Fences/Ranches/Monuments

[Joane Pappas White <Lyoness@Castlenet.com>]

Hi,

FENCING:
Michael's observations may be accurate for "his neck of the woods"
which, from his phone number, appears to beEureka, California.  The fact
that private landowners have chosen to fence in or fence out in
California is probably a matter of local policy and statute.

For those of us in the rural West, Federal grazing law preempted the
issue 200 years ago.  We are all basically "open range" jurisdictions
concerning all federal lands. If a private property owner doesn't want
cattle or wildlife (which is all owned by the state here) on their
property, then they have the obligation to Fence Out, which means that
they must fence their property to keep the grazing animals out of it.
The federal government does not require fences to be built at all!  In
fact, the leading case in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver
(covering most of the Western States) has actually made even states take
down some fences if it interfers with the federal use.

RANCHING/CATTLE/ELK:
With respect to cattle and wildlife Micheal, I helped create and manage
Pagano's Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit, one of the largest and
most successful units in Utah.  While managing a cattle herd of about
300, the unit has one of the largest trophy elk herds in the world
(2500+ head with bulls averaging 350B&C).  They graze side by side all
summer and Heidi's data is the more accurate from my observations of the
eating habits of both.

BTW, Pagano's has offered to let me host an endurance ride through the 
Range Creek ranch.  I'm just not quite sure I can handle it yet
logistically.

As the past chairman of the most successful Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation chapter in this state, I participated in the formulation of
Elk Management Plan for our Division of Wildlife Resources.  Elk didn't
exist in Utah when I was a child.  We reintroduced them in the 1970's
and they are booming all over the state, side by side with the cattle. 
Wish I could say the same for the deer, but they don't stand a chance
against the predators right now.

MONUMENTS:
The Grand Staircase has been an exercise in government double talk. 
Those of us around the Monument would tell you that we feel like the
Indians--every promise made has been broken. The good news: I'm hearing
rumors that our congressional members are drafting a presidential order
to rescind the whole thing and that might now get some support.

Have you heard of the 12 heartbeat rule Michael?  We were originally
told that huge areas of the monument would be limited to "groups of no
more than 12".  That did not sound too unreasonable to us.  That is now
the 12 "heartbeat" rule.  You are a heartbeat, your child is a
heartbeat, your dog is a heartbeat, your horse is a heartbeat.  Get the
picture?  The average family cannot go into entire areas without being
too large a group to be allowed in.  Horsemen had to work hard to keep
trial access and that is limited by many rules and regulations.  Motors
are out in most areas, mountain bikes are falling from favor in our
National Parks around here (Utah has 4 huge ones), horses are not
"givens" and only hiking seems to be exempt from attack.

Since these areas are extremely rugged and remote that about guarantees
that the majority of our citizens will never see this country.

NON USE is my description of the current public land policy.

Joane Pappas White
Price, Utah
Lyoness@Castlenet.com