the push to Shut Down has started (to buy, university)

[jody_wy]

https://www.starvalleyindependent.co...incoln-county/

[WyoNewk]

Geeze, they're everywhere!

[Happy in Wyoming]

Does anyone believe that Obama isn't out to get us? It may be even worse if the Clintons come back.

[jody_wy]

Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming

Does anyone believe that Obama isn't out to get us? It may be even worse if the Clintons come back.

yeah she might resurrect Babbitt

[branDcalf]

Not just one person. I see a big push by many to destroy what we have all worked to build and keep, especially in the West, but in other places, too.

[sunsprit]

with this on top of the current round of EPA/coal directives adversely hitting the coal industry in this state ...

this is rather daunting news.

Extractive industry and ranching are likely the two biggest economy drivers in Lincoln county. Curtailing either would be devastating.

Even when this admin is out of office, the bureaucracies have an entrenched leadership which is sympathetic to these goals of shut-down for the Western public lands. It will take an aggressive admin and pro-active policies to reverse the directions of these agencies affecting our lives and livelihoods in this region.

I'm reminded of the alarm in reaction to the Agenda 21 supporters of a few years ago ... and I don't believe that that direction has gone away. This admin has fostered and encouraged that direction; we're to be the exclusive playground for the elites. It's a more pervasive outlook than one might superficially see ... I've a friend with a university professor wife who is involved with wildlife surveys and counts in her summers. She honestly believes that all of the human activity she sees, even in the wilderness areas where she is "allowed to camp with an RV" while the rest of us are denied motor vehicle access (and very limited access otherwise) is harmful to the wildlife. She has no concept of wildlife management or range management; to her, all wildlife is sacred and should be allowed to roam as nature dictates. That includes everything except humans. She'd just as soon ban everybody else (except fellow academics and land managers, gov't agents) from enjoying those lovely peaceful summers that she gets paid to have in those places. Of course, she doesn't see herself as having a radical outlook on these matters and ranching is a horrible travesty to her point of view, an affront to nature. Mining and extractive activity is even worse in her view. Yet the quality of her life and the activities and possessions that she enjoys are highly dependent upon these businesses and their products. She's simply blind to the cause and effect of what she advocates ... but she's the smartest person in the room anywhere she goes. The rest of us are little more than vermin in her eyes ... unless you've got a bunch of PhD's after your name and a tenured job.

[ScottStielow]

This is craziness on stairodes!!

[sunsprit]

Some of this attitude within the bureaucracies can be traced back to the UN Agenda 21 guidelines for depopulation and ultimately, control of the masses. Make no mistake, this is the lead on a federal land grab from the state of Wyoming. If the EIS tactic can work in this county, then most of Wyoming is up for grabs in time.

But the directive to start an EIS for this county had to come from somewhere above in the chain of the current administration.

My outlook is that this is the 'bama legacy in the making. Economic devastation for years to come in an area where there isn't a large population base to cry out about the situation. The uncertainty of future use of the lands there will have devastating effects upon the communities. Who'd want to buy a ranch there with the potential of not being able to ranch there? Who'd want to move there to work in a mine if the mine is potentially going to shut down soon? This won't affect just the primary industries, it will spill over to the support infrastructure businesses & jobs.

Even if the county and citizens/residents of Lincoln county were to prevail in future years in the EIS process, it will be a long and expensive legal process which will drain their resources in the interim. Anecdotal testimony from the ranchers and miners isn't sufficient to deal with these issues, you've got to have PhD's and trained observers and "experts" for data gathering and testimony of value in these processes. They don't come cheap ... and for every one that the ranchers can hire who may have a favorable interpretation of the beneficial use of the lands, the other side can find many who will have a different professional opinion. The difference is that the fed is using our tax dollars to fund their foray while we get to pay for our side out of pocket.

[GregW]

Not to be overly blunt but, in the water deficient West, ranching is a creature living on government life support in the form of irrigation projects and almost free government land available to be over grazed to destruction. What the government can give it can also take away. As this country develops an ever greater leisure class (1% of the population is still 3 million rich people) that will demand ever more exclusive recreation and the my palace is bigger then your palace one-upmanship.

Economic activities such as irrigation farming, open range cattle, but likely not bison, ranching and most certainly open pit coal mining and extensive rail transport are on the endangered list because they are considered by the wealth elite to be unsightly. They want the best playground money can buy and they have the money to buy anything they want.

I am sympathetic to the difficult future of the agricultural and extractive industries of the West. As many of you have already seen many of the children raised on the ranch, or even in the suburbs, have decided it is more secure to find a career somewhere else. The sheer beauty of the plains and mountains of Wyoming are inspiring but do not put money in the bank.

I consider this forum very fortunate to have Jody_WY and sunsprit as correspondents. The pictures and the eloquent descriptions just want me to visit again. I simply do not have the money or the health to survive a Wyoming Winter. I wish you all a prosperous future.

[branDcalf]

I will respectfully point out that the Feds are taking water that is not theirs to take. Just as they are eliminating multiple use on land that is not theirs to claim right to.