One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
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The Congressional Desert Land Act of 1877 severed the non-navigable surface water and the ground water from the western federal lands and gave them to the states. This resulted in a split estate of the western public lands. The Act of 1890 declared all lands west of the 100th meridian were under the "Prior Appropriation Doctrine" as it applied to water rights. It contained three main components: A. First in time, first in right, B. The user of the water and not the owner of the land gets the water right, and C. The water must be diverted and...
Ranchers running livestock on federally managed lands are facing a major taking of which few appear to be aware. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has filed thousands of water rights with the Montana Department of Natural Resources (DNRC). The problem is these filings conflict with the vested water rights of the allotment holders. Montana is a prior appropriation doctrine state which means, 'first in time, first in right' (miners' law). Most of the ranches using federal lands were established long before the BLM came into existence. Montana...
A wise sage once said something like, "failure to learn from history will generally result in repeating the failures". This is what is happening in northeastern Montana. You have probably heard about the American Prairie Reserve's (APR) plans for an 'American Serengeti' that includes 10 or 20,000 wild, free-roaming bison on 3.5 million acres. Their stated intention is to remove all man-made improvements that have been constructed over the last 200 years (apparently, they consider their 'new' facilities like 'learning centers', yurt camps, camp...
Have you noticed that 'sustainability' is the latest buzz word related to ranching? Ever wonder what they are talking about? I have attended several workshops and read many articles in an attempt to determine what they mean by 'sustainable ranching'. To date I have not heard a specific definition. Generally, the ranchers on the panels will fall back on, "if the ranch has been around for over 100 years it is probably sustainable". However, after listening to the proponents of the program I am still not sure what they are planning to sustain....
As the 65th MT Legislative Session opened for business last week the usual calls for budget cuts were exceedingly shrill. What made matters worse this year was the loss of revenue due to the demise of the coal and oil and gas industries in Montana. We knew this day of reckoning was coming, so now the budget knives are being sharpened and the fun has begun. I have a suggestion. In the last legislative session the Governor proposed (and the legislature dutifully passed) $10 million to assist sage grouse populations. This was in addition to the $4...
I recently had the privilege of visiting with a couple of ranchers from near the Grasslands National Park (NP) in Saskatchewan, Canada. I heard the amazing story that when cattle were removed from the park, the resident wildlife also left. The decline in grassland dependent birds was very noticeable. In particular, one rancher observed the sage grouse left when the cattle were removed. This rancher was subsequently contracted by the park to reintroduce his cattle to these over rested pastures. Amazingly, the sage grouse returned to the area...
How did that line go? What's in a name? A rose would smell as sweet..... It seems MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) is following Shakespeare's musings. We no longer hear about 'wild, free-ranging' bison. Now they are being labeled as a 'native species' and FWP is looking for, "somewhere in Montana where animals (bison) could be managed as a native species". Apparently, FWP does not know the meaning of either 'species' or 'native'. All plains bison in North America (federal, private and Indian Reservation herds) belong to the same genus and...
The sage grouse 'listing' saga continues unabated in Montana. To date the many working groups, advisory boards, committees, etc. have spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars on this issue. Why? Because the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is threatening to list the bird as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA defines a 'threatened species' as, "any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future..." and an 'endangered species' as, "any species which is...