Cattle ranching conservationism

October 30, 2005 2:49 PM

If you're going to to break into the cowboy business, this is as good a place as any to do it. [more inside]
posted by mr_crash_davis (8 comments total)

The historic Kane and Two Mile ranches on the Utah-Arizona border not only take in 850,000 acres - most of it in the form of federal grazing lands - but also some of the most flat-out astonishing scenery in all of the American West. Head south through the pines and meadows of the Kane Ranch and visitors are eventually deposited on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Go north into the twisting canyon country of the Two Mile and it doesn't take long to get to the top of the Vermillion Cliffs, spitting distance from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
It's big. It's beautiful. And it now has a pair of new owners: the Grand Canyon Trust and the Conservation Fund (homepage here, not currently loading), which soon will be running nearly 800 head of cattle on their new range.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:50 PM on October 30, 2005

So basically, we've given up on the people's government securing our public lands for our collective best interest, and have to rely on funding private charities to do it for us?

Wonderful.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:54 PM on October 30, 2005

So basically, we've given up on the people's government securing our public lands for our collective best interest...

Not at all! Hell, if there's oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, your government is gonna look out for your collective best interest!
posted by 327.ca at 3:10 PM on October 30, 2005

To understand why we can't rely on the government to protect our land, read today's lead editorial in the NYT about Richard Pombo.
posted by spork at 3:25 PM on October 30, 2005

Oops. Today's lead editorial.
posted by spork at 3:27 PM on October 30, 2005

I live in northern Arizona and I can assure you: The Trust is everywhere these days.

Likewise ripped from today's headlines:
Thanks to the trust's efforts to clean up the smog at the Grand Canyon by forcing SoCalEdison to clean up the coal-fired Mohave powerplant a few hundred Native Americas will soon be outta work, in a region where unemployment is already above 40%.
posted by RockyChrysler at 4:22 PM on October 30, 2005

Thanks to the trust's efforts to clean up the smog at the Grand Canyon by forcing SoCalEdison to clean up the coal-fired Mohave powerplant a few hundred Native Americas will soon be outta work, in a region where unemployment is already above 40%.

I don't get it. Both of the links you posted seem to indicate that SoCalEdison has had six years to take care of this problem and has taken no action. Sounds to me like they are gambling that the Hopi and Navajo will be so desparate for the revenue that they'll put pressure to keep the plant operating without the scrubbers, thereby continuing to operate above the laws that they are violating. Another example of "extreme property rights" run amok.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 5:37 PM on October 30, 2005

Earth needs protection from Pombo

Another day, another anti-environment bill [reg req]
posted by rxreed at 10:15 AM on November 13, 2005