Feds release cows gathered in Nevada roundup

[Sousuke 1,214]

Except that the protected land specifically prohibits mining as well. Nice try but seemingly totally wrong. I suspect that the problem is not that cows might step on tortoises, but that the grazing of cattle on the landscape has changed it such that the tortoise habitat has been compromised. If you do not protect the habitat they will die out completely. That being the case, grazing cows are a danger to the tortoise and if you want to preserve the tortoise you have to change the land use as is being tried. I suspect that a lot of it is down to the fact that in these situations there is intransigence,which needs to be dealt with sympathetically, but setting off bombs in public buildings because you do not like what's happening is not really going to induce sympathy is not really a good way to go..

Cows trample young tortoises, damage and destroy tortoise burrows and shrubs used for shelter, cause soil compaction, decrease the diversity of vegetation, remove critical forage, and spread non-native grasses that crowd out the native vegetation that tortoises depend on. Cows compete with desert tortoises for the nutritionally superior plants. Cows spread weeds that result in the subsequent diminished food availability for desert tortoises. Weed composition also affects fire intervals and intensity, which affects tortoises through habitat conversion, destruction, and further weed spread, in addition to direct mortality (i.e. burned tortoises). Some of these weed seeds get impaled in tortoise jaws, causing infection and difficulty chewing.

Cows need water if they are going to roam around the desert, but artificial water developments threaten desert tortoise by attracting tortoise predators such as ravens, and by and increasing weedy species and decreasing the foods tortoise prefer. Poorly designed water developments can also trap tortoises and cause them to drown. Same for the grates in roads (“cattleguards”) that prevent livestock from crossing fencelines. Tortoises drop down into those grates and can’t get out.

www.thewildlifenews.com

Edited April 18, 2014 by Brown Dwarf

[Pooky 3,781]

I suspect the tortoises die faster when the BLM cause hundreds of the ones that have previously been rescued to be euthanised.

I guess management takes all forms.

[Robby999 1,024]

The Bureau of Land Management, whose director was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) former senior adviser, has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wants Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations.

Corrupt Democratic Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) working with the Chinese gov’t to take land from hard-working Americans.

Deleted from BLM.gov but reposted for posterity by the Free Republic, the BLM document entitled “Cattle Trespass Impacts” directly states that Bundy’s cattle “impacts” solar development, more specifically the construction of “utility-scale solar power generation facilities” on “public lands.”

“Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle,” the document states.

The first segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.

Another BLM report entitled “Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone” (BLM Technical Note 444) reveals that Bundy’s land in question is within the “Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone and surrounding area” which is part of a broad U.S. Department of Energy program for “Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States” on land “managed” by BLM.

The second segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.

“In 2012, the BLM and the U.S. Department of Energy published the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States,” the report reads. “The Final Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement assessed the impact of utility-scale solar energy development on public lands in the six southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.”

Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone and surrounding area (Click to enlarge.)

“The Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments/Record of Decision (ROD) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States implemented a comprehensive solar energy program for public lands in those states and incorporated land use allocations and programmatic and SEZ-specific design features into land use plans in the six-state study area.”

Back in 2012, the New American reported that Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid, was the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.

And journalist Marcus Stern with Reuters also reported that Sen. Reid was heavily involved in the deal as well.

“[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert,” he wrote. “Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada.”

“His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”

Although these reports are in plain view, the mainstream media has so far ignored this link.

The BLM’s official reason for encircling the Bundy family with sniper teams and helicopters was to protect the endangered desert tortoise, which the agency has previously been killing in mass due to “budget constraints.”

“A tortoise isn’t the reason why BLM is harassing a 67 year-old rancher; they want his land,” journalist Dana Loesch wrote. “The tortoise wasn’t of concern when [u.S. Senator] Harry Reid worked with BLM to literally change the boundaries of the tortoise’s habitat to accommodate the development of his top donor, Harvey Whittemore.”

“Reid is accused of using the new BLM chief as a puppet to control Nevada land (already over 84% of which is owned by the federal government) and pay back special interests,” she added. “BLM has proven that they’ve a situational concern for the desert tortoise as they’ve had no problem waiving their rules concerning wind or solar power development. Clearly these developments have vastly affected a tortoise habitat more than a century-old, quasi-homesteading grazing area.”

“If only Cliven Bundy were a big Reid donor.”

Update: The Drudge Report, the #1 news aggregate site in the world, has now picked up this story. Unfortunately for the BLM, the documents they wanted to delete are now exposed for the world to see.

Update #2: ENN Energy Group describes itself as a “privately-owned clean energy distributor in China.” However, as the People’s Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party, all large companies in China, one way or the other, are either controlled or are heavily influenced by the Chinese government.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/nevada-land-grab-sen-reid-bed-chinese-300914/index5.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

There is a court order for that bum Bundy to remove his cattle from the federal land. That's really all that matters. Bundy is a lawbreaking bum in direct contempt of a lawful court order leeching off of public land. And the right wing nuts love him for being the leeching bum that he is. Unbelievable.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Mr. Big Dog

[Robby999 1,024]

Harry Reid Bolsters Son’s Interests in Chinese Solar Plant DealWritten by Brian Koenig

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Rory Reid, the eldest son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada. ENN Energy Group, a clean-energy firm that manufactures a range of renewable-energy products, is seeking to construct its solar panel facility on a 9,000-acre stretch of land on a Clark County desert plot.

The controversy stems from the fact that Clark County officials voted to sell ENN the public land for $4.5 million, a figure startlingly below the $38.6-million appraisal. Conveniently, Sen. Reid has been one of ENN’s most prominent supporters, having helped mobilize the firm during a 2011 trip to China. Reid’s influence in the Chinese company has been so compelling that, according to Reuters, last month he tried to “pressure Nevada’s largest power company, NV Energy, to sign up as ENN’s first customer.”

Both Rory and his father have since denied having ever discussed the $5-billion deal. A spokeswoman for Sen. Reid, Kristen Orthman, insisted that he’d never deliberated over the project with his son. Rory Reid added, “I have never discussed the project with my father or his staff.”

Despite his assertions, critics say Rory Reid’s political ties in the deal seems rather explicit. In addition to being the son of a prominent U.S. senator, he also formerly chaired the Clark County commission. Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen, said Rory’s father is implicating himself in “an iffy ethical landscape” and should recuse himself from the solar project. "Is this just happening because ... it benefits the Reid family, or did Harry Reid actually believe in this?" Holman queried.

To expedite the project, ENN recruited Nevada’s largest and most renowned law firm, Lionel Sawyer & Collins, where Rory Reid works. Moreover, Richard Bryan, who has an extensive history in the state’s political system — a former Nevada governor, attorney general, and U.S. senator — heads the Chinese energy firm.

As reported, the ENN deal ignited a heated controversy, mainly because separate appraisals valued the plot of land at $29.6 million and $38.6 million, tens of millions of dollars more than the selling price. However, the county commissioners drafted a series of conditions that must be met before the project can launch, including achievements in job creation and investment, and a provision stating that ENN must have a power company committed to purchasing energy from the new plant. The latter requirement has been the primary obstacle — then, Harry Reid stepped in.

The Nevada senator recently initiated an online discussion, purportedly to address his annual energy summit, as an effort to persuade NV Energy, the state’s largest utility company, to ink a deal as ENN’s first customer. In the July 30 forum, Reid asserted that construction on the project “would start tomorrow if NV Energy would purchase the power.” The power company controls “95 percent of all of the electricity that is produced in Nevada and they should go along with this,” he added.

In addition to Reid’s and his son’s questionable affairs with the ENN project, the Nevada senator has had other dubious political dealings within the clean-energy sector. American solar firm Amonix, for example, recently slipped into financial disarray after receiving $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6-million grant in 2007 for research and development.

Amazingly, the company is only 16 months old, without any track record of success, yet it received a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded jackpot. Many critics asked why. In a July article, the Las Vegas Review-Journal offered this answer:

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Gov. Brian Sandoval were among the political leaders who lauded the company when it announced it would start making solar panels in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park. Reid in particular has pushed for solar energy research and development in Nevada, drawing parallels between the value of Nevada sunshine and Saudi Arabian oil.

Of course, Amonix was not the only Nevada-based green energy project to lurch into financial ruin. Nevada Geothermal, a renewable energy company that secured a $98-million federal loan guarantee, acknowledged in an SEC filing this summer that “material uncertainties exist which cast significant doubt upon the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

Similar to his dealings with Amonix, Sen. Reid was largely instrumental in securing government support for Nevada Geothermal. In fact, according to the New York Times, Reid “pressur[ed] the Department of Interior to move more quickly on applications to build clean energy projects on federally owned land and urg[ed] other member of Congress to expand federal tax incentives to help build geothermal plants, benefits that Nevada Geothermal has taken advantage of.”

And now, it seems Sen. Reid’s political status has influenced not only the green-energy agendas in his state but the financial interests of Nevada’s largest law firm — where it just so happens his son is employed.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/energy/item/12730-harry-reid-bolsters-son%E2%80%99s-interests-in-chinese-solar-plant-deal

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

And the US District Court of Nevada is in on the conspiracy, yes?

[Robby999 1,024]

There is a court order for that bum Bundy to remove his cattle from the federal land. That's really all that matters. Bundy is a lawbreaking bum in direct contempt of a lawful court order leeching off of public land. And the right wing nuts love him for being the leeching bum that he is. Unbelievable.

[Robby999 1,024]

And the US District Court of Nevada is in on the conspiracy, yes?

Anything is possible these days, I am still amazed that Holder is still the AG.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Be sure to stock up on that tin foil, buddy!

[Robby999 1,024]

Be sure to stock up on that tin foil, buddy!

I own stock in Alcoa! Got plenty to spare in case you want to bedazzle the saddle for your unicorn!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I own stock in Alcoa! Got plenty to spare in case you want to bedazzle the saddle for your unicorn!

okay, that was funny.

[UncleBeer 244]

Harry Reid DOUBLES DOWN, claims Bundy doesn’t pay taxes and calls supporters “domestic violent terrorist wannabes”

Bundy doesn’t believe that the American government is valid, he believes that the United States is a foreign government.

He doesn’t pay his taxes. He doesn’t follow the law. He doesn’t pay his fees.

And if anyone thinks by any figment of their imagination what happened up there last week was just people rallying to somebody that was oppressed — 600 people came in, armed. They had practiced, they had maneuvered, they knew what they were doing. They set up snipers in strategic locations with sniper rifles. They had assault weapons. They had automatic weapons. And they boasted about the fact that they put women in children — in fact one retired sheriff from Arizona boasted that he put women and children so that they would get hit first.

So, 600 people. If there were ever an example of people who were domestic, violent terrorist wannabes, these are the guys. And I think that we should call it that way.

How does Harry Reid "know" that Bundy hasn't paid any taxes? Yet another leak by IRS of 'confidential' taxpayer info, or Harry's delusional wet dream?

If Harry's got no dog in this fight, then he'd do better to sit back quietly and let the wheels of justice turn. But he doesn't; instead, he makes inflammatory statements clearly meant to inflame the situation.

Say Harry: just how is it that you got rich off of a career in public service?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

If we're talking about generational land use, lets talk about the Native Americans...

It is asinine in our age that an armed group of idiots can thwart reasonable government action. Bundy is not a hero, a victim or innocent in any way. Just think of real injustice of America, like people spending life in jail for marijuana charges. It’s hard to imagine the “militia,” a mostly fat, white and ignorant group, showing up to defend a kid in the inner city who was arrested for no reason. Also think what would happen to you, if you opted not to register your car for 20 years. Bundy exploits the most sickening version of white privilege to justify what amounts to theft.

The basic facts of this story obfuscate the decades of history, animosity and lies between the federal government and the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion that started in the late ’70s. The movement is centered in Elko, Nev., a town next door to Battle Mountain, the much smaller town where I grew up. If you’ve not spent time in the rural desert, you’ll have a hard time understanding the vast spaces in play. Lander County, where Battle Mountain is located, is the geographic size of Vermont but has no more than 5,000 people.

I grew up on 40 acres of brown sagebrush. Particularly when I was a child, cattle roamed carelessly across our property. They even had right of way on my father’s land unless he fenced the entire lot with four-strands of barbed wire, an expensive and ugly option. This is the freedom for which patriots are fighting: for cows to trump personal property rights.

In some ways, Nevada has a legitimate beef with the federal government that owns 87 percent of all of Nevada’s land. That’s land that can’t be developed or sold, which cuts into Nevada’s tax base. However, that land is far from empty. People ride horses and recreational vehicles on it. They hunt it and file mining claims, and, yes, when appropriate a vast amount of it is open to grazing. Without “public” land, there would be no ranching of the kind that allows Mr. Bundy to make a living. There would be less “wide open” for which the West is famous.

We could argue about whether the land should belong to the federal government, but what is not in dispute is that Bundy has no ownership of it. He won’t even pay fees to use it. In short, he refuses to pay rent, like thousands of other ranchers do dutifully every year. Again, I’d like to observe if Bundy is not a communist, he’s at least an aggressive socialist.

Bundy’s foundational argument is that he “has been using the land for generations.” He claims to have “ancestors” who worked the land since the late 1800s. If Bundy wants to make this argument, he’ll need to chat to a Native American or two from one of the many different tribes in Nevada who were here far before Bundy’s ancestors. Also, I thought America was about building wealth through capitalism, rather than depending on your daddy to pass on his membership into the landed aristocracy. Bundy seems to think himself a member of the neo-nobility.

What is missed in this nonsense is that the land should not be managed based on feelings or business needs or family connections. In my Nevada experience, history and family too often trump concerns about what’s best for society and the public good. From where I sit, attitudes are changing for the better.

Bundy, like the sagebrush rebels who came before, has co-opted the language of the oppressed, wrapped in neo-Confederate sensibilities. The crazies have been loosed for good or ill, waving yellow flags and screaming the word “patriot,” none of which has anything to do with subsidizing one man’s business. Even some of my close friends and family are outraged over this latest assault on “freedom.” I’m not far enough removed from this opinion to forget how it feels. You feel powerless and angry. I can hear my former inner voice: We live out here, not them. We should get to decide how to use the desert. It is as understandable as it is ill-informed and misguided.

I have to concede that certain employees of the federal government can be stupid and ham-handed dealing with people like Bundy. In this case, the feds probably should have removed Bundy’s cattle when he stopped paying grazing fees. The agencies involved also fumbled some parts of the latest tactic, playing into fears of government overreach with “Free Speech Zones” for protesters. So often the feds seem to botch the details, but one must give them credit for backing down in the end. No one, perhaps other than the raging right, wanted actual shooting. Perhaps now, quietly, the federal government can work with Bundy to get him to either pay his grazing fees or remove his cattle without creating a spectacle.

Bundy has no right to public land. The federal government and other land managers can and should consider the interests of ranchers, just as they should consider mining, recreation and the needs of wildlife, but Bundy is not the only person who has lived in the desert. His should not be even close to the final vote. He can whittle, spit and reminisce, while the rest of us build a modern, cooperative state worth living in.

http://www.alternet.org/fox-news-hero-cliven-bundy-pampered-millionaire-not-rugged-rancher?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Edited April 19, 2014 by Porterhouse

[UncleBeer 244]

Bundy has no right to public land.

It could easily be argued that he (as a citizen) has far more right to reasonable use of these lands than some far-flung centralized federal bureaucracy. The federal gubmint currently "owns" 84% of the state of Nevada; by what right? This seems to fly in the face of the very concept of 'statehood'.

Edited April 19, 2014 by UncleBeer

[one...two...tree 2,762]

It could easily be argued that he (as a citizen) has far more right to reasonable use of these lands than some far-flung centralized federal bureaucracy. The federal gubmint currently "owns" 84% of the state of Nevada; by what right? This seems to fly in the face of the very concept of 'statehood'.

First of all, if you as a citizen of the United States of America recognize the legitimacy of our nation, you recognize that some land is publicly owned. If you want to question that legitimacy, perhaps you'd like to question the Louisiana Purchase? And if you go down that road, perhaps Mexico can question the legitimacy of our current borders? What about the Native American tribes that still exist in Nevada and lived on that land for centuries before white Europeans came?

Here's a nice interactive map that you can play with to find the appropriate era which supports your argument of legitimacy:

http://www.animatedatlas.com/movie.html

Edited April 19, 2014 by Porterhouse