12/27/15

Betty Olson: feds owe welfare ranchers $50 million

After a century of destructive ranching practices invasive grasses infest northwestern South Dakota.
Several Perkins County ranchers filed lawsuits against the federal government for damages caused by the 2013 Pautre Fire in Perkins County. The prescribed burn was set by the Forest Service on the Dakota Prairie National Grasslands on a windy day during a drought that had lasted for eight months before the burn. I don’t know about you, but something is really messed up when private citizens have to pay huge fines and serve time in jail for accidently [sic] burning an area of federal land big enough to feed about three cow-calf pairs for a year in that neck of the woods and no one from the federal government is held responsible for setting a fire that caused 50 million dollars of damage to private ranchers. This is absolutely shameful! [Betty Olson (RWNJ-28), Grand River Roundup]
The US Forest Service knew an advancing cold front would aid the clearing of foot-high grasses and mowed a fire break instead of using a disk to make a fire line. Disturbing soils can allow the growth of weeds that had been introduced by European settlers in the 19th Century. Snow showers ended the fire.

There were no injuries and the only structure lost was a derelict rural schoolhouse. Cost to We the People for managing the Pautre Fire was about $1 million. No livestock was lost and there was minimal damage to fences. 3,519 acres of federal and 7,160 acres of private property were cleared of invasive grasses.

Olson, whose operation grazes on federal land for nearly nothing, is a welfare rancher as are most ag producers in South Dakota. Livestock producers in Perkins County alone have received over $14 million in subsidies since 1995.

Anthropocene denier Olson helped compile names for federal direct payments to livestock producers after a blizzard in 2013: an event she would call an Act of God. She has called federal ownership of land in South Dakota without the state's permission unconstitutional.

Olson has received campaign contributions from Stan Adelstein who advocates for raising taxes on Betty's ag land.

Olson has assailed Muslims even though Hani Shafai gives thousands to the South Dakota Republican Party.

South Dakota is a moocher state yet its governor says he hates dependency.

The lawsuit claiming $50 million in recompense for the Pautre Fire is not only frivolous, it's reckless in its hypocrisy.

1 comment:

Spike said...

Well, our ever illustrious Ms. Olsen has one of those $1.35 an AUM heavily subsidized federal grazing permits, poorly managed grazing practices on OUR land also. unreal. The hypocrisy of these clowns never ceases to amaze me Larry. Thanks for the info I'm speechless.