Carol Norton
Wildearth Guardians
Via email
June 12, 2009
Ms. Norton;
In your last email you said you wanted to know about me in
order “to build a relationship”. I write this lengthy letter
knowing that our relationship will end with your reading.
I have read all the information you have on
the Internet and in the past I’ve been versed in the oracles
of the Forest Guardians. I’ve spent a week in research of
your documents and in return, I ask that you read this
letter to the end.
I am a married woman of 49 years. My parents
and my grandparents were politically active in the
protection of property rights. Like you, I learned my values
at their knees. But in addition to this, I learned by
working side by side during hot days, cold nights, times
when it rained, times when the drought was all we could
think about. I am a 4th generation rancher on both sides.
Most of my family on either side is involved in the ranching
industry.
I live on a ranch that my husband and I
bought from my parents who bought it in 1969. We have a
small piece of land next to the Forest, which has been in my
family since 1904. That was before it was set aside as
Forest Land and withdrawn from public domain.
I do not live in the Gila, therefore I
believe without fear of recourse I can speak. I know these
people or some of them. They are family people who make
their living from the very land you want to withdraw and
make a wilderness. They are people whose possessions have
been damaged by the wolf program. By damaged I mean that
their horses and cattle, and pets like dogs have been killed
in their yards and corrals. There has been so little
compensation that I feel qualified to state “next to none”.
Our animals are working animals but they are
no less members of our family.
There is little that a rancher values more
than their horses. We feed our animals before we go to the
house and feed ourselves. We are not allowed the luxury of
days off, holidays, three-day weekends or clocking out at
five. Every rancher has helped a cow have her baby in the
headlights without complaint. Ranchers have baby antelopes,
jackrabbits or deer for pets if they find them orphaned. Our
working dogs are our buddies. They not only get ornery cows
out of the brush but they ride in the pickup with us and
provide us with the same companionship that your dogs do.
They may even sleep in the house on winter nights. To see
them killed in front of us is no less heart wrenching than
it would be if yours got run over by a car.
I assume that Santa Fe has a gang problem.
Gang members break into houses, hold people at gunpoint, and
steal valuable property. I am sure you, yourself would
expect to be safe in your own home or yard. We also have the
same desire.
Instead you advocate turning loose what
amounts to gang members (wolves) into our yards and
property. They steal our property by killing it. By “it” I
mean animals that we hold dear. We are held at gunpoint by
your organization. Not by guns but by the legislation you
are trying to put forward when we have rights given to us by
the Acts of Congress. We make a living – often our only
living off these animals you discard easily on paper.
I realize you envision and enjoy a trip out
to the mountains. Let me tell you what those mountains mean
to us. It’s history. You said you’ve lived in New Mexico
since 1992. You said you love this state. But our history
goes back to the memories of the lives of our parents, our
grandparents who walked the land, worked the land and whose
history we wish to hand intact to our children and
grandchildren.
You may enjoy the land but we’ve got dirt in
our blood and under our fingernails. When we stand on our
property, we feel the memories of those we loved who walk
the same trails we are teaching our kids and grandkids to
walk and hopefully with the same values. We have stories
tied into each corner of the ranch. “This is where your
grandfather got bucked off”….things like that. Our museum,
our picture album – our family reunions are tied right into
the land itself. When you talk about retiring a grazing
permit, please understand you are not talking about buying a
piece of property, you are asking us to hand over the
memories and values of 100 plus years. You are asking
us/forcing us to hand over tears, sweat, smiles and the
value of walking to the house hand in hand with your family
knowing that a good days work was done to the best of our
ability.
I can argue with you the Organic Act. I can
argue with you various Acts of Congress. But I want to paint
a picture of the life we live and hold dearer than you do
your ideals. Today my husband worked on a pipeline. Tadpoles
are certainly not an endangered species but he put aside a
little mud hole of water and scooped the tadpoles into the
water so they have a place to live until they are frogs. We
do run pipelines and have water tanks for our cattle but we
also make sure the wildlife has a place to water. Because we
get as much enjoyment from wildlife as you do – only on a
day-to-day basis. Wildlife is something you see once in
awhile. It’s something we enjoy every day.
We live next to an area where the citizens
have lost homes to the wildfires. The Forest Service was not
allowed to cut the timber due to the lawsuits of your
predecessors. Now that entire communities have lost homes
and property, there is a push to cut some of the
undergrowth. Scientific studies have now proved that the
Spotted Owl is thriving in clear forests better than they
did when the Forest was overgrown. But the ranchers of the
area knew the dangers of wildfires in overgrown areas before
you admitted the error of your ways and the Forest Service
followed suit. Literally.
Cows do not eat trees. Therefore your
arguments that grazing harms the Mexican Spotted Owl are
ludicrous.
Also you take exception to ranchers wanting
to kill the wolves that kill the cattle but understand
fully: If our dogs run down and kill our cattle, we will
shoot them.
Our public highways are strewn with litter but if you turn
down a ranch road, you will find it virtually litter free.
That is the pride of ownership. I promise you – I’ve picked
up trash and chased down hunters and made them take their
trash with them with no mind if it was BLM land or private
land. It’s still mine and I take pride.
There are many studies that support the fact
that cows perpetuate the very act of nature by virtue of the
fact they eat grass. They poop out the seeds covered in
manure. This drops into their footsteps that are covered by
dirt by the next cow. The grass seed sits there in a perfect
ecosystem of fertilizer – covered by dirt – until it rains
and then the grass grows. Often you can turn over a “cow
pie” and see roots growing. This is nature and this is how
God perpetuates the natural cycle of the earth.
Let me tell you a story. For NINE years it
did not rain on this ranch. We rotated the pastures to
protect the land, I burned cactus to feed the cattle, we
bought feed and then out of desperation we leased another
ranch and moved our cattle off the ranch. This was to
PROTECT our land. I sat on the side of a water tank and
cried because I could pull up clumps of grass and could find
no living roots. It was my belief that even if it did rain,
it would take Years for the land to come back and we could
bring our cattle home.
The NINETH year it rained. In ONE month the
grass was back in full glory. Literally the grass in our
draws grew so high you could barely see our horses. In less
than two months our ranch not only recovered but also went
above and beyond. My point ma’am is God knows more about how
to grow grass than you or any scientific studies or I ever
will.
Without cattle the grass seeds are left to
fall to the ground and blow the way the wind blows. There
are parts of my world that have lost the grass, not due to
over grazing but from the fact the winds have accelerated in
recent years. This can in no way be blamed on grazing.
The land withdrawn from public domain, which
later became the Bureau of Land Management was withdrawn for
grazing. Because it was impossible to make a living on 160
acres as it was in the eastern states. This land was deemed
unsuitable for anything BUT grazing. People back east
however enjoyed a good steak and leather shoes. They still
do.
The Forest Reserves were withdrawn to
preserve water, mining, timber and grazing. There was great
wisdom at the time in the realization that this country
needed the minerals, the timber, the water and….good steaks
and leather shoes.
Much of your articles refer back to Teddy
Roosevelt and his vision. Let me quote you from his speech
concerning the Preservation of the Forests. This is taken
from the book of Great American Speeches pages 127-131. I
will quote verbatim but will skip from passage to passage,
“the line of preserving your great natural advantages alike
from the stand point of use and from the standpoint of
beauty. …There is nothing more practical in the end than the
preservation of beauty, than the preservation of anything
that appeals to the higher emotions of beauty…but
furthermore I appeal to you from the standpoint of use. I
few big trees should be preserved for their own sake, but
the forests as a whole should be used for business purposes,
only they should be used in a way that will preserve them as
permanent sources of nation wealth. We should handle….all
problems such of those of forestry and of preservation and
use of our waters from the standpoint of the permanent
interest of the homemaker in any region to the man who comes
in not to take what he can out of the soil and leave but who
comes to dwell therein, to bring up his children, and to
leave them a heritage in the country not merely unimpaired
but if possible even improved. It should be shaped in the
interest of the home maker, the actual resident, the man who
is not only to be benefited himself but whose children and
children’s children are to be benefited by what he has done.
Now keep in mind that the whole object of forest protection
is the making and maintaining of prosperous homes. I am not
advocating forest protection from the aesthetic standpoint
only. But I advocate the preservation and wise use of the
forests because I feel it essential to the interests of the
actual settlers. I am asking that the forests to be used
wisely for the sake of the successors of the pioneers for
the sake of the settlers who dwell on the land. I ask it for
the sake of the man who makes his farm in the woods or lower
down along the sides of the streams, which have their rise
in the mountains. The best of the public lands are already
in private hands and yet the rate of their disposal is
steadily increasing. I say this to you because we have a
right to expect that the best trained, the best educated men
will take the lead in the preservation and right use of the
forests, in securing the right use of the waters and in
seeing to it that our land policy is not twisted from it’s
original purpose, but is perpetuated by amendment by change
the purpose being to turn the public domain into farms each
to be the property of the man who actually tills it and
makes his home on it”. I end my quotes here.
It is well documented that an overgrown
Forest hinders and stops the natural flow of water to basins
and streams and even the ground waters. Our overgrown
forests due to lawsuits from environmentalist groups have
caused in part our current and ongoing water shortage
problems.
The Wolf Program even by your publications is
a dismal failure. Ranchers on the lands pay permit fees and
taxes on the improvements and livestock. To take those
monies out of the coffers will affect both the local
governments and the state public school system. Your agenda
will cause more government jobs. We need more income
generated from the private sector than we need more
government jobs during a time of troubling economic
downturns. Government jobs pay government employees money
generated from the private sector.
The stories of parents building “cages” to
keep their children at bus stops and schoolyards in Catron
County because of Wolves running wild are not part of a
media craze. They are true stories. There is something
inherently obscene when we close down a county side where
children should roam free and fearless to allow any animal
to roam.
For you to dictate, cause lawsuits and
attempt to change the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness
of country folk more than 300 miles from where you reside is
no more ludicrous than for me to be on your Planning and
Zoning Board and without any knowledge what so ever of your
lifestyle to dictate how your homeowners association manages
itself.
Let me tell you how our children live the
life of liberty and pursuit of happiness. They go afoot or
by horseback with dogs in tow to explore the countryside.
They view first hand the wonders of nature on lands their
family homesteaded. They are unhampered by social graces and
basically run wild for short periods of time.
My children on OUR land watched an owl build
a nest; they watched the little owlets grow. When they left
the nest my children cheered and watched them fly off. This
was not some organized play date with nature this is what my
children learned sitting on their own land. We have a den of
foxes close to our house. My children watched the movements
of the foxes just the same way I did at my grandmothers’
house. FOR US this is not some abstract view of nature
somehow preserved by the government or a quasi-governmental
agency…this was HOME and what happened in nature AT HOME.
Because of this they learned the AWE of nature and respect
of the same.
Let me tell you of these people you wish to
do away with, either by lawsuits or buyouts of the permits.
Many have degrees from Universities by which they studied
how to maintain and protect the land. Most of us due to the
pending lawsuits threatening our way of life and income have
the equivalent of law degrees from poring over law cases
after the animals are cared for and the children are put to
bed. ALL of us love our land and our ranches. We are not
fancy folk. We dress in denim. We walk tall from the life
that lends itself to honesty and integrity. When our
neighbor welcomes a new baby, we do also. When our neighbor
faces tragedy, we sit with them, we pray for them and we
cry.
This includes and precludes the reason I take
pen in hand to speak for my neighbors 300 miles away. These
are my people and they are part of my history. When their
horses or cattle get killed by wolves that you in Santa Fe
think a dandy idea to turn loose on us…we all hurt.
You have to understand….I know these people,
my parents knew their parents and my grandparents knew
theirs. Because you moved here in 1992, you have no idea how
intertwined our lives are. I assume you live in a small area
by which you know your neighbors. I assume you have a social
circle you are comfortable with. You need to understand my
neighbors and my social circle spans three generations and
the entire ranching community.
When my son ran away several years ago…the
ranching community prayed for my family and hurt for us.
When our bunkhouse burned down last year, my neighbors came
and helped fight the fire to keep it away from the animals.
So when my neighbors’ kids are put in cages to protect them
from wolves? I am outraged. When my neighbors’ animals are
killed by wolves? I am outraged. When my neighbors literally
go broke and lose their homes, their ranches, their history,
their inheritance both to themselves and what they should
and could pass to their children….forgive me but I am more
than outraged.
The Public can learn more about history and
preservation of the lands from those who live and manage
those lands (the ranchers) than they can by…..whatever your
idea is.
When you visit the Gila what do you see? A
beautiful countryside to be sure. IF you grew up there? What
could you say? Ah you could tell history….and you could
share the love of the land. Not from the view point of
someone who visits once in awhile but from the standpoint of
someone who views that countryside at dawn and at sunset 365
days a year in all kinds of weather. Someone who LOVES the
land…not someone who likes the agenda. Not someone who has a
to quote your brochure…a 100 year plan but from someone who
has lived on the land or had parents who did…for 100 years.
You envision this….as something for future generations. We
do too. Our vision for the future generations are in the
lives of our kids and our grandkids. We – the ranchers are
not going to hurt the legacy we hand to our kids. Because
our integrity and all that we are made of is tied up in the
land we work and the dirt in our blood.
Like I said the relationship you wanted to
build with me will end with this letter. But I have a legacy
of friendship with my rancher neighbors that spans
generations and miles and when you hurt one of us, you hurt
all of us. You and yours are hurting us and mine. You are
trying to undermine and take away our livelihood, our
industry and our way of life. IF you can do this without any
twinges of conscience then so be it but understand fully….we
the ranching community have faced adversity’s of all kinds.
We face the force of nature and stand in awe, we face
adversity in these economic times, and we face adversity in
the very government we uphold with greatest respect.
We are a redneck and hardheaded breed of
people. When you go out to VISIT that land you profess to
love…know that it is there for you to enjoy because of the
redneck bunch of ranchers that came before you. When you
talk environmentalism…know that the redneck bunch of people
who came before you…are still trying to find ways to counter
act the noxious weeds and the various threats to that
beautiful environment and make it better. With all due
respect, that may include the group you work for. Please
remember that the land that you VISIT is our HOME. You are
but a guest in our home. Govern yourself accordingly. As
hard as you fight for your agenda….we are fighting for our
lives and the lives of our children. Govern yourself
accordingly. We don’t have unlimited funds from the
government or from those who have never sweated to earn the
money in their pockets. The money we fight you with is the
money our children will never inherit….but we will do this
if we can hand them the land and the history and the love we
have. We are spending our children’s inheritance to make
sure you don’t steal the same.
Welda McKinley Grider
PO Box 990
Carrizozo, NM 88301
(Permission to post from the author.)
