The thing is, at least as I see it, we all have a dog in this fight. The Constitution does not allow the federal government to own lands other than for military bases. I could be wrong there but I'm pretty sure that's what it says. And also, parcels not larger than 10 acres. The fact that they starved the other ranchers out by flooding their lands and then purchased their land is criminal, as far as I'm concerned. AND, as soon as the NWR was determined to be a failure, it should have been reversed. But you are right, the government will fight tooth and nail, blade and bullet to keep any program/project that allows them to spend money and justify raising taxes. People talk about how big and powerful the gun lobby is, or the Utility lobby, but those pale in comparison to the green, environmental lobby. Especially with 75% of the people in the this country living in a city and believing everything they see on social and mainstream media.
Americans these days seem to be okay with laws and regulations telling others how they have to live as long as it doesn't effect them. They (.gov) are systematically taking us apart.
I grew up in a small town surrounded by BLM, Air Force, Reservation, wildlife refuge, and a national monument. The monument was closed to the public because the drug runners are using it and it easier to keep us out than them, the wildlife moonbats decided the rancher's cattle was interfering with the prong horn antelope south of town (outside the refuge) so the BLM revoked the grazing permits. Only thing is, the pronghorn were enjoying the same water the cattle were so they died off in that area after the cattlemen left. It's illegal for the border patrol, or anyone else, to pursue drug runners into the refuge so it's now a pipeline for drugs and polluted heavily. And, once the areas were closed to OHV, by the BLM, the fawns they thought they were protecting were killed by predators that used to be scared off by jeeps, quads, etc.
It's tyranny. It's stupid and we are paying for it. In five years they will start the second round of trail closures, fueled by the fact the first round was not enforced well enough and the damage to natural resources has continued, and then the OHV crowd will be looking for help from the ranchers and they won't be there. The mountain bike guys might pitch in since they are now being categorized as 'mechanical' recreation and subject to a lot of the restriction us 'motorized' folks are. But I wouldn't count on many of them realizing they need us to keep their trails open.
The Ranchers in the west valley were a huge help in preventing the 1.5 million acres of new wilderness. There's no better stewards for the lands, the Ranchers understand it better than any college graduate biologist.
