~~ Bear Essentials ~ Oct. 22, 2017~~

 vBe sure to Vote:  Nov. 7, Tuesday, or mail in your Ballot

vvForest Service meeting this week:  San Juan County Commissioner meeting Tuesday Oct 24th at the Monticello community/senior center. The local Forest Service Agency presentation at 9:45 am, with a Q & A session. If you care about cattle grazing, road obliteration; if you are against the USFS creating a large wilderness area in the forest; or are concerned about limiting access to ATV's, and perhaps firewood gathering, hunting, and all other recreational opportunities in the Manti La Sal Forest, you ought to go to the meeting. It starts at 9:00, Forest Service scheduled at 9:45. But come early in case they are ahead of schedule.

v Satire of the week:

v Roast Marshmallows, Not Forests  “We cannot preserve a beautiful forest forever like a photograph, because it is still growing, and eventually dying. Today’s overgrown national forests produce at least twice as much new growth as managers remove every year, so the situation continues to get worse while Congress fiddles. Our generation has thus squandered the great legacy of the conservation movement, our national forests.”

Good News Bears

n  Rob Bishop Seeks to Reform Antiquities Act

n  Are the Days of Sue and Settle Over? EPA overregulation effects

n  Western leaders assert state control over energy permitting in new bill

n  EPA chief issues new directive to end abusive ‘sue and settle’ deals

n  Native American Energy Act Promises to Ease Poverty

n  Wyoming Attorney May be Next BLM Director

n  Western Congressional Caucus Pushes for Antiquities Act Reform

n  Definitely time for Antiquities Act Reform  Op-ed by Matt Anderson

n   Grazing not to blame for bull trout decline  14 yr. Old law suit dismissed

  Bad News Bears         

n  SUWA’s Band of Badgers Confront State Leaders Regarding Public Land

n  When Good Intentions Lead to Bad Results in the Environment

n  Unequal Access to Justice Impedes Fairness and Costs Billions

n  Utah Wildfires Reignites Debate Over Constitutional State Control of Lands    

“According to a tally from that year, there were more than 20 federal agencies or departments that EACH had MORE personnel than Congress.  The Department of Agriculture alone had nearly six times more employees (95,223 vs. 16,432). Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory (R), co-chair of the Commission on Federalism, describes America’s current state as a bike with lopsided tires – one overinflated, the other completely flat. To him, it’s not so much about who is holding the handlebars. America simply can’t move forward until the air pressure is more equitably distributed.

So in February, members of Utah’s Commission on Federalism, with Trumpian winds at their back, drew up a list of more than five pages of powers they’d like to bring back to the state. Among them: Mitigate catastrophic fire risk on national forests and rangelands.”

n  Minnesota Enviros Anti-mining Agenda Causes Rift in Labor Party

n  Credibility of Bears Ears “Running” Expert Questioned

~~~~~

http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

                                     Documenting Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016

Grazing on Public Lands Defended by Utah Farm Bureau

Statement from Utah Farm Bureau:
“In Utah, we have seen more than 70 percent of historic grazing AUMs cut or suspended through federal agency management actions. The establishment of a new national monument provides one more tool to the federal agencies to reduce livestock grazing. Let’s consider what the impact of displacing or terminating even a single average sized family cattle ranching operation would be:

Utah is a cow-calf cattle production state with cattle and calves contributing more than one-third of the state’s agricultural commodity sales. According to the Salina Livestock Auction, feeder cattle arriving from across Southern Utah for auction generally averaged between 450 - 550 pounds and were valued at about $1.75 per pound or $875 per head. An average cow-calf ranching operation with 500 mother cows and a 95-percent calf survival rate adds more than $415,000 in direct cattle sales to the local economy.

Based on a conservative economic multiplier effect, as feeder cattle sales dollars are spent in the local economy, that single family ranching business is the catalyst for more than $750,000 in rural Southeast Utah!

If you take a regional look at the number of mother cattle, in Southeast Utah’s San Juan (14,300), Garfield (17,700) and Kane (8,200) Counties, there were 40,200 mother cows that spent time grazing on federally managed lands in 2015. Those family cattle ranches generated more than $33 million in direct feeder cattle sales and contributed in excess of $50 million to the rural communities they support year ‘round. And this is a contribution that renews itself every year with the new calf crop.”