The following article is from The Flint Report:
Here they go again. Regulations on dust, regulations on carbon dioxide, and efforts by the EPA to use the Clean Water Act to gain more control of the nation’s water supplies have rankled the cattle industry. And now, to make matters worse, the EPA is working to block ranchers from using prescribed burns in order to clear brush from their land.
The Wall Street Journal had this report out Monday, which is sure to fire up a lot of ranchers back here in Montana.
Here’s an excerpt:
Now the Environmental Protection Agency is threatening to restrain the Kansas range fires if ranchers’ don’t do so voluntarily, perhaps by burning only when wind doesn’t blow the smoke over cities. The EPA’s crackdown is kicking up a political storm in cattle country—a potential harbinger of high-stakes fights elsewhere as the agency prepares this summer to announce tougher clean-air standards nationwide.
The blazes, typically set in April, are crucial to the economics of the cattle business. Without the fires, grass growth in the Flint Hills would be stunted—so much that the average steer would gain about 32 fewer pounds during the three to five months it’s grazing on the prairie, said Clenton Owensby, a Kansas State University professor of range management.
At current prices, that means the fires boost by an average of about $40 the price ranchers can charge per head, Mr. Owensby said.
Source: The Flint Report
Posted by Haylie Shipp
