Grazing fees.....$1,000,000 for some greasewood bushes and dry grass. I think those grazing fees were uncalled for. The fees were supposed to be used for the benefit of the ranchers, maintaining roads, water wells etc. Apparently that stopped many decades ago and the federal government just continued collecting fees for what God provides.
Wasn’t just the fees. They were also cutting back on the size of herd they were “allowing” him to graze on the land using the (now proven to be not endangered) tortoise as an excuse. And that would have bankrupted him, put him out of business and drove him off his ranch and off the land which was their obvious intent. They did the exact same thing to 50 other ranchers on that range. Bundy is the last rancher standing and is standing up for his constitutional rights against government tyranny.
Bundy should be charging the BLM for his cattle’s efforts to collect and concentrate food and water to be widely distributed across the desert for the benefit of the indigenous Tortoises.
Mr. Bundy should present the govt with a bill for all the time and effort he has put in keeping up the water system and the land since the govt stopped using the grazing fees to do it. Just call it even.
It’s worse than that. BLM started using those “fees” as a weapon.