Lazy J Bar

OUR Crown Jewels

Last week I received a notice from our local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office regarding a 'Public Scoping Process' for the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area (NCA) located in our county. 

Yes!  I plan on attending one of the four meetings they have provided to discuss with the community how these lands should be preserved.  Who knows; Maybe I'll attend all four.  I often serve as a spiky, festering thorn in certain individuals sides. 

Now, don't think I'm against conservation.  Nor am I against managing the lands.  And, I'm definitely not against maintained trails or even keeping those people off the public lands who like to go out and shoot up old mattresses after doing who knows what on them. 

I am, however, in support of maintaining the lands as our government agencies have defined them, "to conserve, protect, and enhance for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations the ecological, scenic, wildlife, recreational, cultural, historical, natural, educational, and scientific resources."

Conserve

Ranchers have always made conservation a goal; These lands are their livelihood.

Protect

The public who has supported these lands throughout.

Enhance

Do you mean the lands maintained by us ranchers?  What else shall we enhance for you?

Benefit and Enjoyment

We sure do enjoy our lifestyle!

Present and Future Generations

Have we forgotten all the past generations did for our great lands?

Cultural

Whose culture is this after all?  Please tell me everyone who loves the cowboy past...Have you forgotten the still-living, ever present, always adapting present and future cowboys?

If we do not attend these meetings, lobby, telephone, meet in person and stand up for what we believe on a daily basis...We will lose everything we have worked so hard to conserve, protect, enhance, benefit from and enjoy.  We will lose our culture, a culture present and future generations would prefer to enjoy themselves!

I beg you; If you are involved with ranching, farming, agriculture or plan to be involved in the future.  Attend these meetings.  Be heard.  Have a loud, yet calm, well heard and understood voice.  Research, research, research.  Read anything you can get your hands on.  Pray.  And remember, once our public lands have been taken away from us, something else just as important is next.  Someone will hear your voice!

Thank You!

Spring has sprung!  The sun is here!  Calves are on their way and we're busy as a bee! 

Thank you to everyone who is following or has taken a few seconds to read this blog.  I've been researching a few topics, but have not had the time to sit down and really gather my thoughts. 

So, I will leave you with a picture today.

Thanks Again!

OUR NEW GALS FROM TEXAS!

Southern Utah Ranch Family

Two Little Boys,

A Sister Too,

And Even Another Brother,


Discuss Their Dream,
Passed On From Generation To Generation

Help Me Understand

The Constitution allows the central government to own and control lands within several states only for “erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards and other needful buildings,” and then only when “purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be.”

So, why are those in the cattle industry routinely kicked off of deserted desert landscape, where only livestock and cowboys can exist? I'm talking about the only people who even want to maintain this land? These men and women, pay their usage fees to the federal government, maintain their allotments and can still be kicked off at any time because someone who has never set foot on the land might want to see it one day. Well, we don't mind you visiting these public lands- but we're also the public and we plan to use the public lands too. In case you were wondering, the improvements on public lands are possible only through the pockets of ranchers themselves. Please consider this next time you dip your water bottle into a water trough full of cold refreshment.

And, furthermore, what are these cattle (who have been using this same land for hundreds of years) doing to this land - You ask? Nothing, they are not damaging the land, they are not bulldozing cactus, they are not stepping on turtles, they are only existing as our government intended.

It is funny to me, that a government who once gave western lands to anyone who would homestead...Now wants that land back. In the court of law, can you have back a gift you gave to an ex-girlfriend? NO! Same here guys...You can't just take it back! You wanted the cattlemen and the ranchers on these lands...Here they are! Prepared to stay!

After all, who settled the west and made this land what it is today?

Thanks to Vin Suprynowicz for supporting Americans and their rights. Please google his name if you would like to read a few articles of his.

Preserving Our Heritage

The heritage of the Great American West is slipping out from underneath us. Someone is tugging on the rug and trying to make America's public lands become government lands. I am dedicating a few minutes of my time, each day, to the research of this subject.

I am a mother, rancher's wife, ranch manager, ranch owner, cowgirl in training and taxi cab driver. I am also a veteran, who proudly volunteered to serve for this great country.

I have sometimes been referred to as a 'greenie' by my family. I believe in preserving mother nature, using our lands, but not abusing them. I feel a strong urge to pull two groups of people together; cattle ranchers and endangered species activist. Let us sit down together, as grown adults and devise a pros and cons list using only factual information. Once this list has been compiled, lets agree together on a strategy for saving our lands, animals and cowboys. We should make these decisions together, as citizens of a proud free country. Remember the dreams of our founding fathers and preserve our heritage.

The American Cowboy should be placed on the endangered species list and cattle need to be listed with them. Please share with me any experiences you might have regarding the cattle industry, ranching, farming, raising livestock, the endangered species list, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. I invite your input.