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June 2010
by Ron Cerri

 

In March Steve Boies, John Falen, Joe Guild and myself traveled to Washington D.C. to attend a Public Lands Council meeting. Every year when we make this trip we make a concerted effort to schedule meetings with the federal land agency people that are in charge of regulating those of us out west that make use of the public lands. We also try to meet with our Nevada congressional delegation. Each Senator and Representative usually tries to have at least one person on their staff that works on natural resource issues. Meeting and talking to these individuals is just as important as meeting with our Congressmen. Because Congressmen have so many issues to deal with, they must rely on these staff members to keep them informed on pending legislation. Congressional staff members are also expected to keep the Congressmen informed as to their constituent’s feelings on certain issues, whether they are in favor of or opposed to pending legislation and if there are any changes that they would recommend. This is why it is so important there be organizations like the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association. The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association office receives calls from one or more of these staff members weekly wanting to know what the livestock industry in Nevada thinks about some particular issue.

While in D.C we met with Senator Reid, Senator Ensign, Congressman Heller and a staff member from Congresswoman Shelley Berkley’s office. Among the issues we discussed were:

• Wild horses: We let them know that we supported Secretary of Interior Salazar’s plan for creating sanctuaries located in the east and mid west. We also encouraged them to support the BLM’s efforts to achieve appropriate management levels for wild horses in order to protect the resource.
• Clean Water Act: We asked that they oppose the so called “America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act” introduced by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) The Act would remove the word navigable from the definition of “Waters of The United States”, thereby granting the Federal Government unprecedented regulatory authority over all waters, taking away state and private property rights.
• National Monuments: We expressed our concern regarding a recently released secret memo with detailed plans for President Obama to designate as many as fourteen new National Monuments spanning some 13 million acres; two of which are in Nevada—the Owyhee Desert and the Monitor Mountain Range. The Public Lands Council is asking that Congress make changes to the Antiquities Act making it more difficult for the President to declare public lands as National Monuments. This Act gives the President the authority to designate National Monuments without the approval of Congress or consulting with the local communities that will be impacted by these designations. The effect of designating National Monuments is a reduction in multiple use activities such as grazing, mining, and logging; all of which are job creating enterprises which is something that is critically needed in our country right now.
• Estate taxes: We encouraged our Representatives to support Family Farm Estate Tax Relief Act of 2010, sponsored by Senator Feinstein and Congressman Mike Thompson. This bill would exclude farm and ranch assets from estate taxes as long as the property remains a family agricultural operation. This is important to agriculture because in 2011 estate taxes will revert back to the 2001 level. If congress fails to enact this relief it will result in a staggering 55% tax on estates of $1 million or more.

The new Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Bob Abbey, was among the agency people we met with in D.C. We are very fortunate to have a person like Director Abbey in an important position like that. As many of you recall, Bob was the State Director for the BLM in Nevada for many years, and is someone that tries to be fair and honest to everyone. He truly understands the challenges that we face in Nevada, such as wild horses and environmental groups that are opposed to livestock grazing on public lands. He understands that doing nothing in order to avoid being sued has been going on for too long. He is encouraging BLM personnel in the field to take action when they know it to be the right thing. Director Abbey told us that the wild horse and burro budget for the year 2010 was $63 million. He also explained Salazar’s plan for dealing with excess horses. This plan calls for the creation of seven new preserves; two would be purchased and five would be leased.

Wild horse advocacy groups are telling the public that ranchers want to remove the wild horses so they can run more livestock. As an industry, whenever we talk to the public or the press we need to let them know that since 1971 when the Wild Horse and Burro Act was created there has been a 30% reduction in cattle grazing on BLM lands.

Director Abbey stated that the BLM was given a directive that renewable energy development is to be made a top priority. In order to accomplish this, the agency will be opening offices for the sole purpose to facilitate and fast track the NEPA process for renewable energy development. At present there is about 1000 square miles, or about 100 million acres, identified as potential sites for renewable energy development.

He also told us the BLM has suffered a 20% reduction in range land specialists and are finding it difficult to find and hire people to fill these positions. It is too bad that the College of Agriculture at UNR has eliminated its range program when this type of expertise is so badly needed.

Each time I travel to Washington D.C. I realize how important it is to have organizations like the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association that are called upon to speak for the respective industries that they represent. There are plenty of organizations out there that would like to see us gone, and without someone back in Washington D.C. that could very well happen. I have said this before and will say it again, this is why everyone, whether you are in the livestock industry, logging industry or pet grooming business, needs to become a member and support the organization that is working for the benefit and protection of their livelihood.

 

Quote of the month:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

— Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th President of the Unites States, 1981-1989

 

 

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