Hammond Nuance

I was just chatting with the Executive Dir. of the Idaho Cattle Association, Wyatt Prescott, about the story of the Hammonds who you may recall landed a five year prison sentence, heavy fines and a loss of a significant amount of their grazing allotment due to the fact that they unintentionally set fire to 140 acres of BLM land. As we all understand the story, the BLM land that burned was a direct result of the Hammonds setting backfires on their own property. The assumption is that they were setting backfires as a means of protecting their property. "Wow. Unbelievable. I have heard of the case and kept it at a distance. There are a couple of nuances in their, one of which, a producer does have the right to defend his property that way. In an instance like this, where there was that minimal amount of damage to the federal landscape, that is absolutely incredibly awful, that sentencing and my heart goes out to those ranchers."

Well you just heard it, Wyatt using the term nuance. Here's a nuance for you. According to Capital Press, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management computer was apparently used to impersonate a former agency employee identified as Greg Allum posted three comments on-line, calling the ranchers "clowns" who endangered firefighters and other people in the area while burning valuable rangeland. Mr. Allum denies ever having made such comments.