Ranchers: government discriminates against cattle
by the Longview Daily News, January 11, 2009 [here]
DAYVILLE, Ore. — To protect fish, the U.S. government discriminates against cows but lets elk and wild horses do whatever they want even if the wild beasts do at least as much damage to sensitive streams.
Or so say Dayville cattle ranchers Loren and Piper Stout.
Last year, after a lawsuit from environmental groups, a court ordered the two and others to remove their cattle from U.S. Forest Service land along Murderers Creek and its tributaries until the suit is resolved.
The creeks are home to middle Columbia River steeled protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Now the Stouts say they will sue the Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and other agencies under the federal act.
Those agencies are allowing wild horse and elk populations to swell, their notice says, and those beasts trample the creek bank, too. … [more]