RANGE Magazine-Spring 2012

SP12 lo 1.23_RANGE template.q 1/23/12 10:31 AM Page 10

CRYING WOLF I heard this photograph was taken north of Kamia, Idaho, in 2011 but do not know who took it. Very seldom do you see this many wolves in one location. WALT OSTRANDER, NORTH FORK, IDAHO

The winter issue included “Opinions on Wolves” and Rene Anderson’s close encounter with a wolf while elk hunting in If anyone wonders where the moose, deer and elk Idaho. One opinion held forth that wolves herds of north Idaho have gone, this photo taken are shy, elusive animals that pose no threat last fall near Weippe offers a clue. Opinion from to humans. The facts say different. In addi- America’s Outback tion to the three humans killed by wolves in Alaska, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia between 2007 and 2010, a three-year-old girl was killed by a wolf in Minnesota in 1989 and a two-year- FARMLAND DISAPPEARING old boy was killed by a wolf in Michigan in 1981. A wolf control officer in New Mexico has Our government is unraveling. Too many of gone so far to say that his worst fear is that wolves will attack and kill children. us have government jobs. Just down the road Even if one disregards the attacks on humans by wolves, the economic cost of overpopulat- to the north is Salt Lake City, which used to ed wolves is enormous. For example, since 1985 the state of Wisconsin has paid out in excess of be 50 percent rural and 50 percent urban. It $1 million in taxpayer funds for deaths and injuries to livestock, pets, hunting hounds and lla- is now 90 percent urban and 10 percent mas. Additionally, your readers should be aware that the wolf-recovery team in New Mexico rural. Our farmland is disappearing. Housing and Arizona is considering a plan to release Mexican wolves into western Texas and southern is taking the ground that farms used to oper- Colorado and Utah. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has denied that such a plan is in the works ate on. In about 15 years there will be solid but released documents clearly show that a rationale is being built to support the release of housing from Salt Lake City to Nephi, Utah, wolves outside of their historic range. This is a bad idea that needs to be derailed. and beyond. And on the southern end of the EARL STAHL, NEENAH, WISCONSIN state, around St. George, the same thing is happening. We have a bumper sticker on our Wolves still dominate the news around the killing fields of Wallowa County, Ore. The black car that says No Farms, No Food. What’s alpha has really been on the rampage, but nothing can be done—like treat him like he treats going to happen to our grandchildren who us—because the shooting of the alpha male and another wolf is in litigation, a filing by four know nothing of the changes that have taken environmental groups. So what’s new? place in the last several years and of the free- I truly enjoy RANGE. It is everything I believe in. Keep it coming. We need all the good doms that have been taken away? I would like information out there to fight wilderness expansion, the Endangered Species Act, and all those to see more articles about the changes that politicians who keep forcing regulations and eminent domain have taken place and what we, the people, on the West. can do about it, since it is our country. And ROCHELLE DANIELSON, ENTERPRISE, OREGON how we can turn our farms and lands over to our children as an inheritance so they can Alma, N.M., is a four-hour drive from Phoenix, Tucson, Albu- keep doing what we have always done for querque or someplace Texas. I thought little barred-up windows generations. and doors were to hold bad guys until local law enforcement JULIANA PROBERT, SCIPIO, UTAH could transport them to Albuquerque. But no! Children stand Check www.rangemagazine.com for special inside while waiting for the school bus! That beautiful designed, reports and other issue-oriented stories.—Ed. expansive (obviously government) complex outside Albu- querque is not White Sands office. They breed wolves here for Thank you for your defense of ranching. “wild release,” at $1 million per pup. Most any dyslexic knows RON GROSSMAN, MARICOPA, ARIZONA that even if a wolf puppy never sees a human silhouette, it has Via the Internet and a RANGE breathed humanity with its first breath. No wonder schools are We are having our own problems with Forest reader. Note said: “Wolf killed chain-link fencing playgrounds. in Elliston, Mont., second week Service but we read RANGE and see we’re of rifle season.” Montana Fish, Approximately 20 years ago, elk and wolves were “reintro- not alone. What can we do? Actually, we feel Wildlife & Parks’ nongame/ - duced” into the area, with great success. Wolves have since deci- we are getting them to back off a little. Sure threatened and endangered mated this world-class area deer population, while outlandish do appreciate all you do. bureau chief, Lauri Hanauska- elk populations stand by as next-in-line wolf smorgasbord, Brown, said, “The biggest wolf JEAN S. HARSHBARGER, NEWCASTLE, WYO. we have recorded is 115 meanwhile eating ranchers’ hard-earned bounty. pounds.” Even though the wolf Anything that will cheerfully eat me is not my friend and I’m STIRRING EMOTIONS has been delisted from the grateful my ancestors didn’t save the dinosaur or the saber- I really enjoyed “Call of the Cow Country,” endangered list, FWP says “There is heightened sensitivity toothed tiger. Is this a great country, or what? and I have to tell you, Harry Webb’s story that due to ongoing litigation.” SYLVIA FASCIO, GERLACH, NEVADA SP12 lo 1.23_RANGE template.q 1/23/12 10:32 AM Page 11

really stirred my emotions was “A Horse Called Satan.” I feel such a responsibility to THE WAY I SEE IT my horses, and always have. Once I sold a mare to a friend, and it did not turn out well for my horse, so I was heartstruck at Harry's WHO’S WHO? discovery that his beloved horse had led such EXPLANATIONS FOR SILLY. BY LEE PITTS a miserable life. It is so relevant right now, with the slaughterhouse situation, and the mustang ecently I was trying to explain to an Equidae family are the horse and the ass, dilemma—and our human equation in car- urban relative the confusing genealo- sometimes referred to as the donkey. Don- ing for and about these loyal creatures. It is Rgy of donkeys, mules, hinnies and keys were derived from the Nubian wild ass.” fact for me that a good death is far preferable burros, and it all reminded me of the classic Silly: “Yeah, I think I saw that movie on to a bad life—for both humans and animals. comedy routine made famous by Abbott and HBO. It was a riot. Was Will Ferrell in it?” The human situation is one thing, but as Costello, “Who’s On First?” For you young- Me: “I don’t think so. I mean, no, a human beings, we should be able to figure sters, Abbott and Costello were a great come- Nubian wild ass was an animal. If you cross a out better solutions for the horses on this dy team and their version of “Who’s On jack, or jackass, which is a male ass, and a planet, and if that means providing a First?”—which kept confusing the names of female horse, a mare, you get a mule, which is humane end for the horse, both for its sake, ballplayers as answers to questions—was usually infertile.” and the health of the range, it is our moral voted the funniest comedy routine of the Silly: “Yeah, thank goodness the Equidae obligation to provide that. Horses have 20th century. One comedian would ask, sister was too.” served mankind well for centuries, and still “Who’s on first?” and the other would Me: “Pay attention. Because they cannot do. I hope we figure out how best to serve answer, “No, Who’s on sec- reproduce on their own, it is them—and in a hurry! ond. What’s on first.” said of the mule, ‘It has nei- JANE LAMBERT, STEVENSVILLE, MONTANA Or something like that. A mule has ther the pride of ancestry nor The first edition of Jane Lambert’s book, If you’re under 30 and have neither the the hope of posterity.’” “Charlie Russell, The Cowboy Years,” sold out. never seen it, you can watch pride of Silly: “Sounds like our (See RANGE, Winter 2012.) A second edition the routine on YouTube. cousins out in Bakersfield.” will be available in early spring.—Ed. For you oldsters like me ancestry nor Me: “Can we stick to over 50, I’m told that the hope of mules please? Anyway, you 1944 VERSUS 2011 YouTube is like a television posterity. can do it the other way My younger brother sent this photo to me, station on something called around and breed a female and it really hit a sensitive spot as I remember the Internet. ass, which is a jennet, with a the sacrifices of my parents, uncles and aunts, The conversation was between myself male horse, and you get a hinny, which is and other friends who “joined up” in World and a shirttail relative we call Silly because, smaller than the mule. Understand?” War II or helped with the “homefront.” Being quite frankly, he is. So you can imagine the Silly: “About which part?” difficulty I had explaining the genealogy of Me: “Any part.” the mule to him. Our conversation went Silly: “No.” something like this. Me: “Let’s start over. First, you take a Silly: “I don’t understand the difference member of the ass family, which can also be between a donkey, a burro and a mule.” known as a burro. Think of the burro as an Me: “First of all, you must understand unimproved member of the ass family.” that a mule is a hybrid. Kind of like the Silly: “I thought we weren’t going to talk Prius.” about our Bakersfield relatives?” a young kid then, it’s left a lifelong impression Silly: “But I thought a Prius is a car.” Me: “Urggh! Okay. We’ll do it your way. on those who gave all in World War II. The Me: “Of course it is, Silly. But think of it as Think of the Bakersfield relatives as the photo tells it all. a crossbred, or hybrid, that gets better members of the ass family. Those relatives are It’s been 70 years since the deadly attack mileage, is more complicated, and liberal more crude, less cultured and refined than on the U.S.A. at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Democrats like them because they have a we are, and are probably either in prison or that “day of infamy,” more than 2,400 sol- smaller carbon footprint. That describes both in politics. Now you take them and breed diers, sailors, airmen and Marines, along with the Prius and the mule, only in the mule’s them to our relatives in Missouri, in this case many civilians, had their lives shortened and case you get the hybrid by crossing two represented by the magnificent horse. Now, that was the beginning of America’s involve- members of the Equidae family.” what would you get?” ment in WWII. Silly: “Didn’t we grow up with the Silly: “A social climber? A socially trans- DR. LYLE MCNEAL, LOGAN, UTAH Equidae family? I think I dated one of the mitted disease? I give up. But which one Equidae sisters and, come to think of it, she drives the Prius?” ■ You have a great magazine but our upcoming did act like she was a little inbred. Remem- youth may not be aware of some of the legal ber?” Lee Pitts lives in Los Osos, Calif. Check page 5 for some of his classic books. (Continued on page 46) Me: “No, Silly, the two members of the SP12 lo 1.23_RANGE template.q 1/23/12 10:35 AM Page 46

LETTERS with thousands of hours of backbreaking PIG LOVER (Continued from page 11) manual labor. Families worked together, Still looking for another photo of a little pink cooked together, celebrated successes togeth- pig with black lamb. [RANGE calendar issues you print. Please send a gift subscrip- er, and when sickness and hard winters came, photo by Linda Dufurrena, 2003.] tion to our newer FFA chapter in Dufur. they did what was required to protect and LAURA H. QUESENBERRY, BRISTOL, VIRGINIA preserve life together. My great-grandparents DARREL WOLFF, DUFUR, OREGON Our mag’s mostly about cows, sheep, dogs and were exceptional stewards of the land. The FOR JAIME, JESIE, JADINE AND JANIA horses, but we’ll flex our universe!—Ed. West was settled by people who had GRIT! IT’S A TOUGH LIFE Groups like Western Watersheds Project What a deadbeat! Forgive me for being so This photo was taken by my daughter on and people like Judge Lynn Winmill spit on slow to renew. Busy! Calves are good, at least Jerry Shelton’s ranch in Hastings, Okla. We the memory and dedication of my family the ones the wolves couldn’t catch. and the tough people who settled the West. KEN YECNY, SHERIDAN, MONTANA Today “bottom dwellers” like them live off the backs of taxpayers and hardworking Ameri- Wouldn’t buy your magazine if it were free. cans. They are leeches. They contribute noth- A FAN FROM BOISE, IDAHO ing...they wake up every morning knowing the federal government and taxpayers will cut Thanks for the $5 off for the early bird sub- them a check for what they call work. scription renewals. I would rather have BRIAN BAILEY, EAGLE, IDAHO RANGE continue to spread the truth so I’ll are very dry. Stock ponds are drying up. (The pay full price. bull was saved and is back at work.) I enjoy pictures and stories from Jean GENE THOMAS, KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON Laughton [“My Ranching Life,” Winter CHAS GRIFFIN, HASTINGS, OKLAHOMA 2012], as I grew up in that country and went We put this mule with a message in the Hells My family came to Idaho in a covered wagon to school with most of the folks mentioned. Canyon Mule Days Parade last year. Pictured over 150 years ago and settled where the KENT BARNEY, MEADVIEW, ARIZONA is Warren Matthews of Harney County Mule Curlew National Grasslands are now located. The settlements of Holbrook, Arbon Valley I love your magazine! Keep it up! and Stone were grubbed and scratched out BRAD COULSON, ANKENY, IOWA Raw & Real Stories of the West

Call of the Cow Country Company of Princeton, Ore. This is the only known “antlered mule” in the country. Harry Webb was a cowboy, bronc buster and wrangler. He rode in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West CATHY KAECH, VIA EMAIL FROM OREGON Show. He knew liars, murderers, fine folks and plenty of mean critters. And, fortunately, he INSPIRING AGENT wrote it all down. His stories are told in the RANGE shows the world rural America’s language of the day—authentic and historical- side of the story. I paid CJ for my first sub- ly accurate. This volume of 30 first-person scription in Yreka, Calif., in the early ’90s and accounts begins with Harry running away from continued my subscription until I became a home to pursue his dream of cowboying. This retail outlet for your magazine. I have heard began an eight-decade journey and you’ll want other retailers claim they are losing money to tag along for the ride. In his own words, on RANGE. They say the magazines do not “Cowboying was a hell of a way of life any way all sell. Since RANGE is the most consistent you looked at it—good, bad and plain hell.” and best voice for rural America we need to ■ “I had parted some heavy grass by a 30 stories by Harry Webb continue to spread the word, so I have fig- swift-running ditch and had bellied down for Illustrations by John Bardwell ured out how to make it always profitable. a drink when Mose set up a furious barking Paintings by J.N. Swanson For the last few years, when I get my new alongside my head. It was the first time I had Hardcover (reg. $35), issues, I stamp my business name under the ever heard him bark. Raising up, I parted the Only $26 cover and give them away. This is called grass with my shovel only to hear it struck advertising. At the cost of RANGE, cheap with the rattler’s fangs. There was no doubt Call 1-800-RANGE-4-U advertisement. (Sorry, CJ, I mean inexpen- but that Mose had saved me from a fatal bite (726-4348) sive.) By doing this, many of my customers in the face.” Free shipping via media mail come back and show their appreciation in SP12 lo 1.23_RANGE template.q 1/23/12 10:35 AM Page 47

other ways. Several have subscribed, so I give new copies to new customers. This helps THE WAY I SEE IT spread the word of rural America to more people. This tax-deductible advertising cre- ates a win/win situation. THE SNIVELING OF BRATS TERRY E. BROWN, TERRY’S NURSERY GUILT, FEAR AND DECEIT HELP TO SEPARATE “CARING” PEOPLE YREKA, CALIFORNIA FROM THEIR MONEY. BY SHARON BECK THE OTHER COAST An Air Force buddy sent me a subscription ecades ago professional environ- Those who equate profit to greed subscribe and I sure enjoy it. I’m a 77-year-old horse- mentalists (PE’s) started a new to a philosophy that P.J. O’Rourke describes shoer. I lost my wife of 53 years last August. Dindustry to recover species, recover as that of “sniveling brats.” DAVE SECHRIST SR. watersheds and preserve viable populations Isn’t it ironic that the PE industry pro- TUNKHANNOCK, PENNSYLVANIA of everything imaginable. They introduced duces nothing, but profits by employing species into areas they might never have guilt, fear and deceit to separate “caring” peo- This is a good publication about the rural been, make air and water cleaner, and pre- ple from money? Litigation and demands for western way of life and the war that is being serve entire landscapes where destructive and regulations have shut down the nation’s waged against it. The leftists are attempting to unwashed humans could wood-products industry and destroy not only our livelihoods, but our not get at them. The PE’s ushered in a politically correct entire culture. have repackaged their agen- policy of no forest manage- ADAM WRITER (USMC) da over time to freshen its ment. The result is a buildup HAMPSTEAD, NORTH CAROLINA appeal. The latest is “sus- ANGIER LARRY © of dead and dying trees that tainability.” It’s a good buzz- burn up in uncontrollable My wife and I read RANGE cover to cover. word to take to state wildfires. TOM EMERSON, WHITMAN, NEBRASKA legislatures, Congress, col- People who have no leges, schools and govern- job, no money, or no house I was born north of Cadillac, Mich. When I ment agencies to convince don’t care if they kill the last was 12, my mother had sinus trouble so bad the masses that to sustain deer in the forest if it will feed a surgeon in Grand Rapids told us she should planet earth we have to their family for a week. Sane change climes. We moved to Arizona and she severely limit our use of people will not care if it’s the got complete relief. I wound up working for natural resources and need People who last grizzly bear in Idaho if it the Double 7 ranch. They had a contract to more regulations and laws have no job, no gets in their pigpen or too supply horses for Uncle Sam when the U.S. to achieve it. money, or no close to their children. They still had a cavalry. When they couldn’t throw Those new laws came in will kill it because it is their us kids off, they were green broke and then the form of a Clean Air Act, house don’t right to protect their lives and they were delivered to Fort Custer, Mich. The Clean Water Act, Wild and care if they kill property. It is an immoral camp was closed after World War II. Scenic Rivers Act, expan- the last deer in government that prevents or RONALD CADDELL, STOTTS CITY, MISSOURI sion of wilderness designa- the forest if it prosecutes citizens for exer- tions, and in the cising their rights. PLEASE DON’T CHANGE Endangered Species Act. will feed their Natural-resource users I hesitate to subscribe for two years because I More species and habitat family for a feed, clothe and shelter a just got burned by another magazine— were added to the list, more week. growing population. They which just went digital. I beg you to keep public lands withdrawn provide safe and affordable publishing but please, please don’t go just from multiple uses, more regulations on pro- food and wood and minerals that have mini- digital. Many of your subscribers don’t even duction tools from the seeds we plant to the mal ecological impacts. They compete with have a computer. size of holding areas for our livestock. other land uses in a climate of economic cri- TISH LUKE, GRANBY, COLORADO Have the PE’s reached their goal of com- sis that is politically conflicted. Tish, as long as I’m around, RANGE will smell plete command and control in the hands of People will not work without pay or prof- of ink.—CJ government? Another year or two like the last it or work a job that pays less than govern- three and I’d say yes; but then again there ment dole, food stamps and free health care. I read RANGE from front to back. If we seem to be a few clouds gathering that might All Americans should help repeal laws that could get rid of the environmentalist, our cause a perfect storm to rain on their parade. encourage government waste, fraud and country would be a lot better off. Forests, farms, mills and mines will not abuse, put us trillions of dollars in debt, and DEAL SPRIET, BAKER CITY, OREGON be sustainable unless the people who own obstruct our chances for a better life. and manage them are profitable. Profit is the It’s a race against time. Can we stop it? ■ Love your stuff. great motivator and incentive. People pro- MITCH KESTIK, FREDONIA, ARIZONA duce items for markets if they can sell at a Sharon Beck ranches in Cove, Ore. We love our readers.—Ed. price that exceeds the cost of production.