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Soap or Jazzy

katrina

Well-known member
Did you by chance go to the meeting abou the game fish and parks buying part of the ranch down south? Snake falls???
 

Jassy

Well-known member
No, i didn't make it to the meeting, but my hubby went and Soapweed was there...so he can tell ya more about it...
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
The meeting was well attended--anywhere from "over 100" to "nearly 200" depending on which newspaper report you read. The best account of happenings at the meeting is written up in the Valentine Midland News, March 16, 2011 edition. It's probably something that is going to happen, regardless of "local input," but we all showed up with our various thoughts on the subject. :wink: Imagine that. :roll: :)
 

katrina

Well-known member
We don't get the paper so spill the beans.... Just step up on that soapbox and let er rip.... No pun intended.... :wink: :twisted: :p
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Well, you asked for it, Katrina. :wink:

This ranch with Snake Falls on it is a 3,100 acre property that Nebraska Game and Parks is considering buying for $9,000,000. Yes, that is nine million dollars--right close to three thousand dollars per acre for some pretty common pasture ground. If this sale goes through, it most certainly will affect taxes for the rest of the county. There were competent speakers that brought out these facts and concerns.

My own comments were more along the lines that Nebraska Game and Parks are already short of funding. All of their parks are trying to operate with less money, less staff, and many have cut back hours of operation. A local area attraction is a case in point.

The Arthur Bowring Ranch State Historical Park is a lovely ranch north of Merriman, Nebraska, owned by Nebraska Game and Parks. The management and staff do a magnificent job of running the park. The only problem is that funding has been cut back. Now instead of being open seven days a week, from Memorial Day week-end until Labor Day week-end, the historical park is only open five and a half days per week. Another nearby attraction is the Cottonwood Lake Recreation Area, just east of Merriman, which the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission also has responsibility to oversee. In the past, money has been available for the care of this pretty little lake and campground but now no funds are allocated. The management and staff of the Bowring Ranch volunteer of their own time to keep the picnic area and campground open, but the NGPC would almost rather just shut down this facility.

Mrs. Arthur Bowring was our long-time neighbor. She willed her fine ranch of 7200 acres to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, so future generations could see and understand what ranch life in the Sandhills was all about. Revenue from the ranch comes in each year to Game and Parks because a neighboring rancher leases much of the pasture and hay ground. Another perk that is in favor of Game and Parks is that they only pay taxes based on what the taxes were at the time of Eva Bowring’s death in 1985. This is approximately one third of what the tax rate is now, which the rest of us adjoining landowners have to pay. With a nice ranch given to them free gratis, why cannot the Nebraska Game and Parks make it work? What makes them think that buying a nine million dollar ranch of less than half the size of the Bowring Ranch will cash flow any better? Financial support for many other parks all across the state has also been severely curtailed. Another glaring example is the old abandoned Chicago Northwestern Railroad line, which was supposed to become a rails-to-trails project named the Cowboy Trail. Again, lack of funding has delayed if not completely stopped progress. I have no qualms with NGPC cutting back on expenditures due to tough economic times; in fact it is admirable. However, it does seem that the Nebraska Game and Parks already owns enough land and facilities. They need to quit land grabbing and continue to be good stewards by taking care of what they already have.

Soapweed
 

High Plains

Well-known member
Perhaps the NGPC should go ahead and buy this ranch at a reasonable price (not anywhere close to the proposed $9 million) and then just keep it operating as a ranch. They could hire me at a reasonable salary and my family would then move to the ranch and operate it under the scrutiny of a rancher-occupied board of directors (let's call them "advisors" because that's not as daunting). The general public would be welcome to come in and tour the ranch (at scheduled times :wink: ) and my wife and I would give a full-fledged tour of how working ranches operate. Maybe we'd need a tiny bit of extra labor to offset the time commitment that would be required of touring folks around. We'd always keep some gentle critters up at the barn so that we could show folks the humane handling and husbandry (through the chute and properly designed handling system) so that we could serve as advocates for food animal production. If foreign food buyers and trade commissions wanted to come see our beef industry the ranch could serve as a first-rate show and tell operation. NCBA and NCC could be a part in formulating the messages and educational content so that the proper details were clearly outlined for a "sales" approach.

This would serve the state very well through the educational component, agricultural advocacy and preservation of what sounds like a scenic area with a waterfall and potentially some riparian areas. Selfishly, it gets my family on a full-time ranching operation that might sustain us with maybe just an extra little bit of salary and the chance to manage a working outfit. Win-win for all parties!!

I guess the NGPC might want to partner with the Nebraska Dept. of Ag or some other entity with the off-shoot ideas that I've conjured up here. Now that I've laid out a proposal, I'm not sure I want in on it. Kind of sounds like too much of a beaurocratic nightmare for a country boy to have to deal with!!
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I really think it is a shame for an entity like Fish and Game, Game and
Parks, etc. to buy up land away from ranchers and farmers. The prices they
pay, people who strive to make a living off the land could never afford.

It isn't even competition, it's a land grab as Soapweed says. And for what?
Looks to me that they can't take care of what they have but they
want more. Same way in Montana.
 

mrj

Well-known member
It is time not only for state GFP's, and all other such groups to back off the land grabs, but to divest of those not managed properly.

Most especially in western states. If there comes a time when there is excess tax money collected over what NEEDS to be spent, use it to buy land in the eastern part of the USA where there are more people than parks, unlike the west where the excessive government land ownership cheats the small populations out of ownership opportuniies.

mrj
 
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