Dear HCN,
Your “Saving the Ranch”
issue Nov. 27 really stunk. I guess I shouldn’t have expected an
Aspen reporter to speak truthfully about Steamboat
Springs.
Your reporter states that “Nine out of
10 people surveyed in 1993 said they believe that ranch meadows and
grasslands with grazing cows and horses enhance their lives.” And
nine out of 10 dentists recommend Trident for their patients who
choose gum. Get real! Ten out of 10 people believe that meadows and
grasslands enhance their lives – without horseshit, cowshit and
crybaby ranchers trying to avoid inheritance
taxes.
Before I agree to compensate ranchers like
you, Mr. Fetcher (for protecting open space), you should compensate
the public by granting public access through your fields aplenty,
so we can paddle the Elk River without barbed wire at nose level,
catch and release river trout (not your highly touted dam(n)
reservoir species), and maybe even mountain bike without getting
run off the road.
What else disgusts me? The
Nature Conservancy starting a “trial-and-error program for managing
cattle in the river’s bottomlands.” Cattle do not belong in river
ecosystems and riparian zones. You can shake a rancher’s hand, but
why are you going to bed with
him?
Wano
Urbonas
Durango,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Get real, ranchers.
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