Main Street, Wyoming; 604; Blm(?)

Main Street Wyoming is made possible by Kennicott energy company proud to be a part of Wyoming's future in the coal and uranium industries which includes exploration mining and production. And the Wyoming Council for the Humanities enriching the lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas. If you look back in the 200 some years of public lands policy you see in essence all the way to the very beginning you see two sides to the question. Public lands should be reserved by the federal government to maximize the profits to the federal government. On the other hand the Federal Public Lands should be handed over to to help create communities and to encourage settlement and to provide some base for for economic development in the country and you see those those two debates going all the way through all the way through to the history of the country and I think you see those even today. Although the majority of Wyoming's land is federally owned and managed that ownership is not

evenly distributed across the map. Big Horn and park counties in the northwestern corner of the state are 80 percent federally owned and Laramie counties in the southeastern corner have less than 2 percent federal ownership. Development. The very early part right after the revolution. The policy was to sell the federal lands as a way to generate revenue to retire the national debt which is an idea that came back of course in the Reagan era. Thomas Jefferson during the same period advocated selling the federal lands or giving them away for farms. Because your persons notion was that we should become an agrarian society. And it really wasn't until after the Civil War that the Homestead Act was passed and the Jefferson goal was was realized

then of course the Civil War came along came around and so when 1862 President Lincoln and the federal government. Past the Homestead Act of 1862 which formalized the transfer of one hundred sixty acres to any individual it didn't have to be a veteran any longer could be any any citizen of the United States or an individual who who was a prospective citizen of the United States could claim that hundred and sixty acres. And that was the very beginnings of it and then then the problem became free serious though when. Some of these individuals started looking at the land conditions west of 100 Meridian. In these arid lands where there wasn't enough water you couldn't live on 160 acres and so Western congressmen in particular tried to get get the the amount of land increased.

Public land policies were clear in the hundreds. Eliminate the national debt by selling public lands and encourage settlement of Western lands through homesteading. But how could the national government speed up the process of settlement and development of the theory there was that. A The federal government has lots of land. The land is worthless. In essence as it is. So consequently can't we hand over some of this to a to a private corporation whereby the private corporation can go out and build a railroad or build a canal or build a road and everybody will be better off. Well what about the checkerboard pattern we see in the southern part how did that come about. Reason for the checkerboard system was that there was a fear on the part of many congressman that these large corporations like railroads and Canal companies would be able to control vast corridors of land and be able to to in essence dictate what went on on either side of their huge land holdings and so

someone came up with the idea that if you do that if you give alternate sections to the railroads the federal government can keep an eye on that private corporation and make sure that private corporation doesn't turn into a monopoly that will strangle strangle the small operators. Rag ins the Union Pacific Railroad and free land brought settlers and ranchers to Wyoming. But it was Roger that dictated where they chose to live when they came in. They'd settle on a They'd pick a side on a river or creek where there was good water. Water was the most important thing. And so they thought if they controlled the water. They controlled the land. And so at that time in think it was as important to try to file all this. Arid land out there. And I think there's a misconception about the range in Wyoming compared to other places a lot of times people come from somewhere that's much. Wetter than here and even different grasses that get so they can hide that. In Wyoming their stories of

early days when. They you hear occasionally that when I came in here there's grass at that the stirrups of the horse's butt. But this year this what year we've had you on the prairie now and. Find that the main stem of some of this grass is this. So I'm sure you could have thought that with your stirrups. Which. Just like it was when they first came in here. It's just a matter of reciprocation if you get enough rain the grass comes up and. Every little brand new again. Wyoming's precipitation and the lack of it is one of the reasons for the state's landownership eastern Wyoming receives almost twice the amount of moisture as the western half and it was here in the eastern counties that early ranchers in dryland farmers chose to settle in on land. But there was another reason the lands in Wyoming's Northwest remained unsettled why people couldn't come into the Big Horn basin to settle until 1078. This was probably the last area open for white settlement maybe in the in the

West and the reason for that is the Treaty of 1868 gave the show. The west coast of the north. And whites were not supposed to come north of the Platte River. And so this completely made it possible to get into the big basin without crossing. And the government over saw that nature the people. By the time of Wyoming statehood in 1890 the pieces for future public land conflicts were already in place. Farmers and ranchers across the eastern portion of Wyoming were dependent on unreliable annual precipitation the checkerboard patterns across southern Wyoming created problems of access and homesteaders and ranchers acquiring land with water were able to control the surrounding arab hills which to this day describes the relationship between private and BLM lands. One of the conditions for Wyoming statehood was that it

disclaim all rights to public lands. This was a practice which dated back to colonial times when seven of the original states relinquished their claims to Western lands. The state however retained Section 16 and 36 of each township for purposes of supporting schools. Run remaining piece of the nation's federal land policy was in place within a year of Wyoming state conservation. Although Yellowstone National Park had been created in 1972 it wasn't until 1891 that international law preserving federal lands from settlement was passed. An abrupt change from previous policy. Related hundreds of course we moved from an agrarian society to an industrial society. And you can see the change in federal policy the emphasis from late 18 hundreds to present in federal land policy is to produce the raw materials necessary for an industrial society food fiber

timber minerals and cetera. Gifford tenser the first head of the Forest Service was the chief architect of the revised national land policy. His philosophy was the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time. And he believed public lands could be used for more than one single purpose. One view of this was was once again your adventure has big name here. So in his mind the National Forests were lands that should be reserved for timber production. The national parks were you know he he was always grumpy about the national parks but you know he saw those as recreational or being set aside because of specific geological or physical formations like Yellowstone. The rest of the land according to Pincio and several of his early conservation. Colleen's. Was essentially converted into private property agriculture. Run of Wyoming's original pioneer families that continues to ranching are the dailies of Gillette.

That is Jim's grandfather that came to this area in 1886. He rode horseback from the right Kansas to Sundance Wyoming. My grandfather came in to. Sundance and he 86 1886 and he came to Gillette. They laid the burning to railroad. Came to Gillette. And he opened a grocery store or general store in a chant. And her store and she left and then he brought some property the same day when they sold lots and he started a general store there and he was primarily a. Stock keeper. But he had ranching interest cattle when he was in Sundance and. And then he transferred him over here and we started a ranch. And a chain and I really want this land was a homestead under various acts

which go back to timber and stone plains homestead Actually I just saw homestead acts. And it was. Homesteaded because it was probably better land than. Some of the basin lands or lands in the southwestern part of Wyoming. This country had very very little natural rot so. The spring loose and natural water was picked up first. It was purchased early by some of the old time ranching families these were 40s 80s and this type of thing. Candy originally they control the land through the use of water but when they began to come in Homestead this land the people drilled wells. Started building reservoirs. And improving Springs. And of course this was the demise of the open range.

By the first part of the 20th century with the increased encroaching on a satellite. The Wyoming stock Association began to advocate the receiving of federal lands. The sheep ranchers opposed it absolutely opposed it. So did homesteaders. And it's very obvious as to why those two groups would oppose it. They saw this as a land grab on the part of cattle raisers and that these large operators would would be able to position themselves in such a way as to get all the benefits of these huge federal land grants or or I mean federal land leases and they would cut out the little guy they'd cut out the the sheep ranch or they would cut out the homesteaders. And so even at that point we have a serious split in Wyoming as to what to do with the public lands. Well as time passed. Into the 1920s we had some serious problems with your out in the state and there was a great deal of debate in the

1980s as to whether or not the state itself should take back the federal lands. Wyoming Congressman Charles winter of Casper tried to return Wyoming's federal lands to the state. But when he ran on that platform for the U.S. Senate he was defeated in 1931 President Hoover appointed a commission to examine the national problem of the public domain. The primary recommendations of the Hoover Committee were to. The first was that the Western states should be given a surface title to the public domain lands to give the lands to the states. The second recommendation is if the states any any lands the states refused should be put under conservation management. Well curiously or maybe not so everyone of the Western States refused the offer. Their logic was that the federal government had been having much success with these lands and they couldn't imagine what they would. So the

states refused the offer and that led to the passage of the Taylor grazing act. As I began my career in Berkeley Idaho there was a gentleman by the name of Bertie Ellison. Bert was a young man at the time of the potato grazing that came into being and he related a story to me that I think is very typical of what was going on all over the West. He said that as a young man he could remember standing at the town side of what used to be Juniper Idaho in the south central part of the state. And he remembers looking out over Black Pine Valley and seeing nine sheep operations nine different sheep outfits that were basically chasing the same blade of grass. And in his opinion and in talking to Bert he says that was one of the biggest changes that he saw with the Taylor Grays was that it was able to bring control to what had once been a lot of these nomadic operations. They really didn't have any home base they just basically traveled all over the western United States going after the grass the first thing in the

spring. And the idea was you get there before your neighbor dies because if you don't get it he will purpose of the trailer grazing. Was twofold one was to stop injury to the land that is over grazing soil deterioration what have you which is the scientific side of the conservation and the other major purpose was to stabilize the Western livestock industry then a system of least grazing on the public domain different from the Forest Service rules. The new Taylor grazing Act included local advisory groups whose participation was a key component. Many of the ranchers recognised a change was needed. Years ago when ways but not pay in the summertime. My dad used to bring all the cowboys off the mountain to his family homestead in the Big Horn basin in 1883. In those days from the use horses for everything. With no tractor that there was a cowboy if they used to grumble and groan about. Half an hour work from the

hot hay field. I want to live as a young feller like me at that time. That they spent their time out on the range. They spent the year round out of the range so. It made me wonder well how come. Years ago. There was plenty of feed out on the range and now. We have to put up with our feed for the cattle. So that got me to thinking. That the Rangers are over graves. And surely there must be some way. To reclaim those Rangers and bring back during the early years of potato grazing the lands were administered by the grazing service. By 1945 tempers again flared Western ranchers got a little bit upset with praise and service once again over the perennial issue of grazing. And there were some serious challenges raised as to whether the grazing service actually. Had the constitutional authority to assess it. The ringleader at this time was a guy named Pat McCarron who was a Democratic senator

out of Nevada. I want my career and it is organized a series of hearings across the west. So I would call the go over to government documents library the hearings are 6000 plus pages and links. And the hearings serve primarily as a forum for Western primarily ranchers but other commodity interests to voice their dissatisfaction with federal management by the time Congress was finished. The grazing services budget had been cut in half to rectify the situation. It's helped pay grazing service employees salaries in 1046 the General Land Office which handled minerals on the federal lands and the grazing service were combined into a new government agency the Bureau of Land Management. There's no question but the land itself lends itself to used by domestic livestock. For example in the wrong as district you can you can look around and see more flat ground. Then I saw in all of southeastern

Idaho. And the same with southeastern Arizona and I think that's one of the things that is a very important point is the land itself just lends itself to used by domestic livestock. But how could ranchers manage and improve the range lands. I went to the BLM and talked to the BLM and got their cooperation we had cooperation from the Forest Service. So back in the 50s and 60s there was no problem with government people and the ranchers doing that sort of thing. In 1952 Wesley Hyatt began by spraying sage brush. Then he developed water with pipelines and reservoirs. His next step was rest in rotation of grazing pastors. That come from us all and I guess for me I. Guess from a. Rotation just yesterday. And I suppose reasoning went that way when they had a school or. Were in BLM. And I went to that. Hearing. And the thing that really amazed me way

after it was over there after I guess for me had given a good presentation. Was Over where. People were just going outside. I heard some guy talk about it and they said I wonder who that old son of a bitch thinks he's trying to kid. And that that was I said and there I was just spellbound I lessen the guest list every word he said and believed it. Here these guys heard the same thing and they decided you know the big story this is an area where Benedict was praying before returning to this area just on of the read him over here as a Raffi gets to ban him we did open the gates and let the cameras go out there and back at that time the council the one day in that area and then they'd want to go on out with better feed because it was that whole area was and who did say it but it'd been used for years and years season long grazing by

different people and it was just nothing left. So we sprayed that area and I can't really recall the year but then that the gas started coming back and pictures you know see today the results of what has happened in one day feed out there with a 250 pair going get a weeks fade out. Two hundred fifty pair until I feed left. By the 1960s national policy once again shifted this time to address the multiple resources on the public lands. It seems to me that the whole concept of multiple use in the 60s. First reflects the broader things that are going on in society and also laid the foundation for some of the problems we're looking at right now. You know as you well know the 60s were a period of growing dissatisfaction with the whole character versus a lot of groups in our

society primarily African-American. But racial and ethnic groups were raising criticisms about lack of opportunity lack of participation to critical acts were passed the 1964 classification and multiple USAT. And in 1976 the Federal Land Policy and Management Act occurred to Carter's career with the BLM began in 1073 and he witnessed the changes. As I came into the bureau we were just starting into the BLM prepared one grazing environmental impact statement for the whole country. And that was not suitable if you might remember national resources Natural Resource Defense Council suit. And the bureau was directed to prepare initially two hundred twelve environmental impact statements about grazing. We negotiated that back to something over one hundred forty four I believe. And those were prepared then beginning in the mid 1970s and running through in

the late 1980s. And that basically was the bureau's attempt to take a very rigorous look. At the place of livestock grazing on the public lands and had a tremendous impact on what we were able to accomplish on the ground. Devoted a lot of resources into planning and we really didn't see the improvements on the ground that we had that we had previously and that's what Congress failed to give the agencies in some way to meaningfully resolve these conflicts. And so over time what's what's happened is we've just gotten to a point where all of these various uses or the advocates feel that they have a legitimate claim and refuse to back down and so we end up with gridlock. By the late 1970s ranters dissatisfaction with federal policy had grown into the sagebrush rebellion. Jim Daly was president of the Wyoming stock brokers at that time.

I think the arguments are the same today as they were. Ranchers and livestock interests. Wanted to be able to run their properties as they thought best. And the. People in Washington think they know better. That's simple I don't think there's much waste is changed. Kurt Conner came to Wyoming from Washington D.C. But over the years he served in five western states with the BLM. I think one of the things that I have found unique to Wyoming or at least in my experience has been number one I've been very impressed with the range conditions overall in Wyoming at least what I've seen in the Romney's district. The range conditions ecological condition of the land is good. We certainly have some problems with there might be isolated problems with red Parian areas but overall I've been impressed with. The good condition of the range. Another thing that I've seen in Wyoming is that

ranching here is very stable. I don't see the movement of permits that I've seen in southern Idaho southeastern Arizona. It seems to me that the industry is is more stable. We still have very strong ties to some of the original families that came and settled in this area. And it appears to me that those are two of the differences that I've seen about Wyoming. But believe it or not. Down in what we call the big field at Cain meadow we have a hundred fifty down or did it come in there. The latter part of. September meddler September. And spend. The hunt season there because they're protected from the outside I. Haven't personally myself and other people do that. I'm worth. Probably think the best thing do in our case is not change things too much. The. BLM at this point possibly.

In the future. Best thing is just. Not too much control because this lands is taken care of and I think it should. I think it's better to leave it in government control. If they don't change their postseason too much. That is to get into private hands and developers. Travelling around. Limited as it is convinces me that there are a lot of ranchers. Who are absolutely serious in believing that range land reform other kinds of initiatives by the federal government. Are specifically driven driving them off the land driving them out of their way of life and they raise what I think is a very legitimate question. Why should they have to sacrifice their way of life so that environmentalists or other folks are able to pursue their way of life. Main Street Wyoming is made possible by Kennicott energy company proud to be

a part of Wyoming's future in the coal and uranium industries which includes exploration mining and production. And the Wyoming Council for the Humanities enriching the lives of Wyoming people through their study of Wyoming history values and ideas.