Dear HCN,
It is hard to realize
that less than 29,000 ranchers in the West can have such an
unreasonable political influence over public lands. Some major
industries have laid off more employees than the total number of
ranchers in the West.
We doubt that condominiums
will ever replace ranches. The isolation, severe weather, lack of
amenities and jobs will prevent this from happening. The irony is
that more than twice as many cattle are raised on private lands in
Texas than are raised in all of the 11 Western
states.
The agricultural influence is furthered
by statements by Wyoming Sen. Malcolm Wallop, who preaches that the
survival of small towns depends on ranches and farms. This is an
impossibility. According to the most recent Wyoming Data Handbook,
all land-generated businesses including ranching, farming, timber,
outfitting, guiding and trapping, constitute only 4 percent of the
state gross product.
Through the years ranchers
have gained undue political influence because they never had a
demanding 9-to-5 job. They were always able to go attend any
meeting or conference and make themselves known. At one time 30
percent of our state legislators were ranchers representing less
than 4 percent of the population. In one recent state legislative
budget session, 64 percent of the monies were allocated to the
agricultural community.
These days the federal
government spends $25 million on predator control for the livestock
industry. Statistics prove that predator control does not work. Add
to this the amount states and counties spend on this project, and
the total could be used to start buying the Western ranches and
returning them to public lands.
Since only 2
percent of the beef cattle in the United States is raised in the
West, any “War on the West” is blown out of proportion. If changes
don’t come soon, we, the tax payers, will continue to subsidize a
“nice way of life.”
Harvey
and Carolyn Duncan
Hanna, Wyoming
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline We pay for a “nice way of life’.
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