Sunday’s “60 Minutes” report on “The Green River Drift” cattle drive told an inspiring human interest story about Wyoming ranchers who serve as living links between the “old” and the “new” American West. It was beautifully filmed and written. Correspondent Bill Whitaker went above and beyond, in pursuit of the story, by saddling up and riding along with families who have been doing this iconic cattle trek for decades, dating back to homesteading times. And we, as their lawyers and allies, were delighted to see the story told.
We hope the segment was an eye-opener for increasingly urbanized Americans who have lost touch with the rural roots of the American experience and often take ranchers and other critical links in the food production supply chain for granted.
The story, although excellent, only briefly touched on the legal and bureaucratic hurdles these families face in their fight to survive in the modern West, which is where we come in as their legal representatives. We see threats to their survival in a broader context, much of which was only hinted at in an otherwise solid piece of storytelling.
(Watch the full segment from 60 Minutes here.)
The segment made reference to the problem of livestock predation by wolves and federally-protected grizzly bears, which is taking a literal and figurative bite out of the ranchers’ bottom line, without ever fully explaining why grizzlies aren’t being better managed in order to mitigate such conflicts. Also mentioned only in passing are the powerful, well-funded, extreme interest groups who have painted targets on the backs of virtually all livestock growers who run animals on Western federal lands. What’s their beef (so to speak) with family ranchers? What tactics are they using to expel them from public lands? The story didn’t delve into any of that.
And almost nothing was said in the segment about the challenges ranchers face in dealing with government agencies headquartered several thousand miles away, whose interest in working constructively with grazing rights holders can wax and wane depending on who’s in the White House at the time. Federal bureaucracies (and bureaucrats) can be notoriously difficult to deal with. The absolute control federal bureaucrats wield over the fate of these families was another aspect of the story left untold.
We understand: that’s a lot to cram into just one segment of an hour-long news show. It’s a complicated story, composed of many moving parts. For this reason, we offer the links below to those who may have had their interest peaked by “60 Minutes” but want additional context in order to grasp the whole story.
Our own coverage of the Drift, as it appeared in The Litigator, can be read here.
Our Drift landing page is another good place to start exploring the larger legal landscape in which these families must operate. Relevant press releases and legal filing can be found on the right side of the page. More of our grazing rights-related releases and posts can be found here.
And now you know, as radio legend Paul Harvey used to say… the rest of the story.
