Dear HCN,
Kieran Suckling is afraid
to talk to ranchers with environmentally enhancing grazing
practices. His belief is that all ranchers are destructive. He
states: “Show me a national forest grazing allotment in Arizona or
New Mexico that isn’t trashed, and I’ll sit down and talk about
sustainable grazing. It doesn’t exist” (HCN,
3/30/98).
Mr. Suckling was repeatedly offered an
opportunity to review scientific evidence and to visit national
forest grazing allotments in Arizona that have increased their
environmental productivity through ecologically conscious grazing
practices. He did not bother to respond.
He is
afraid that if he sat down, talked, looked and listened with an
open mind, he could not maintain his extremist views, and he would
learn the meaning of “ecologically sustainable.” People currently
living on the land are not part of Suckling’s dream community, nor
does he intend to talk to
anyone.
Tony
Lunt
Klondyke, Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Suckling refuses to listen.
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