Narrated by Ammon Bundy while in an Oregon prison following his arrest for the protest at the Malheur Refuge, this video explains the history of his ancestral ranch. He details the benefits to the environment and wildlife resulting from the improvements made to the land by his family, as well persistent hostilities from the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The Bundy Ranch Story: As told by Ammon Bundy
First posted in 3 parts by Rangefire, this video provides all Americans the correct context they need to understand what historic conditions and events touched off the Bundy Ranch standoff in the spring of 2014, and why the federal oppression and targeting of this ranching family has become a story of national importance.
Ammon Bundy is exactly where he belongs, in jail. The Bundy clan and too many of the other livestock producers in the western US with a grazing permit to use public land have never done anything for the rangeland. Their herds of cattle and sheep pollute the ground with their crap and when they are finally taken off the range in the fall it is a wasteland.
You don’t believe me? Get out and take a look at the rangeland next September. You will find that not a single blade of grass, not one forbe, or even any rabbit brush remains. The cows are hauled water and high protein supplements after the good graze is gone. This system guarantees that to eat the bulk they need they are starved into eating everything that grows except the trees and prickly pear.
The AUM (Animal Unit Month) – that’s a cow and calf for you bleeding hearts out there – grazing fees charged these rapists is ludicrous – it should be 5 times the current $2.11, at least, and the permit time to graze animals on the public rangeland should be halved.
When the rangeland becomes stressed, as it is every place you go, the permits should be vacated until it recovers. These so called permit holders do not need public land for their grazing herds, they need to take care of the land they own, cull their herds accordingly, and stop turning all the beautiful mountain valleys and desert landscapes into either moonscapes, or weed infested wastelands.
In all my years in agriculture I knew the owners personally of two outfits that were worthy of the name cattlemen. These men actually took care of and improved the rangeland. Many of the others are rangeland trash like the Bundy’s who do not deserve a moment of your time or regard, so don’t let them BS you into thinking that they or their herds provide any benefit to the rangeland, because they do not.
“Ancestral Ranch”? Does that mean the American tax-payer funded lands his welfare cows have been poaching?
I’m with you, Zeb. That is exactly what it means. Permit holders like the jailbird Bundy have stiffed the taxpayer since the Taylor Grazing Act was enacted in 1930 allowing this travesty.