And I thought it was just bikes the tree huggers dont like..

[mikesmith]

In the local paper (Redding Record Searchlight) there's a story on a rancher and a local state park,Lassen National Park.The rancher has a permit to graze his cattle near the park on National Forest land near the park,well any one knows cattle can jump a fence and go where they wish and that happens to be in the park!A park employee saw the cattle in the park and counted 23 cows,as the employee approched the cows ran.So the state is fileing federal crimminal charges because the cows left "tearing up a 2' wide path",they used GPS to pinpoint the location of cow pies on topographic maps(we the tax payers are paying some federal employ'ee to GPS cow pies!No wonder they say there's not enough money to run are parks if there paying someone $25.00 an hour or so to track cow poop!)."Cows cause extensive damage,not only are cow patties unattractive for those enjoying a scenic national park,but they contain invasive weeds that could take root there(like none of the other animals in the park poop there or have weeds in there poop).Cattle blaze new trails,possibly confusing hikers and in the meantime stomping some of the parks small animal monitoring stations(poor hikers).They're just an unnatural part of the ecosystem(funny,I thought God made cows,they make it sound like a cows a bike or something man made).Cows are known for tromping through ponds and creeks and causing water pollution(come on!)."I wrote this to show just how far a tree hugger can go(and I thought it was ridiculous) all that time and money spent (our money) when they could have just fixed the fence!Looks like cows may be the new bad guy instead of bikes!

[kawdude]

What a fricken joke.  Let's move to afganistan.

[Rick]

I suspect that the real battle is not over the 23 cows in the park, but rather an attempt to circumvent the grazing rights of the rancher in such close proximity to the park.  The battle over grazing rights has been rather robust in the Idaho, so much so, that the motorcycle folks, four wheeler folks, and horse folks (at least to to some degree) have been working together to keep the land open for multiuse.  Essentially, anything that may disturb the ground has been seen as the enemy.  Even hikers are not immune from this battle.

Unfortunately, not all of the multiuse groups are agreeable, and some, especially some cattle grazers, think that they are immune from litigation because they raise one of God's creatures.  This incident is indicative of a larger scale fight that many would not like to admit.  The rancher will probably lose, or go bankrupt trying to fight the deep pockets of the government.

If all PUBLIC land users would realize the true meaning of multiuse, we would have one group fighting restrictive use instead of a host of small groups who are generally under funded.  I suspect that our succes in avoiding land closures would be much more frequent.

Rick

[mikesmith]

The Blue Ribbon Coalition is the closest thing to that of protecting rights for all,go to www.sharetrails.org