.........
Preface
- Introduction - CHAPTERS:
1 - 2 - 3
-
4 - 5 -
6 - 7 - 8 - 9
- 10 - 11 - 12
Photo Galleries - ORDER
A PRINTED COPY!
CHAPTER X
BENEFITS
OFPUBLIC LANDS RANCHING
By now, some
skeptical readers may be thinking, "Yeah, maybe most of this book is true.
But what about the other side? What about public lands ranching's contributions?"
In the interest of presenting a more complete picture of the issue, therefore,
this chapter is dedicated to public lands ranching benefits.
Public Iands
ranching:
- Produces 3%
of US beef.
- Keeps some people
wealthy.
- Keeps some people
powerful.
- Helps maintain
some people's accustomed lifestyle.
- Helps keep bureaucrats
busy.
- Allows us to
feel like we are doing something useful with otherwise "useless" public land.
- Requires endless
miles of barbed wire fences, which occasionally catch ORVers.
- Provides humans
roaded access to every nook and cranny of public land and opens the West to
widespread exploitation.
- Reduces groundcover,
allowing hikers easier travel and the ability to spot venomous snakes more
easily.
- Gives hunters
something to shoot at (cows).
- Helps -- ever
so slightly -- to preserve "our Western legacy."
- Promotes excessive
beef consumption, and thus helps reduce human overpopulation.
- Provides material
for Gary Larson cartoons.
- Maintains remote
base properties that serve as excellent sites for criminal hideouts and narcotics
laboratories.
- Provides an
excellent example of how tyrannical, wasteful, and destructive a special interest
can be without public awareness or opposition.
Bumpersticker seen
in New Mexico:
TO PROTECT ALL
HIS CREATIONS
GOD CREATED
RANCHERS
We have all
encountered much misinformation and many romantic renderings of ranching, but
how much real evidence do we have to justify public lands ranching?