County Cattlemen's Association Promotes Multi-use of Public Lands
Northeast Washington’s Stevens County Cattlemen Association have shared their message of multiple use of public lands in a very big way — by purchasing an ad on a billboard sign. Stevens County Cattlemen Association President Justin Hedrick shares moreHedrick: “The idea actually came from one of our board members. He had seen a similar billboard in the southwest side of the state and we decided to do something on that it — along those same lines. We had an upcoming Forest Plan Revision. We decided we wanted to get input in on that and trying to figure out the best way to do that along with submitting comments. There is a push for wilderness and wilderness areas. We’d like to see current wilderness go back to being used again but we are definitely against any new proposed wilderness areas. We are totally for grazing cattle, of course, and getting logging done and keeping the fuel load off of our public lands mostly to benefit our local economy and also minimize the damages that fires can cause.”
Hedrick says the feedback in the local community has been very positive and the Stevens County Cattlemen have also had shirts with the same message made. If you are interested in purchasing a shirt or seeing the billboard you can find both on the Stevens County Cattlemen’s Facebook page.