Passing the Land Along

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/11/01/news/state/20-ranchers.txt" >Study sees shift away from ranching near Yellowstone</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>Owning a slice of paradise isn't what it used to be. Generations of ranchers on the rural fringes of Yellowstone National Park passed their land to offspring or sold it to likeminded people.<br />n<br />nBut for the past decade and longer, more ranches have been snatched up by people with less interest in turning a buck off the land than weekend trips, trout fishing and catching a glimpse of an elk or wolf on their property, according to a new study.</blockquote><br />n<br />nQuite a number of people sent me this article earlier and I read it and didn't have much to say about it. I thank you all for sending me the article and now have decided to throw my two cents worth into the fray. Anybody who lives in the area knows this is going on. What can a person do about it? What should a person do about it?<br />n<br />nThere's two things to be aware of on the issue of who is owning the ranches nowadays. The first being, a rancher should be able to sell his land to whoever he wants for whatever amount of money he wants. If that means some rich person, who can pay more than the land is worth for cattle production, wants to come in and pay the rancher some obscene amount of money for the place, more power to the rancher. Most of the time he has worked for years on the place and deserves the payoff. You do know the selling rancher always has the opportunity to sell his place for less money to somebody else for cattle production if that is what is important to him and he wants to see it stay in the hands of a working rancher. The problem with that is of course, there is no way to stop the new owner from selling it to the amenity rancher for a substantial profit so it doesn't happen.<br />n<br />nThe other thing to be aware of on the issue is how this affects the people. This is not only happening near Yellowstone park, but all over the state in Montana. The wealthy are coming in from California and other places and buying up our ranch lands at a fast and furious rate. They raise the property tax base which causes those of us still in business to have to pay more for our operation and make it harder on us in that respect. Then they do one of two things when it comes to cattle production since they don't understand the business. They either overgraze their land trying to run too many cattle, which is bad for the land and the cattle market, or they don't graze cattle, or under graze the land, which is good for the cattle market but bad if a wildfire gets going and burns the country up, since there is all kinds of extra fuel in the grass, to burn. The out of control wild fire then harms real ranchers and reduces the beauty of the land which is why the rich person bought it in the first place. Most of the time they don't run to capacity so in a way it helps the remaining ranchers since there are fewer cattle, raising prices and helping us stay in business.<br />n<br />nThe thing that really bothers me about the selling of the land to the rich is where it is leading our society in Montana. More and more in the areas where this is really happening you get a rich landowner/ poor serf mentality. The new landowners treat their employees and people in the area like feudal serfs, to be bossed around and controlled however they please. More and more guys I interview for jobs are so happy to be on a real working ranch instead of working for one of the rich "assholes," as they call them, since they want to do real ranch work and not just watch the owners house and fawn over him whenever he shows up. The attitude the whole thing brings is tough and non neighborly which is sad for the state.<br />n<br />nThis brings me back to my original questions. What can a person do about it? What should a person do about it? I have no answers. We have to learn to deal with the situation. I always say if a person can stay in the business, eventually the rich will take enough land out of production that those of us who survive should be able to make a decent living. The problem is surviving, but don't all of us have that problem?<br />n<br />n<strong>Reason is a whore, surviving by simulation, versatility, and shamelessness. Emile M. Cioran</strong>