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Large western federal land holdings are always going to be a burr in the saddle of ranchers, timber interests, miners and drillers. No matter how those lands are managed, there will always be those who see untapped natural resources they wish to access for profit.

Those wishes and what is best for the lands involved—and the public interests in those lands—are difficult to combine and accommodate successfully.

The bottom line is there will always be those who resent federal land ownership.

I’ve read your article dated 2005 and wondered if you were still available on that subject.

I believe I’ve identified the critters to be shrews because of the sound they make…echolocation?? We have them in between our roof (metal) and insulation. They run along and then make this short ‘brrrr’ sound. We’ve set traps outside and caught mice, voles and only 3 shrews. We’ve been able to identify through your article…mice with white bellies, voles with golden brown fur and four ‘fingered’ toes and then finally the shrew with the pointed snout and five ‘fingers’. We’ve cut the noise down considerably with the catching of the three shrews but can’t seem to get the last (we hope) one. Now, with the cold of January on us and some snow on the ground, we don’t hear them much at all.

My question was about the noise we hear….about every 2 feet or 10 seconds…is it the echolocation or are we not able to hear that frequency?

Thanks
Jon & Patricia

Thanks so much for this article. I have a group of crows that greet me most mornings as I’m going off to work. I call them my guards. I love their calls.

Dave, once again you masterfully write about a sensitive subject that avoids victimizing your politically diverse audience.  I appreciate the many comparisons to various happenings around the country; VT and the expansion of the National Forest, SD and the legal disputes over land management and compensation, to the events currently happening in OR.  Unfortunately, Bundy and his extremists actions, have stolen the headlines from a legitimate dispute between two parties.  We must not allow extremists to fog the glass of legitimate legal disputes.  What the rancher in OR needs more is an action network of lawyers and activists no different from organizations that stand up for the rights of the less fortunate and minorities.  Then, the arguments presented in the case to the media will have firm ground to stand upon.  Perhaps ranchers and farmers out west should consider starting an organization to help them fight for common ground or perhaps there is one whose voice is unheard.

Nice to see someone thinking their way through a complex problem and putting it into broader perspective.

just read your article about live tree cells adapting to very cold, freezing temps.  More pliable cell membranes, increasing osmolarity with retained sugars, and finally the viscous state of the cytoplasmic proteins when frozen.  Would be nice to know how to convince human cells to adapt similarly.

I plan on cutting logs for a cabin, and thank you for the information you have given. I have a large selection of trees, but most are only around 10” in diameter. The one thing that I have going for me is they are pretty straight. Thanks again for the tips on peeling a tree. I will look into the best time to cut trees in my area.

These animals are so smart, but the hands thing have my attention. Training seems to be done with hands and signals.

Thanks for the correction, Sue. I’ve tweaked the text.

A guy that served as a selectman with me years ago - as old then as I am now - once said: “The older I get, the less sure I am of anything.”

Thank you for a thoughtful and balanced piece, sympathetic to all the interests and emotions in play.

I ask my progressive friends: Take away the guns, which are there just as a symbolic display, how is this any different that Occupy Wall Street?

Hines is outside Burns, OR. Bend is further west on US 20 by a couple hours. Bend has a logging history similar to Hines but has grown away from its conserative roots through bustling tourism,  small business, high tech and craft beer.

I grew up in New England,  spent my childhood hiking the LT and summers on Stratton mtn-Grout Pond and the whites.  The current struggles in OR certainly are similar to the dynamics in New England between ‘the old way’ and the ‘yuppie-environmentalists.’

A thoughtful piece to consider before hurling verbal grenades at the “crazies” ____ fill in the blank on a definition of who that is.

Don’t feel too bad for those guys, they’ve been feeding at the public trough for many, many years. Even though Papa Bundy pays less to lease public land than he would to lease comparable private land, he still owes well over $1 million to the public treasury and shows no sign of ever paying.

All they want is the ability to repeat the abuse the land suffered at the hands of ranchers in the distant past. they forget, or maybe don’t think, they’re part of a larger country and that land belongs to all of us - even people who aren’t like them.

Many years ago I worked for a forest products company in northern New England, a company that was liquidating its timber. Because they cut every acre that was worth cutting, those acres haven’t supported any loggers or mill workers for decades. How much better it would have been if the woodland had been in public ownership and managed responsibly. The acreage may not have supported as many families as it did when logging was in full swing, but it would have supported some for the long-term.

Public ownership of woodland in the east is a direct result of the cut-and-get-out abuse of private owners. A primary reason much of the public domain in the west was retained was that same abuse. And, don’t forget that huge acreages of western land were essentially given away as subsidies to corporation that were building railroads. Those acres are now either ranches or corporate timberlands. Much of that timberland was apparently overcut resulting in the mills becoming dependent on publicly owned timber to keep operating.

While I sympathize with the individual loggers or small ranchers, many of them don’t seem to recognize the real root of their problems.

I sometimes say my “curse” in life is that I can always see both sides of an issue.  It’s not entirely true and I seldom lack for a solid opinion on things, but it’s always nice to see a fellow traveler sorting out issues like this.  Excellent writing/thinking/probing, David.

Every morning my crow(s) call me from a nearby tree.  They are waiting for scraps of bread or other treats. Sometimes I give them pieces of meat trimmings which they choose first.  Once, by mistake, a few pieces of broccoli slipped in.  They are still on the ground.

The problem is that both sides are wrongheaded and no one is giving common sense a chance, not that it ever gets a chance anywhere. The following story gives a little deeper background into the distrust that they have for the Fed.

SD Stockgrowers note fire double standard

“SD Stockgrowers Association supports full compensation to the ranchers who were harmed by the Pautre Fire, and believe that liability should be applied to the U.S. Forest Service the way the Hammonds were held liable for setting that fire.” - S.D. Stockgrowers Association President Bill Kluck

The South Dakota Stockgrowers Association sent letters this week to congressional delegates, the U.S. Attorney General’s office and the South Dakota Attorney General’s office questioning what they call “egregiously unbalanced response of federal land management agencies” and supporting the claims South Dakota ranchers made for compensation after the 2013 Pautre Fire burned nearly 10,000 acres of federal and private land.

“There is a big double standard being applied in these government land agencies,” said Stockgrowers President Bill Kluck. “We cannot support the use of terrorism laws against a family ranch while forest service staff are just allowed to go about their day. We’re not questioning who set these fires, but we’re very worried about how the law is being used.”

The 2013 Pautre Fire in South Dakota burned over 10,000 acres, about 3,000 of which was federally owned land and the rest was privately owned land. The U.S. Forest Service has refused to pay any damages and no employees have been charged with wrongdoing. Private landowners and ranchers affected by the blaze filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service last week after their claims for damage compensation were denied. The U.S. Forest Service ruled that the agency was not responsible for damages even though they intentionally set the fire, against recommendations from local ranchers and weather forecasters.

In the letter, President of the Association, Bill Kluck stated, “The kind of unchecked decision-making authority and lack of accountability from federal land management agencies as seen in the Pautre Fire, can and will be applied to other situations and likely at the expense of independent livestock producers and private property owners.”

SD Stockgrowers drew comparison to current situation in Oregon where a father and son have been sentenced to five years in federal prison after a prescribed burn on their private property burned less than 140 acres of federal property. The family is required to pay $400,000 in damages and was prosecuted under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which carries a minimum 5-year sentence.

“SD Stockgrowers Association supports full compensation to the ranchers who were harmed by the Pautre Fire, and believe that liability should be applied to the U.S. Forest Service the way the Hammonds were held liable for setting that fire.”

“South Dakota Stockgrowers Association is very concerned about the lack of accountability and responsibility being applied to federal agencies in one case while private individuals are held to a much higher, and completely different level of responsibility in the other,” said Kluck.

“We are asking that our congressional delegates, the South Dakota Attorney General and U.S. Attorney’s office take a look at these cases to see how we can correct this injustice to the Hammond family and use their case to make sure that our South Dakota ranchers are able to hold the Forest Service accountable and liable for their actions on the Pautre Fire.”

–South Dakota Stockgrowers Association

As usual more thought provoking stuff from Northern Woodlands, keep it coming.
Thanks
Larry

The article below tells a deeper story too.  Also, Mormonism is involved with the Bundy clan so we have A LOT to think about with this Oregon saga.  Good idea to discuss all of this with maturing teenagers!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/07/1466961/-Paiute-tribal-chair-Don-t-tell-me-any-of-these-ranchers

You stated: “What we have here is a struggle to find a balance between individual liberty and broader social organization – it’s basically the essence of American democracy.” I disagree. Just like private landowners, state and federal agencies manage land for various goals and purposes. This is about how land can and should be managed by one or more federal agencies. I don’t see how that affects individual liberty. I can see how it might affect the economics of ranching. Those are different issues.

Dave, there is civil unrest due to the constant hacking away at individual rights by the Federal Government. Each generation accepts more, and soon your freedom has vanished. The people are tired of it and want it to stop. They can go to the ballot box, but that’s all rigged. Then they have their guns, at least for now. There aren’t many choices left.

Deer don’t seem to be particularly disturbed by Kubota Orange either.  If I see a deer while driving my tractor in the woods, the deer will stare until I get quite close before running.  If I stop and get off the tractor they run immediately. 

What would happen if I drove a Ford blue tractor; would they run sooner or is a tractor such an alien object in the woods that the deer does not recognize it as a potential threat?