No Split State

I see the Board of Livestock has decided <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/11/07/news/state/19-panelists.txt">against split state status</a> for Brucellosis here in Montana. The Governor decided to let the ranching community decide and they let their feelings be known to the Board of Livestock yesterday.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>After hours of rancorous debate punctuated by yelling and boos from the audience, the Montana Board of Livestock on Tuesday stepped away from a plan to split Montana into two zones to manage a dreaded cattle disease.<br />n<br />nOn a 6-1 vote, the seven-member panel that governs the Montana Department of Livestock decided to pursue other ways of preventing the spread of brucellosis from infected bison and elk in Yellowstone National Park into Montana's neighboring cattle.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI kind of have to laugh, the Governor said he would let the ranching community decide but then complains when they do.<br />n<br />n<blockquote><a href="http://governor.mt.gov/governor/govbio.asp">Gov. Brian Schweitzer</a> said the decision represented "misinformation" spread by the lobbyist of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. The group's lobbyist ought to be personally blamed when or if another case brucellosis comes up and all of Montana is saddled with the stiffer restrictions that brucellosis brings, the governor said.<br />n<br />n"They were misled by the lobbyist of Montana Stockgrowers Association," he said of the outspoken group of ranchers who testified at Tuesday's meeting. "They were given faulty information by the lobbyist who knew it would get people excited."<br />n<br />nErrol Rice, executive director of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and one of the group's registered lobbyists, applauded the board's decision to stand up to Schweitzer, who appointed five of the board's seven members.<br />n<br />n"The industry spoke today, and the board grudgingly put to rest the governor's marching orders," Rice said.</blockquote><br />n<br />nWhether people like it or not, the Stockgrowers represent a large portion of the ranching community so they had a legitimate role in this whole thing, just like the Montana Cattlemans Association (MCA) did who was on the opposite side and wanted split state status. I really hate to tell the MCA, but I have personally spoken to quite a few memebers of MCA and most of them opposed sp[lit state status even though MCA was for it. People can be part of an orginazation and have an opinion other than the one the organization wants them to have.<br />n<br />nNow that this is behind us, we need to miove forward and figure out how to control the brucellosis problem in Yellowstone National Park. There is no easy answers for it but they need to be found.<br />n<br />n<strong>There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer. Gertrude Stein</strong>