George Wuerthner asks: Is Ranching Sustainable ? (As featured on Red State Rebels)
In case you didn’t guess; it’s a rhetorical question. The article also appears in Western Watersheds Project’s Fall ’08 Watersheds Messenger
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Brian Ertz
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In my opinion, a realistic view on the changes occurring in western ranching. This is about private land not “subsidized public land” ranching. There is no mention of conflicts with elk eating livestock forage, bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle, or wolves killing livestock.
The Western Cowboy myth will die hard.
Wendell Berry wrote: “everyone, eventually, turns into a redskin” and is replaced by another generation with different values, habits or life styles. This is not a value statement but fact–right or wrong–it is what it is. “Progress” is the sum of all it’s parts and unfortunately many of the parts are nothing but “GOO”.
In general, good story, but a bit soap-opera-ish.
I mean, really — “Stubborn rancher hangs on to ranch no matter what, wife finds another man, etc, etc…..”
The “cowboy” isn’t the “enemy” though, Barb, in reality, he was just the hired help. It’s the cattle barons that were the “bad guys” with their “land grabbing.”