Here's an idea for getting the deficit reduced (by how much, I'm not sure)

[zbdent]

But anyway, there was a lot of flak a while back where cattle ranchers raised a big stink about the POSSIBILITY that they might have to pay fees for their cattle to graze on FEDERAL LANDS, which they do for free.

I say, 10 cents a head might be a start. Watch the ranchers have a shitfit.

[0007]

1. Remember how the Cattle Association went after Ophra Winfrey

Whe she knocked hambergers?

[RobertSeattle]

2. I would change it to YOUR Federal Lands

They belong to ALL of us.

I recall hiking in the Colorado's San Jaun wilderness and coming across and entire herd of cattle at around 10,000 feet - amazing.

[idiosyncratic]

3. Ranchers already pay a fee . . . but it is much too low. Listen to this

story I heard while passing through Ely, NV at Thanksgiving time.

I told the guy at the NAPA auto parts store I had seen an elk in the back of a pickup earlier that morning and he told me how long it takes for a Nevada resident to get a permit to hunt elk.

Some guys have waited 30 years.

Well, the ranchers get what is called a "depredation permit" for a certain number of elk since the elk graze on the same grass the rancher's cattle "compete for."

Instead of hunting down the "offending" elk themselves, the ranchers SELL those permits to hunters for as much as $10,000 apiece.

That money goes into the ranchers pocket, and the elk that gets shot is going to be a "trophy" animal, reducing the quality of the elk herd.

I was appalled . . . but I guess I can't blame the rancher. Who would turn down an extra $40,000 added to the bottom line of their operation each year?