Bambi, I don't waste any energy hating the welfare ranchers, but I have no respect for most of them and I sure enjoy helping reveal how hypocritical, sleazy, arrogant, uninformed, actually stupid, and destructive many of them are. We've gone over it about a thousand times here in SI, but here's a few comments on your opening post:
"Why is the hatred not directed at the Forest service and BLM."
Some animosity is directed at them when they don't enforce the law, or actually break it themselves (usually because they're in cahoots with the resource extraction industry and welfare ranchers), but most of the time it's the welfare ranchers who are breaking the law. Do you blame the police when somebody robs a bank?
The examples of the welfare ranchers taking advantage of their grazing leases, or breaking the law, are so numerous that individuals and organizations can pick only the sure winners to sue them on. That's why they rarely lose a case.
Overall, though, those welfare hypocrits claim to be independant Marlboro Men types who love the land they make a living from, they despise the regulatory agencies, they whine incessantly about not being allowed to do what they want, all the while living off the taxpayers.
Just the fact that over 60% of all BLM is in poor condition due to overgrazing, and 85% of the riparian zones (the most critical wildlife habitat) are in poor condition due to overgrazing should be enough for any rational person to realize there is an overwhelming lack of respect for our land.
Here's what it all comes down to for me, though. I love to hunt and fish. The welfare ranchers destroy fish and wildlife habitat and have had a very severe negative effect on my hunting, fishing, and recreational enjoyment. Not just mine, but everybody's.
You and I are the owners of the Federal land. Think of yourself as the landlord. You give a wonderful deal to your renters, so good that they would never be able to make a living without it. They take advantage of you every way they can and actually cause huge damage to your property while they're doing it. So much damage that the wildlife you enjoy seeing can't live there. They deface and vandalize your property.
I have almost a religous attitude about hunting, fishing and our public land. I want it respected and revered. I don't mind at all when people use it, as long as they respect it and do no harm to it, and when they respect the other users. It can be used, even by the resource extraction industry and ranchers, in ways that are not harmful and destructive---even in ways that are beneficial to us all. Defacing and vandalizing it by overgrazing and extracting resources in destructive ways is just as offensive to me as someone vandalizing and defacing the Washington Monument or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's especially offensive when they're receiving subsidies (welfare) while doing it.
Start thinking of public land as YOUR LAND and see how you feel about it.
I also am appalled that anyone who loves to hunt and fish on public land would defend those vandals, and say they just need more time to change their ways.
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 07-04-2003 13:05: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>