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[–] 4073990? 0 points 13 points (+13|-0) ago 

I can think of no better use for "public" land than to grow food for the nations people....

A Rancher pays to use blm land, those fees get passed down to the end user no big deal. This isn't about fees or free shit.

This is about government overstep. Many if not all of these ranches were purchased decades before the blm even existed. They have grazing rights written into their deeds. Just because the government owns the land doesn't mean they own the grazing rights. Just like just because you own land doesn't mean you own the mineral rights to it.

Now add on top the government doing things like overriding state charges like what they did with the Hammond's and all the other things they have done to force all those around the Hammond's to sell. You can start to see why they are willing to die for it. This isn't about profit margins this is about a corrupt federal government putting it's fingers where they don't belong.

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[–] Empire_of_the_mind ago 

"grazing" is often quite destructive and it's not as though it's the natural state of the land for a private person making tons of money raising expensive livestock to have free reign over wild land. I contend that it's absolutely within the rights of the federal government to do so and if people want to take their case to the courts they can do so.

They did, and they fucking lost, because only other ranchers agree that this is the only appropriate use of the land. this is pure greed for a few well-off families to get rich and fuck everyone else. Everyone else, in the form of the federal government, just told THEM to fuck off. And they threw a fit like a bunch of emotionally retarded toddlers and now they get to go to jail.

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[–] 4086379? ago 

"grazing" is often quite destructive and it's not as though it's the natural state of the land

Cattle have been on that land for at least a century so it is the natural state of the land now.. and before cattle there were millions of buffalo before they were hunted to near extinction. Probably not a whole hell of a lot of difference between what a buffalo grazes on or a cow.

private person making tons of money

Google says the average rancher makes 70k a year I'm sure the Hammond's are on the higher end of that seeing how they have been there so long its hard not to make a lot of money on 15,000 acres of land that has been in your family for 150+ years. Now you take that 70k average and split that between a man and his wife and kids working 8-12 hour days it doesn't seem like a ton of money. To these people it's more about the lifestyle people don't retire from farming to work in a bank it's the other way around.

I contend that it's absolutely within the rights of the federal government to do so and if people want to take their case to the courts they can do so.

To my knowledge the only issue that has been brought to court is the "terrorist arson" charge which the Hammond's served 1 year for the son and 6 months for the old man. They served their time and were released then the feds seen a way they could make it harder on these people and make it more likely that they will give up their land if they toss them back in jail for 5 years. And that's where the problem started with the militia. As for their grazing rights that was never in question they always had the right and they have been taking advantage of it much to the dismay of the BLM who can't do shit about it because they are following the rules 100%.

So in conclusion the Hammond's and most ranchers are 100% by the book but, when they make 1 little mistake like a fire break gone bad that burned 100 yards of federal land that was no danger to people or property. They go after them with the maximum force of the us government in an effort to force them to sell their land to the super china corp mega farm.

Just look at what has been happening to the small farms all across the US for the last 30 years or so they have been consolidating them into big corporations. You may like the little guy being squeezed out for "Walmart" but, I do not.