Wilks open up Bullwacker temporarily

[roadhunter]

That quote is an irresponsible blatantly false statement. The only reason for such an expression would likely be to once again stir up a roadhunter self-centered debacle. The obvious contempt for others is only exceeded by the inability to offer a positive helpful post.

Read this thread or others about similar topics from the beginning and you will see that what I said is completely true. Plenty of talk about Texans but little about the actual people who are in charge of managing the public land. You can't pretend I'm wrong but there are endless examples that say otherwise.

Heck if what folks on here claimed actually happened with the Wilks and illegal fences, dozers tearing land up, fences off property lines, etc the people in charge of that land should have taken care of this like any other landowner would. Instead they passed the buck and essentially gave folks like Kat the run around while not taking any responsibility for what happened and if those fences were off the property lines. Why is it OK for federal land managers to do this?

I just don't' see any accountability for those on Uncle Sugars payroll.

You guys can get mad at Texas billionaires all you want but they don't care. The people in charge of that land are paid by taxpayers and should be held accountable for their management or mismanagement.

Another perfect example is the Bundy situation. Everybody is mad a Bundy but they should be mad at the government land manager who let him get away with it the first time. That's what started this. Would a private landowner let that happen? Why is it ok for a federal employee to allow that to happen?

Or the Schuleuter cluster. It takes a long time to build a mansion in the woods. Somebody from the feds should have noticed this and put an end to it before it was done. Again you guys are mad at the Texan but not the people in charge of that access rd. Do you think a private landowner would have let that happen? Why is it OK for federal employees to let that happen?

Might want to think about focusing your effort on those who are responsible for the land and access instead of Texans. The funny thing is Texans coudl care less about Tannys but the Tannys sure love to talk about the Texans. It's really interesting behavior. Almost as funny as you not wanting to talk about the federal employees responsible for this land and instead talking about me. Try focusing on the people in charge of the land. Telling me I'm a bad poster won't help the cause and makes it pretty obvious why you won't hold the federal employees responsible. UR1

If I'm wrong then what are the names of the specific people in charge of the land in these situations?

 

[Straight Arrow]

As Rob might say, "Yes, dear." But IRNot1.

 

[roadhunter]

As Rob might say, "Yes, dear." But IRNot1.

All that really means is you don't want to talk about the actual topic. And you claimed to be a former federal employee in a past thread.

Notice how you avoid answering my questions. So predictable.

Why is it OK for federal land managers to allow this crap to happen with no accountability?

Do you know the names of the specific people who are in charge of this land?

 

[Straight Arrow]

And you claimed to be a former federal employee in a past thread.

Are you kidding me? 'Another blatant falsehood from you.

Thirty year military man, active Army, VietNam then Montana Army National Guard ... Hardly a federal employee. I've been a member of PLWA almost since its inception and have followed many public lands issues for decades. How about you?

Do you know the names of the specific people who are in charge of this land?

If you mean BLM employees, no but I could readily find out if it's important to you.

Agency offices and those responsible have been referenced by kat in her information concerning research and discussions with the agency.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Just to be clear, although never a BLM or USFS employee, I still respect those who are as productive public servants ... certainly not as "jack-booted thugs". Like anyone with responsibilities and decision making authority, sometimes they exercise poor judgement. But this Bullwhacker debacle illustrates that public scrutiny and informed opinion does hold sway.

 

[Big Fin]

Back on topic. These topics are too important to get bogged down in some of the back and forth that adds nothing to the discussion.

 

[RobG]

A couple notes which I think are on topic. My "yes dear" comment was an inside joke to NHY.

Regarding why the fed agencies aren't doing "their job," I don't know what's going on in that particular office. But what I know from my wife previously working with the BLM is that local offices of any agency aren't going to take on powerful interests unless they are forced to by public outcry or a lawsuit. This is the same with any federal agency or even FWP.

The BLM basically exists to serve the interests of agriculture and extractive industries because those interests heavily influence Congress, and Congress controls the funding for the BLM; it makes sense the BLM isn't going to bite the hand that feeds them.

The employees are by and large great people, but pressure from above limits their public advocacy. I do, however, think something is rotten in that office seeing how pilots get harassed for breaking branches and bending grass, but it took a lot of publicity before that office even admitted the n-bar did anything wrong.

Regarding Bullwacker.... I already pointed out the more likely explanation than generating goodwill...

 

[roadhunter]

Are you kidding me? 'Another blatant falsehood from you.

Thirty year military man, active Army, VietNam then Montana Army National Guard ... Hardly a federal employee. I've been a member of PLWA almost since its inception and have followed many public lands issues for decades. How about you?

If you mean BLM employees, no but I could readily find out if it's important to you.

Agency offices and those responsible have been referenced by kat in her information concerning research and discussions with the agency.

You are a former government employee. Thanks for proving my point. I'm not a government employee but have been doing construction for the feds for many years and witnessed the waste first hand.

Thanks for proving my point for me. Everybody talks about the evil Texas landowners and knows their name by heart but nobody knows who the person in charge of this land it. Perfect example. Thanks again.

Have a great day!

 

[Big Fin]

I'm not a government employee but have been doing construction for the feds for many years and witnessed the waste first hand.

Thanks for proving my point for me. Everybody talks about the evil Texas landowners and knows their name by heart but nobody knows who the person in charge of this land it. Perfect example. Thanks again.

Have a great day!

Everyone knows the names of the people in charge, but you. That is why they are sending emails to Jamie McConnell and Stan Benes at the BLM.

How many emails have you sent them? How many times have you called them? How many meetings have you attended with them, or others in charge? I can pretty much guess what that number is, yet you want to come here and ridicule those who are doing something to bring pressure and accountability to the process.

If you think nobody is trying to hold the people in charge accountable to representing the public in this morass, then you miss the entire point of this and other threads on the topic. What have you done to hold the people in charge accountable for representing the public of which you are part?

Rather than talk in circular equations, and then thump your chest in confirmation that you are so smart based on the idea that nobody can follow your logic, feel free to take your keyboard elsewhere. In fact, I've tired of your antagonism, so I will help you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0BTdo6qGwo

 

[BuzzH]

Roadhunter likes to blame everything on the federal land management agencies. He also like to whine, cry, bitch, and moan about federal employees. Yet, he's taking that Federal money on the "construction jobs he's doing for the feds for many years". Sounds like a hypocrite to me...

As to this issue, roadhunter wants to blame the BLM as if the BLM took a dozer, trespassed onto private, and installed an illegal fence. The BLM didn't do that, the Wilks did. Further roadhunter wants to blame the BLM for "not knowing" this was going on. Its not the BLM's job to monitor every action that a private property holder takes, further if the BLM didn't know of the intent of the Wilks, how would they even know it was happening?

This issue is working out exactly as it should, the citizens (owners of the public lands) are working in cooperation with the BLM, BLM officials, etc. to address this issue. That's the beauty of FEDERAL public lands, the BLM, the Wilks, etc. are not able to swindle the United States Citizens out of their federal lands. There are people to hold accountable, a process, and recourse through litigation if necessary, to assure that the public is not taken advantage of. That process is playing out right now and those that are fighting for their desires on how the durfee issue plays out, need to be commended, not questioned by those that sit on the sidelines (like roadhunter).

 

[katqanna]

When we flew into the northern part of the Durfees to document with the helicopter, as we were leaving, I got video footage of the two tracks running on open ground, the fencing damage from the air on part of the northern and northwestern sides. I was just working on that this weekend for someone that needed it for a presentation to oppose this land exchange and because the public in general needs to see it. It also shows how much gorgeous land there is in the Durfees that we should not be giving up, especially when other means of access to the Bullwhacker can be had, or simply leave it as it is.

The video is higher resolution, so it will take a couple hours to upload ( I will link it as soon as it is done), I wish I had more of it done last night so that I could have done the uploading overnight, but I was working on that game ranching webpage and the ballot initiative information before bed. Never enough hours in a day to deal with all this bs.

EDIT: Video link
We were given a price break to fly in and document, then fly out. As we were leaving the Durfees, I saw open grass areas that showed alot of driving tracks, sometimes donuts. When I commented about that, the pilot turned around and began showing us other areas, as well as following my initial investigation route on the northern boundary, then cut across to show us some erosion damage that is occurring, took back up with the fencing borders for a bit, more two tracks. This part was at the pilots generosity, as I had not paid for that time, so it is not in an orderly fashion, following all the fence, piece by piece. I am grateful to the hunters that all contributed to pay for this flight, cause I sure couldnt have done it, but we needed it done. I will get to the ground documentation after the EQC meeting on the 9th & 10th in Helena.

 

[katqanna]

Did any of y'all submit public comments on the Bullwhacker access proposal before the March 5th deadline?

I just got my FOIA of the public comments submitted and there are some people who routinely blind carbon copy or forward their comments to me, some of which were for the Bullwhacker access. Their comments, nor mine are in this FOIA and they stated on the letter that no records were withheld.

I made a list of the names and dates that sent comments. One guy submitted comments on Dec. 1, Dec. 6, and Feb. 17, they printed out the Dec. 6th and Feb. 17th 2 times, so there are 5 letters from him here.

 

[MThuntr]

I submitted a disappointingly brief email in support of the bullwacker road on March 3, 2015. I'll forward it to you.

 

[bigskyblueman]

I believe I submitted mine via the BLM website.

 

[katqanna]

Bigsky, I dont know your last name but there is not anyone with your first that submitted a comment. Did you advocate for a new road access, no action or suggest a land exchange?
Mthuntr, thanks for the forward. I got a few other forwards and printed those out.

Since you mentioned the form, I just looked at all the comments, which are mostly hand written or typed/printed out with hand signatures. I did not see any that might indicate an online form. I saw some that were emailed to Jamie Connell or Stan Benes, which they forwarded to Kania. I specifically requested' "All of the public comments submitted to the BLM by postal mail, fax, hand delivered, emailed, or other channels, by the March 5, 2015 deadline, in response to the BLM press release and public meetings on the Bullwhacker access." So our missing emails so far, should have been included.

I heard from 6 other guys last night that sent comments, all of which opposed a land exchange and chose east side road - that are not on this list.

 

[RobG]

I sent some

 

[katqanna]

So far (hunting season, you know how that goes, some guys are all over the US and have to wait to get back to their computers to forward their comments - good luck on all the hunts btw) I have found about 15 of us that submitted public comments by the March 5th deadline that are not here in the record.

I think I am going to have to put a query out to the newsletter that reaches alot more people I dont even know, to see how many more are missing.