- acres. Priced at $2,300,000

Dimmitt, TX 79027

Scott - Broker

Qualifying Broker 5:00am/10:00pm www.scottlandcompany.com

OR SMALL!

Guadalupe Co., deeded & 519 ranch on both flow daily) Sumner; wildlife, buyer looking New Mexico

-

■ PALO DURO CREEK TREASURE – 941 acres

+/- in Randall Co. NW of Canyon, Tx. STUNNING

Qualifying Broker: A H (Jack) Merr ck 575-760-7521 www buenavista-nm com

VIEWS OVER LOOKING PALO DURO CREEK. Turn key cow/calf operation w development potential. Property includes: 3/3/3 ranch style home, 4 wells, large shop plus shed, enclosed livestock working facility w/hydraulic chute, livestock pens & shed, miles of 5 & 6 barbed wire fence & over 7000’ of pipe fence.

■ FLYING W MOUNTAIN RANCH: 345 AYL plus five horses located in the cedar mountains of Hachita, NM. 39.60± sections, 25,347± acres total, 1278± acres of deeded land, 3152± acres of state land, 20,917 acres of blm, four miles of newer fence, over 55,000 gallons of water storage, 17± miles of pipeline less than 20 years old, three wells plus one domestic well, four pastures plus three traps, seven dirt tanks, house, barns, corrals, semi-load and livestock scales. Priced at $2,900,000

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES

521 West Second St., Portales, NM 88130

listing agent

575-825-1291 www.buenavista-nm.com

980 ac. +/past, land lays side of Hwy. 54. Union Co., NM –grassland w/stateremodeled in very good on pvmt. +/- heavily livestock w/ fences etc., on the front gate. scenic ac. +/- on by Lincoln in Pines & covered meadow

Penasco. This build a legacy ac. irr., on Mexico, adjoins Potential.

POTENTIAL

Texline Special, +/- w/water & a beautiful 3 bathrooms, metal shop.

YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS! Canyon School

District.

• 83 acre wood home with barns, meadows and woods. Fronts State Rd. $545,000

■ DEAF SMITH CO., TX. – 651 ac. +/-, 7 miles N of Dawn, Tx., 1 mile E of FM 809. 349 acres native grass with well-maintained fencing and 302 acres of cultivated dry land.

Rural Properties around Portales, NM

1242 NM 480 - Nice home on 59.7 acres, grass

427 S Rrd P 1/2 - Large nice home, lots of barns 24+ ac 1694 S Rrd 4, Great home, barns, cattle pens, location 2344 S Rrd K east of Dora, NM, great - Near wind farms

• 160 acre Ranger Eastland Co, $560,000

■ PRICE REDUCED! DALLAM CO, TX – 1,216.63 ac. +/- of CRP/ranchland w/irrigation, re-development potential, wells & pipelines already in place.

■ PRICE REDUCTION! TURN-KEY RESTAURANT

• 270 acre Mitchell County, Texas ranch. Investors dream; excellent cash flow. Rock formation being

All properties excellent homes & can have horses, etc.

See these and other properties at www.buenavista-nm.com

• 840 Immaculate, Hunt Co, TX. Ranch. Pastures, 40 tanks, and lakes. Beautiful home, barns, and other improvements. Some minerals, game galore. All for $1.35 million.

Joe Priest Real Estate

1-800/671-4548

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RANCH PROPERTY

31 years in the ranch business - see www.ranch-lands.com for videos & brochures

DUANE & DIXIE McGARVA RANCH: approx. 985 acres Likely, CA. with about 600+ acre gravity flood irrigated pastures PLUS private 542 AU BLM permit. About 425 acres so of the irrigated are level to flood excellent pastures with balance good flood irrigated pastures. NO PUMPING COST! Dryland is perfect for expansion to pivot irrigated alfalfa if desired. Plus BLM permit for 540 AU is fenced into 4 fields on about 18,000 acres only 7 miles away. REDUCED ASKING PRICE - $3,125,000

THE SAND CAMP RANCH is a quality desert ranch with an excellent grass cover and above average improvements. Located in southern Chaves County east of the productive Pecos River Valley. The ranch is comprised of 2,598 +/- deeded acres, 6,717 NM State Lease Acres, 23,653 Federal BLM Lease Acres and 480 acres Uncontrolled, 33,448 total acres (52.26 Sections). Grazing Capacity set by a Section 3 BLM grazing permit at 408 Animal Units Yearlong. The ranch is watered by three wells and an extensive pipeline system. This ranch is ready to go, no deferred maintenance. Price: $3,870, 000. Call or email for a brochure and an appointment to come take a look.

BEAVER CREEK RANCH: about 82,000 acres - with 2,700 deeded acres plus contiguous USFS & BLM permits for 450 pair; 580+- acres irrigated alfalfa, pasture, and meadow from Beaver Creek water rights and one irrigation well. 3 homes, 2 hay barns, 4 feedlots each w/ 250 ton barns, 2 large reservoirs, can run up to

500-600 cows YEAR ROUND. REDUCED ASKING PRICE - $5,400,000

SOLD

erty, including installed septic system, with private views of mountains. 40 irrigable acres and a domestic water meter installed. Great to put down home and bring horses. $249,000

$239,000

joepriestre.net • joepriestre@earthlink.com

ranch that has been owned and operated miles southeast of Corona, NM in Lincoln BLM Lease Acres and 2,240 NM State AUYL. Water provided by five wells and corrals. The ranch had a good summer for a brochure or view on my website.

BEAR CREEK RANCH: Approx. 1,278 acres winter range ground and recreational property. Located on Bear Creek and accessed from South Cow Creek Valley Road. Should be great hunting for deer, wild turkey, wild pigs, quail & owner states good trout fishing in Bear Creek. Deeded access easement thru neighbor ranches.

No improvements & very private inside the ranch.

Now only $700 per acre - $894,600

EIGHT MILE DRAW LAND 740 ± Acres of unimproved native grassland located four miles west of Roswell in the Six Mile Hill area with frontage along U.S. Highway 70/380. This parcel is fenced on three sides and adjoins 120 acres of additional land that may be purchased. Great investment. $600 per acre.

BILL WRIGHT, SHASTA LAND SERVICES, INC.

• www.ranch-lands.com

• DRE# 00963490

530-941-8100

Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker Bar M Real Estate, LLC

P.O. Box 428, Roswell, NM 88202

Office: 575-622-5867 Cell: 575-420-1237

Website: www.ranchesnm.com

city limits of Roswell, NM. Six total acres Improved with a 2, 200 square foot residence, room and loafing shed. Price: $400,000

MAXWELL 45, Excellent irrigated pasture with utilities in back of prop-

BAR LAZY 7 RANCH, Colfax County, Moreno Valley 594.38 +/- deeded acres, accessed off blacktop between Eagle Nest and Angel Fire. Historic headquarters. Currently used as summer grazing, pond and trees accessed off county road on rear of property as well. Presented “ASIS” New Survey, $4,000,000 $3,800,000 CIMARRON BUSINESS, Frontage opportunity, house, big shop and office buildings, easy view off Hwy 64. Formerly known as “The Porch.” $295,000 SPRINGER VIEW, 29.70 +/deeded acres. Large house being remodeled, shop, trees, old irrigation pond. All back off highway with great southern aspect. 311 Hwy 56, Colfax County. $209,000

The View

Standards

The Texas Longhorn is a breed that developed because of its hardiness to survive the harsh terrain and climates of the American Southwest.

I was looking over the breed characteristics for the Texas Longhorn and here are a few things that determine whether you have a quality Texas Longhorn.

■ Good length with moderate depth and thickness.

■ Top of hips slightly higher than top of shoulders.

■ Angular shaped body. Strong legs with free movement.

■ Medium to small, short round ears, pigmented and fitted horizontally under horns or sloping slightly upward.

■ Mealy mouthed or pigmented, wide and symmetrical.

■ Teeth correctly aligned. There are many more characteristics on this list, but I thought I would just give you a few highlights to let you know what’s important to the breed.

Mr. Kent Harrell, Tulsa, Oklahoma was at a livestock auction just last year. He remarked to another rancher that he raised Longhorns.

The rancher replied that he was sorry that Mr. Harrell raised Longhorns because there was no money to be made in Longhorns. Mr. Harrell asked the rancher what a good cow of his would bring and the rancher said $2000.

Mr. Harrell couldn’t help himself and explained that he had just sold his Longhorn cow HR Rosette for $700,000. Mr. Harrell has been breeding Longhorns for over 40 years.

I guess standards do mean something after all. Standards are a great way to increase your odds of getting a good individual and a profit.

The American Longhorn is a breed that developed because of its hardiness to survive the harsh terrain and climates of the American southwest.

Back in 1980 I was just starting my horseshoeing business in Arizona. Because I was on my own and hungry I took on whatever horse came my way.

As a result, I got to shoe all the bad horses I could find. However, I was taught to shoe to a standard and as a result all the broncs I tied on the ground or tied the feet up on with a scotch hobble had to be shod correctly before I quit.

This went on for a few years so I got so I could do a pretty nice job on a bad horse. One day I got a job shoeing twenty some horses for a ranch in the middle of nowhere Arizona.

In those days I was tall and thin and pretty much the stereotype for starving Ethiopians. I arrived at the ranch and there was a big corral full of horses to work on.

The foreman advised me to turn the finished horses into a separate large corral. I slept in the back of the pickup that night and the next day I finished up the last few horses. About 11:00 a.m. I drove up to the house to get paid as instructed. A very drunk lady met me at the door with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and asked, “What the f…. do you want?”

It took a while to convince her that I had shod all of her horses. She told me I was too damn skinny to be the horseshoer. Finally, she wrote me a check.

After about 90 days she called me back to reshoe. Remarkably, all the shoes were still on although thin as razor blades. If you get the feet flat, the shoes flat, and you hammer your shoes safe they will stay on. Learning and adhering to a standard was the reason for my success.

Today I read that Ivy League school Columbia in New York City no longer requires the SAT or ACT test for undergrad-

uate admissions. This is just the beginning; soon all public academia will drop these standards. Dress codes and conduct standards have been dropped already at most government institutions.

Recently I was at a school board meeting and the school teachers in the audience were jeering and mocking any speaker they did not agree with. I was perplexed why the “Sergeant At Arms” was not called to remove them.

Contrary to leftist beliefs, removing standards does not improve life. It does promote mediocrity. ▫

ACRES Act Holds Forest Service Accountable for Wildfire Mitigation

BY NICK SMITH / HEALTHY FORESTS HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

The Forest Service has repeatedly told Congress that a very large portion of the National Forest System is in poor forest health and is highly vulnerable to severe wildfires. As many as 80 million acres, or 41 percent of the National Forest System, is at high risk Congress responded by giving the agency billions of dollars to do more forest management. The Biden Administration is also implementing a 10-year wildfire strategy that promises to double the amount of acres treated on federal lands.

How can we be sure our tax dollars are spent wisely, and the Forest Service is actually treating more acres and making progress towards managing our forests and protecting our communities?

If you’re cynical, you’re not alone. Federal oversight agencies have criticized how the Forest Service calculates its progress -calling its annual reporting of acres treated to reduce risk “misleading” and “inaccurate.”

An NBC News investigation last year found the agency counted many of the same pieces of land toward its risk-reduction goals from two to six times, and, in a few cases, dozens of times. Based on public records, investigators found the Forest Service may be overstating its hazardous fuels reduction efforts by as much as 30 percent

Some members of Congress are seeking more transparency in how the Forest Service tracks and reports its forest management efforts.

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) recently introduced H.R. 1567, the Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions (ACRES) Act,that allows the public to track the progress, costs and effectiveness of forest management work on federal lands.

“Decades of mismanagement of our federal lands have left our forests overstocked with trees and created tinderbox conditions –ultimately fueling catastrophic wildfires across the West. There is a better and active way to manage our public lands, and that starts with holding our federal land management agencies accountable by requiring accurate reporting on the effectiveness of their work in fuel reduction. The ACRES Act will ensure our federal agencies are not providing the fuel for more wildfires to spark,” Tiffany said.

The ACRES Act requires the Secretaries of the Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior to:

■ Detail the actual, accurate acreage where hazardous fuel reduction activities took place and the region or system unit in which the acres were located.

■ Distinguish between treatments that occurred within the wildland-urban interface, areas accurately reflecting treatments near communities that are most at risk to the threat of wildfires.

■ Show the effectiveness of the hazardous fuels reduction work in reducing wildfire risk.

■ Convey what methods were used to reduce hazardous fuels and the cost per acre to do so.

■ Make the report publicly available on USDA and DOI websites.

The ACRES Act also requires the Secretaries to implement standardized procedures for tracking data for hazardous fuels reduction. This includes:

■ Data reviews of the accuracy and timely input of the data used to track hazardous fuels, as well as verification that this data directly correlates to fuel reduction activity.

■ Analysis of short and long-term effectiveness of hazardous fuel reduction on reducing the risk of wildfires. As the public demands- and expects- more proactive forest management on their public lands, the Acres Act can offer more transparency and accountability to ensure healthier forests and safer communities.

An Agenda for World Domination — Or Am I Just a Nut?

BY TOM DEWEESE, AMERICAN POLICY CENTER

For the better part of 30 years I have been trying to sound the alarm over the dangers of Agenda 21 to human society. For my efforts I have been labeled a conspiracy theorist, spreading fear and hate against a reasonable and sound desire to simply protect the environment for future generations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued four separate reports on me. I’ve been attacked on the front page of the Sunday New York Times Newsweek called my American Policy Center extremists who are spreading untruths about Agenda 21 to discredit the United Nations. Mediabiosfactcheck. com says I publish “unverifiable information” and labels APC’s “Conspiracy Level” all the way to “tinfoil hat!” And on and on the charges have gone by Mother Jones magazine, Esquire, Washington Post, treehugger.com., and more.

The funny thing about these charges is that all I have really done is quote the proponents of Agenda 21 and its policy of sustainable development. It started with Agenda 21, then we got a remake called Agenda 2030, followed by the Green New Deal, and most recently the Great Reset. In every case, proponents assure us it’s all just a progressive (and voluntary) drive to ward a better life for everyone.

Well, is it? I have an idea! Why don’t I let them tell us in their own words – you know –the ones I’ve been quoting for the past thirty years. Then you can decide for yourselves – con spiracy theory – or threat to all human society?

In Their Own Words

– Not Mine ...

Comprehensive Blue Print for the Reorganization of Human Society

“The common enemy of hu manity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of glob al warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All of these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real en emy then, is humanity itself.”

– Club of Rome

“Effective execution of Agen da 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human so ciety, unlike anything the world has ever experienced. A major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented rede ployment of human and finan cial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrat ed into individual and collective decision-making at every level.”

– United Nations on Agenda 21

“Current lifestyles and con sumption patterns of the afflu ent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air-conditioning, and suburban housing – are not sustainable.” – Maurice Strong, Chairman UN Earth Summit 1992

“We must go through a wrenching transformation to rid us of the horrors of the Twentieth Century’s Industrial Revolution.” – Al Gore, Earth in the Balance

Climate Change – Truth or Fiction – It Doesn’t Matter

“We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.” – Timothy Wirth (President, United Nations Foundation)

“No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.” – Christine Stewart (Former Canadian Minister of the Environment)

“It doesn’t matter what is true. It only matters what people believe is true.” – Paul Watson (co-founder of Green Peace.)

“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.” – Christiana Figueres (Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change)

have no more value than slugs.” – John Davis (Editor of Earth First Journal).

“Among environmentalists sharing two or three beers, the notion is quite common that, if only some calamity could wipe out the human race, other species might once again have a chance.” –Richard Conniff (Audubon Magazine)

“Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.” – David Brower, Sierra Club

Sustainable = Globalism

“All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan… We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.” – Preamble to Agenda 2030

“The emerging ‘environmentalization’ of our civilization and the need for vigorous action in the interest of the entire global community will inevitably have multiple political consequences. Perhaps the most important of them will be a gradual change in the status of the United Nations. Inevitably, it must assume some aspects of world government.” – Mikhail Gorbachev (address to the State of the World Forum)

“A massive campaign must

However, there is growing consensus that it must be accomplished at the local level if it is to be achieved on a global basis.” – The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996

“We believe planning should be a tool for allocating resources…and eliminating the great inequalities of wealth and power in our society…because the free market has proven incapable of doing this.” – Statement of Principles, Plannersnetwork.org, American Planning Association. Resetting the Entire Economic System

“What then is the most effective transition strategy? The essential aim is not to fight against consumer-capitalist society, but to build the alternative to it.” –Author Ted Trainer, Transition to a Sustainable and Just World.

“Simply shutting down the economy is not going to get us to our goal. So, just like we need innovation for COVID-19, we also need to get rid of emissions from all the different sectors and bring down climate change… This crosses many areas, transportation, industry, electricity, all those things, and agriculture – contribute to emissions…” –Bill Gates on the COVID lockdowns.

“Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.” – Harvey Ruvin (ICLEI)

“The right to full employment and ending unemployment by guaranteeing a job at a living wage in a safe workplace, empowered by labor unions; single-payer Medicare for all, tuition-free education from preschool to college, and the right

The region is formed by the economic interdependence of its development… The region has a single system of transportation, a centralized administration, and a united system of education and research.”– Soviet Russian architect Alexei Gutnov. The Ideal Communist City. 1968

Well, there you have it. Now what do think they really want?

Am I the nut for simply telling on them? There are tons more quotes I could use, but it would just be over-kill.

Our nation is in chaos,

■ with our economy locked down

■ the ability to own and control our own property is disappearing

■ the public schools are becoming factories turning out compliant “global village idiots”

■ the national debt is soaring

■ gas prices are skyrocketing

■ the nation’s health-care system is being destroyed

■ the farming industry is being forced to accept unworkable sustainable policy

■ the growing threat of a total surveillance society is watching our every move. Do you see any connection to the above quotes and these current realities taking place across the globe?

Let me finish with one more quote. This one is from my friend and powerful warrior against Agenda 21, the late Rosa Koire. “UN Agenda 21/ Sustainable Development is the action plan to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all information, all energy, and all human beings in the world. INVENTORY AND

What we are truly facing is what every one of these quotes is advocating: regulation of every aspect of our lives to enforce their agenda to inventory and control everything on earth.

Either we stand up to stop it, or suffer the consequences. I

In addition to the BLM, FS, USFWS, NPS, and the EPA, what do we have to worry about?

Oh, just a giant blob, the ocean floor, a severe water shortage and Biden’s pen.

The Blob

A five-thousand-mile wide blob of seaweed is heading for the Florida coast. Sargassum is the variety of seaweed. This “gargantuan” mass is formed in the Atlantic Ocean and will eventually “dump smelly and potentially dangerous” concoction on the beaches of Florida and other Gulf Coast states. It is estimated to arrive in July, right during the height of the tourist season.

Ocean Floor

Plenty of research has been done on the warming of surface waters, and how in the Pacific Ocean it has disrupted West Coast marine ecosystems, depressed salmon returns and damaged commercial fisheries.

New research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that these marine heat waves also occur deep underwater. The NOAA researchers found these deep underwater heat waves on the continental shelves around North America “tend to persist longer than their surface counterparts” and send “larger warming signals.”

Celebration of 150 Years of Angus in Historic Victoria, Kansas

Kansas Angus Association to host celebration event May 20.

In 1873, George Grant transported four Angus bulls from Scotland to the Kansas Prairie to fulfill his vision of American agricultural success.

When crossed with the Texas longhorn cows native to the Plains, the bulls sired calves well-suited to the region. These results demonstrated the Angus breed’s initial value in the United States. The legacy continues to be built today by Angus breeders across the nation.

Angus enthusiasts are invited to celebrate the bulls’ arrival – 150 years later – on

The Blob, the Ocean, the Drought & the Pen

Supposedly 90 percent of the excess heat from global warming is absorbed by the oceans and these marine heatwaves are occurring 50 percent more often in the last decade, warming the oceans by 1.5C.

These underwater marine heat waves have been linked to the invasion of lionfish, coral bleaching and the decline of reef fish, changes in the survival rates of Atlantic cod and “the disappearance of near-shore lobster populations.”

Water

Our city friends are learning what a drought is.

Here we are talking about drinking water. A new United Nations report says 1 billion people currently face water shortages, and they predict 1.7 to 2.4 billion will, within the next three decades, face similar shortages, as the urban water demand will increase by eighty percent by 2050.

The Pen

President Biden is not letting his pen gather dust.

His department of Interior appointees have just put sixteen million acres of federal property off limits to oil and gas development. These federal land and water acres are in Alaska. Thirteen million acres are located within the National Petroleum Reserve, and 2.8 million acres are in the Beaufort Sea. They

May 20 at the George Grant Memorial Cemetery in Victoria, Kansas. The commemoration, hosted by the Kansas Angus Association (KAA), will feature Angus camaraderie, food, education and more.

“We are excited to welcome all Angus and history enthusiasts to this event,” said Anne Lampe, KAA manager and secretary. “The field day will not only commemorate our 150 year legacy, but will also celebrate the success of the Angus breed and its people as we continue our quest to remain the seedstock and beef industry leader.”

The celebration, set to take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., marks one of many celebrations of this lasting legacy. Attendees will enjoy a Certified Angus Beef® brand smoked brisket lunch and be able to view Angus cattle on display in addition to these attractions:

■ Educational presentations from Tom Burke, American Angus Hall of Fame; Lindsay Gra-

also announced that Biden intends to limit future fossil fuel development on five different “special areas”, and prevent installation of a pipeline in northern Alaska.

Most recently, Biden put his pen to work to create two new national monuments. The first is a half-million acres in the Spirit Mountain area of southern Nevada. The other is a 6,600 acre area near El Paso, Texas.

We are always interested in the grazing language each President uses in his proclamation creating a national monument. For the large monument in Nevada, the language is:

Livestock grazing has not been permitted in the monument area since 2006, and the Secretary shall not issue any new grazing permits or leases on such lands.

Pretty straight forward, no grazing allowed.

I don’t know how they will do it, but somehow livestock will be listed as one of the causes of the water shortage, the large invasion of seaweed, and the heat waves on the ocean floor.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner. blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

ber-Runft, director of producer communications at Certified Angus Beef (CAB); Rick Pfortmiller, bovine genomics territory manager at NEOGEN; and Kelli Retallick-Riley, American Angus Association

■ Bagpipe entertainment performed by Haxton Hoffman

■ Wreath Laying and Re-dedication of the George Grant Monument

■ Viewing of the George Grant Villa and Monument

Additionally, a silent auction will take place during the event, featuring vintage Angus collectibles, a CAB kitchen block knife set and more. All proceeds of the silent auction will benefit the KAA to support its mission, including the KAA Young Angus Producer Scholarship.

Registration for the event is free of charge, but requested to be completed by April 30. To register your attendance, visit bit. ly/150YearsOfAngusFieldDay.

Biden Vetoes Bipartisan Attempt to Repeal EPA’s ‘Waters Of The United States’ Rule

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI/ DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION

President Joe Biden vetoed a bipartisan bill Thursday that would limit his administration’s broad interpretation of the “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule that grants the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) significant new authority.

The president rejected the bill, arguing that his administration’s new rule provides “clear rules of the road” to protect both economic efforts and water quality under the Clean Water Act, according to the veto. The rule dramatically expands the traditional limits of WOTUS — which allow the EPA to regulate navigable waters — to include all territorial seas, interstate waters, adjacent wetlands, traditional waters’ tributaries and some artificial reservoirs.

“The resolution would leave Americans without a clear definition of ‘Waters of the United States,’” Biden said in the veto. “The increased uncertainty caused by H.J. Res. 27 would threaten economic growth, including for agriculture, local economies, and downstream communities.”

Opponents of the rule currently lack the votes required to overcome the president’s veto.

Following a presidential veto, “Americans will need to hope the Supreme Court makes it clear that these EPA bureaucrats are way outside the authority that Congress actually provided in the Clean Water Act,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a March statement following the resolution’s passage by the Senate. He decried the Biden administration’s interpretation of the rule as a “radical power grab that would give federal bureaucrats sweeping control over nearly every piece of land that touches a pothole, ditch, or puddle.”

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of four Democratic senators who supported the bill, also issued a statement in March, encouraging the president to sign the bill.

“The Administration’s WOTUS rule is yet another example of dangerous federal overreach,” said Manchin in the statement. “The proposed changes would inject further regulatory confusion, place unnecessary burdens on small businesses, manufacturers, farmers and local communities, and cause serious economic damage. It is essential to ensure clean water for all West Virginians and Americans, but we can achieve this without regulating our hard-working people out of business.”

“The Biden administration’s WOTUS rule creates unnecessary confusion & burdensome red tape for [Montana] farmers, ranchers & landowners—that’s why the Senate voted to overturn it,” Republican Sen. Steve Daines said in a tweet immediately following the announcement. “[Joe Biden’s] veto today shows just how far he’s willing to go to impose big government regulations on [Montanans].”

A federal judge in late March stopped the Biden administration from implementing the rule in Texas and Idaho. At the time, the EPA told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it believes the expanded rule “is the best interpretation of the Clean Water Act,” and noted that it was still going into effect “in all other jurisdictions in the U.S.”

The EPA did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.     ▫

TSCRA Names New Leadership

Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association executive committee met to elect leadership at the 2023 Cattle Raisers Convention & Expo. Two TSCRA members were newly elected to serve on the TSCRA board of directors:

■ Bill Cawley, Crockett

■ Lloyd French IV, Houston

The association also added three members to its executive committee. These individuals include:

■ David Crow, Corpus Christi

■ Joe Leathers, Guthrie

■ Cody Webb, Barnhart ▫

TSCRA Announces 2023 Cattle Raisers Roundup

The Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is now accepting applications for the 2023 Cattle Raisers Roundup, a one-of-a-kind opportunity for select high school students to explore the beef industry from pasture to plate.

The Cattle Raisers Roundup is scheduled July 24-28 across Austin, Victoria, Corpus Chris-

ti and San Antonio. Attendees will engage in progressive, thought-provoking activities including tours of cattle operations, beef processing facilities, and legislative offices as well as interactive educational sessions simulating real-world experiences.

Tyler Schuster, the association’s manager of education and leader of Cattle Raisers Roundup, said this is an exceptional program that offers students valuable insight to the beef industry.

“We are thrilled to be able to continue Cattle Raisers Roundup this year,” Schuster says. “This in-depth experience provides young

leaders an unparalleled opportunity to gain beef industry knowledge and grow their professional development skills. Investing in the future generation of our industry has never been so important and we’re thrilled to welcoming this year’s Roundup students.”

The 2023 Cattle Raisers Roundup is available to 25 high school students completing their sophomore through senior year. To apply, students must submit an application, video, and recommendation letters by May 15. Additional information including application instructions are available at tscra.org/ students.