Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** The legacy of the Bundy Bunkerville standoff
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Thursday, October 3, 2024
Cliven Bundy. Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 ([link removed])
Ten years ago, federal agents tried to impound cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy, a public lands rancher who owed more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees. The ensuing standoff near the town of Bunkerville, Nevada became an inflection point for antigovernment extremists in the West and across the country.
Writing in High Country News ([link removed]) , Leah Sottille, who previously created the Bundyville ([link removed]) podcast, looks at what the 2014 standoff foreshadowed. With militia snipers taking aim at federal law enforcement, agents retreated and the Bundy family declared victory. That moment was amplified across Fox News, which largely ignored the ultraconservative religious underpinnings of Bundy's philosophy.
History professor Benjamin Park told HCN ([link removed]) that the Bundys moved “the boundaries of what’s expected Mormon political discourse,” pointing to the Utah legislature where far-right members “don’t go fully Bundy, but they’re willing to go half Bundy. They’re willing to take advantage of this anxiety.”
Bunkerville also validated a worldview in which rural white landowners saw themselves as the victims of oppression, even while the Bundy family denied Indigenous rights to land in Nevada.
“That starting line realistically goes back to the founding of our country,” said Amy Cooter ([link removed]) , an expert on extremism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. It “is really baked into this idea of the American mythology that’s going to be very difficult for us to ever move away from.”
** Quick hits
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Utah legislature doubles down on sagebrush rebellion with latest land seizure lawsuit
NPR ([link removed])
Heritage Foundation floods Interior, other agencies with information requests targeting civil servants
ProPublica ([link removed])
BLM on track to finalize coal leasing ban despite industry protests
WyoFile ([link removed])
California, feds waive protections for delta smelt to boost water delivery for farmers
E&E News ([link removed])
Millions of acres could be opened up for solar development in Nevada
KTNV ([link removed])
New "agrivoltaic" project at Denver Botanic Gardens to grow 30,000 pounds of vegetables while generating power
Colorado Sun ([link removed])
As wildfires burned, a Facebook spam filter blocked emergency info
Summit Daily ([link removed])
Seven (safe) ways to see the elk rut at Estes Park
5280 ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” I understand you want to honor your ancestors and your grandfather told you that you should hate the federal land. But it’s time to think about your children, not your grandfather.”
—Moab mountain bike shop owner Ashley Korenblat, NPR News ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
The Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway winds over 200 miles along the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, flowing through some of the most scenic and least developed areas in the Upper Midwest. You can explore the pristine and clean waters in a canoe, camp amid the Northwoods, fish surrounded by wooded bluffs, take in fall foliage and watch for bald eagles and wildlife that make the banks their home.
As we mark the 56th anniversary of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, we celebrate the free-flowing, remarkable scenic and recreational rivers that surge, ramble, gush, wander and weave through our country.
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