Is the American West Dying?
By Jennifer Hill
Many of the great western movies of the 60s and 70s depicted a historical time in America when cowboys were moving west. The reasons the characters decided to traverse the wilderness were as varied as the actors themselves; looking for work, fleeing personal history, running from the law or civilization and the big government that always seems to come with it. Today I believe we are seeing the start of another great move of the American cowboy as they are forced to look away from the west, becoming political refugees from their now turned blue states, seeking grass, water and agricultural freedom.
Today’s west is almost unrecognizable compared to the region of 100 years ago. As civilization moved in so has government deepened its influence on both the land and the people. The problems of the west are growing, snuffing out the opportunity that once drove our rugged, individualist ancestors here. The BLM and other government agencies have allowed the range to be completely obliterated, leaving it a very different physical place than that of a century ago. Droughts are not unheard of, but the disallowance of managing the range through fire and protected grazing is. Instead of mitigating the impacts of dry years the feds now take a hands-off approach as they sit in fear of litigation. Instead of prescribed fire and feral horse gathers, activities that our great grandfathers and the Native Americans that came before them knew were vital to range health, the federal “land stewards” wring their hands and refuse to save the range for both livestock and wildlife. The forestation of the BLM lands that cover the west in the last 50 years has significantly impacted real AUMs as Pinyon, Juniper and brush replace grass. Ranchers in the region are now faced with the very real need to cut their herds lower than the threshold of business viability and because so much of their land isn’t their own, there’s nothing they can do about it.
The political transformation of the west has been as dramatic as the physical one. The blue wave out of California which has already destroyed Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, leaves Texas, Idaho and Montana teetering on the brink. The cultural and political ideals of the people who pushed into our rural states in the last decades have changed the very core beliefs of our society. States that once were agricultural beacons now push “Meat Out” events and accuse their farmers and ranchers of causing climate change, driving all productive use of the lands out of business. The urban people, in full democratic entitlement glory, have proven determined to shove the wolves that our ancestors worked so hard to drive from these lands back into our lives. They have decided that the west is no longer ours.
My family’s ranch was established in the high desert of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah by my husband’s great-great-great grandfather more than 140 years ago. He came west seeking opportunity and peace from the bustle of the East following the Civil War. He came looking for somewhere better. Now my husband has been forced to make the same decision, and he’s not alone. As the west falls to urban tyranny ranchers will be faced with some very hard truths and decisions. But we should not live for a past that no longer exists and we cannot stick our heads in the sand and pretend this isn’t happening. Some ranchers will choose to stay and fight and some will opt to seek opportunity elsewhere. I pray for them all, because this place that was once the land of the American Cowboy is quickly disappearing.
Lee Marvin sang it best in Paint Your Wagon,
“The first thing you know
They civilized the foothills
And everywhere He put hills
The mountains and valley below
They come along and take 'em
And civilize and make 'em
A place where no civilized
Person would go
The first thing you know
The first thing you know
They civilize what's pretty
By puttin' up a city
Where nothin' that's
Pretty can grow”.