I am a cow-calf producer in California and I have held a U.S. Forest Service grazing allotment from 1980-2017. Tahoe National Forest’s Sierraville District Ranger Quinten Youngblood would not allow me to camp in the Little Lasier Meadow Horse Camp that the Forest Service put on my Pass Creek Allotment without my permission or knowledge.
When I drove the neighbor’s cows back, the horse camp people fired shotguns at us to keep the cows from coming into Little Lasier Meadow. How can I run cows safely?
This isn’t “multiple use;” it’s multiple abuse. It just goes to show the priority of USFS is not grazers; it is recreation. Half the USFS budget goes for recreation; not agriculture! U.S. Forest Service gets its money from U.S. Department of Agriculture. Recreation is not agriculture!
Food Stamps are 70 percent of the USDA budget and the school lunch program comes off USDA. In California, school does not run year-round, but we have to maintain the buildings year-round. Teachers get three months off in the summer—what other job do you know that gives their employees three months of vacation during the summer? Why should WIC (Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program) come from U.S. Department of Agriculture? Why aren’t school lunch program and food stamps coming off the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare?
This is a misappropriation of funds! — Louise Ahart, CA rancher
[Editor’s note: this letter was edited for length and flow from its original form.]
