The Tortoise And The Feral Cow?

Things are about to spin out of control in Nevada. The war between a rancher and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are seriously heating up. There have been numerous posts on this and I have purposefully waited to see if maybe a little more truth would leak out before throwing my opinion out there.

Now it seems there has been some information forthcoming. Let's start at the beginning.

In 1993, the BLM changed the grazing rights to the area in Nevada known as Gold Butte because of an endangered species known as the Desert Tortoise. But Cliven Bundy says that he holds preemptive rights to the water and forage on the land. After all, his family has been using that land long before there ever was a BLM.

And now, it would seem that the long arm of a brutal government is set to make an example out of one rancher. If they can control him, there is surely not much hope for the rest of us. The only question left would be, "When are they coming for me and mine?"

The Feds set up small orange triangular spaces labeled "Free Speech Zones" and anyone protesting their removal of the cows are in danger of being arrested, and tazed and yes, even shot. They have set up snipers on the hill and they are aiming right at the protesters...unarmed protesters. They even have police dogs ready to attack at a single command. 

And all because one man said no. See, it's not about a turtle at all. It's about money. And the government wants it. A former Land Broker named Rusty Hill had this to say about the situation:

"It is not about turtles, it is about water. There are developers working for military contractors that want the land and water for mining weapons grade minerals for industry...they want to sell the land by the highway for real estate development because it's close to I-15 and the Bundy's have been refusing to sell what they actually own directly for over 20 years. Many buyers sent me out there with crazy offers for that land for many years. It is prime real estate, not worthless desert. There is a natural gas pipeline going through there and lots of water under ground, too. Somebody connected to a military corporation is using political power and the BLM to muscle those people out."

Well, isn't that interesting. And of course, good ole Harry Reid has some dirty fingers involved in all of this, too. The director of the BLM was Harry's former senior adviser. The BLM has recently purged documents from their website which declared that the agency want's Bundy's cattle off the land in order to make way for solar panel power stations. Even though the documents were deleted from the website, Free Republic was smart enough to copy them by using "print screen" before they vanished forever. The following is from Abundant Life Living blog which quotes the article from Free Republic. (Sorry, my link to button isn't letting me link to anything.)




The BLM document entitled “Cattle Trespass Impacts” directly states that Bundy’s cattle “impacts” solar development, more specifically the construction of “utility-scale solar power generation facilities” on “public lands.”

Another BLM report entitled Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone (BLM Technical Note 444) reveals that Bundy’s land in question is within the “Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone and surrounding area” which is part of a broad U.S. Department of Energy program for “Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States” on land “managed” by BLM.

“In 2012, the BLM and the U.S. Department of Energy published the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States,” the report reads. “The Final Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement assessed the impact of utility-scale solar energy development on public lands in the six southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.”

“The Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments/Record of Decision (ROD) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States implemented a comprehensive solar energy program for public lands in those states and incorporated land use allocations and programmatic and SEZ-specific design features into land use plans in the six-state study area.”

In 2012, the New American reported that Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid, was the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.

And journalist Marcus Stern with Reuters also reported that Sen. Reid was heavily involved in the deal as well.

“[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert,” he wrote. “Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada.”

“His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”

Although these reports are in plain view, the mainstream media has so far ignored this link.

The BLM’s official reason for encircling the Bundy family with sniper teams and helicopters was to protect the endangered desert tortoise, which the agency haspreviously been killing in mass due to “budget constraints.”

“A tortoise isn’t the reason why BLM is harassing a 67 year-old rancher; they want his land,” journalist Dana Loesch wrote. “The tortoise wasn’t of concern when [U.S. Senator] Harry Reid worked with BLM to literally change the boundaries of the tortoise’s habitat to accommodate the development of his top donor, Harvey Whittemore.”

“Reid is accused of using the new BLM chief as a puppet to control Nevada land (already over 84% of which is owned by the federal government) and pay back special interests,” she added. “BLM has proven that they’ve a situational concern for the desert tortoise as they’ve had no problem waiving their rules concerning wind or solar power development. Clearly these developments have vastly affected a tortoise habitat more than a century-old, quasi-homesteading grazing area.”

I think it is safe to say that nothing about the situation going on right now in Nevada has anything to do with turtles. I don't care if Cliven Bundy is flipping his middle finger at the "law". It is time more and more people took a stand and fought back. I pray for Mr. Bundy and his family and all of those who have been brave and daring enough to go and stand with him. A line in the sand has been drawn and we can either allow them to trample us down, or we can stand and fight. If they mean to have a war...let it begin here.

TCW