BLM and Common Sense

Kim Brackett and her husband represent generations of cattle ranching and Kim has an excellent perspective on beef and BLM. “We had a little bit of a fire out on the BLM and it was really quite interesting. We have been in an ongoing process for the last 15 years negotiating with the BLM because we have good management and more feed than we have ever had so we have been trying to get a preference increase so that we can use up the feed that is out there. This spring we took the BLM people out and said you know you have to let us use a little more of this or it is going to burn. They said, we can’t do that and a week later it burned. Not to be critical of them because they are good managers but their hands are tied through a lot of the environmental processes that they allowed back in 1996 through rangeland reform but we kind of do the best we can and the future of public lands ranching is going to be there. They are coming to the point of understanding that we either have to use this fuel load to feed or it will burn. God made it for a reason. You are preaching to the choir my dear. No kidding. Listen, I have been fighting this fight and those nuts up in Sun Valley for years. I went to a cattle auction in Jerome the other day and there was a big billboard right by the interstate from the Forest Service and it said “Thin the threat”. In other words you should get rid of the trees, clean out the debris so it doesn’t burn.