If good fences make good neighbors, the animosity between public lands ranchers and federal agents shouldn’t be surprising.
Niels Hansen, president of PH Livestock Company in Wyoming, described the West’s checkerboard public land system as an “arranged marriage with no option of divorce.” This comparison drew laughs and even a groan or two from his audience at the Cattlemen’s College held on Jan. 31 at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s annual convention.
But, like a marriage of any kind, the relationship between ranchers and federal agents needs to be based on open, honest communication.
Hansen told the story of how he grew up watching his father butting heads with the BLM agents. When he took over, he started that too, but observed that “I won a battle once in a while, but we were losing the war.” So, when new range people came in, he decided to engaged them differently.
“We addressed the issues we’d had in the past. We didn’t solve any of them, but we recognized that they were there and agreed to go forward. … We agreed to never lie to each other.”
His advice to the amassed ranchers in the audience sounded very much like a marriage counselor’s: Communicate and try to understand each other.
“Take the time to understand what other people are concerned about and what they’re thinking about. Bottom line: Give the agency people a reason to support you.”
Darcy Helmick, land manager for Simplot in Idaho, had similar advice. She also had the unique experience of being both a public lands rancher and an employee of a federal agency in her past.
After she graduated high school, Helmick joined on with the BLM to fight fires. She was stationed near ranches she’d grown up around among people she’d known through her youth in the ranching community.
“Working for the federal agency amongst my neighbors, we saw a lot of hate and discontent for lack of better terms.” She added that the perspective of the federal agents was that the ranchers could not be worked with and there was no ability to cooperate towards the common goal.
Helmick described a situation of growing animosity until an effort was made to deal with the issue in the form of a rangeland fire protection association (RFPA). RFPAs are cooperative efforts between federal and state agencies and landowners to control fires. Participants go through training on wildfire fighting and prevention and a communication protocol in place.
After a few short years, Helmick’s RFPA was awarded the Pulaski Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to wildland firefighting.
“So how did we go from fighting with each other to receiving national recognition together and how can we apply that across the landscape?” Helmick asked.
She outlined three steps:
• Identify the issue that needs to be solved;
• Identify the challenges that need to be addresses; and
• Identify key players who want to make changes happen.
“And then just make it happen,” she concluded. “If we can work together to have trust and communication to suppress wildland fire together, in my mind, we can do most anything.” — Kerry Halladay, WLJ editor
