Environmentalism & ranching - maybe no compromises, just solutions.

American Cowboy - November/December 1999 Frontiers
Written by JFM

Excerpt:
"It takes something a little bit uncompromising in a person to make it as a rancher, cowboy, or a farmer, or in any occupation that puts a person in close contact with the land and with hard physical work. It takes some gumption, and it takes, or makes, a person who is ready to stick up for himself when his ways or his livelihood are challenged, whether that challenge comes from nature or from other human beings.

"Maybe that's why this business of answering the onslaught of the 'green lobby' has been so frustrating for the rural element. If being uncompromising has been cowfolks' strength, it has been their Achilles' heel, too. Putting up a tough, resistant front only goes so far in defending one's livelihood and lifestyle when the opposition has more people, money, and votes. There comes a point where taking the hard line-or trying to ignore or wait out the conflict-means setting oneself up for a bigger loss.

"Of course, some might say here that to portray the differences between these two factions as oppositional is to suggest that ranchers are anti-environment, or that they are simply reactionaries. Neither is true. What is true, however, is that the ranching industry on the whole has seen its operations and its ways come under attack by those who claim to be spokespeople for the environment. Whether or not the attackers are in the right is not the question here. Survival is...."

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