Maybe it's the subzero temps, maybe it's calving, maybe it's just me...but this article in Range Magazine pissed me off...
Here's the letter I wrote to the editor today:
Wow, I just finished reading Dave Skinner's "High Anxiety" article in Range magazine. It may have behooved the author to contact a few producers that are actually in the heart of grizzly bear country - not those on the fringe that are new to living with an apex predator.
But what really got my hackles up was when the author brought up the Grizzly Bear Advisory Council and said, "Eight selectees had agricultural backgrounds, but were all amateurs."
I'll start there. Actually, ten people on the Council of 18 not only had ag backgrounds, but have some form of ag career, myself being one of them. And who gets to decide if we were amateurs - Dave Skinner? Did he interview any of us? Has he not followed our advocacy efforts over the last several years? Dave Skinner's ignorance of the work that we've done for agriculture is not a reason to call us amateurs.
Moving on to the next sentence: "There was a special sixth - a 'rancher,' also an associate director of the nonprofit Western Landowners Alliance..."
First of all, Cole Mannix is one of the ten people with an ag background that also has an ag career, so he should never have been classified as an environmental advocate. Secondly, I don't know what Dave Skinner's beef with WLA is, but it doesn't have a place in this article about grizzly bears. And again, instead of interviewing someone that WAS NOT chosen for the GBAC, why didn't Dave Skinner reach out to any of the ten people on the Council representing agriculture?
I thought Range Magazine was better than this.