2.23.2023 - Steaks-Wolves-Vermeer
The Colorado Range
A new newsletter about Colorado…mostly.
Hello, Friends!
You have received newsletters from me before with updates on our efforts to take out Boebert during my race for Congress, or about all of the great things we were doing for Colorado at the Capitol. Well, I’d love to stay in touch. I’ll be sending out The Colorado Range a few times a month and I hope it will pique your interest on a range of topics.
Enjoy and let me know what you think, or if you’d like deeper updates on any particular items in the future!
Talk soon,
Kerry
Open Range
Let’s talk about agriculture
Let’s start with that dang header. What is Open Range? You may not even know you are in Open Range unless you see a sign or, more likely, you come around a corner, bump over a cattle guard, and there is a cow standing in the middle of the road. The cow doesn’t move. You honk.
The cow doesn’t move. And guess what? The cow doesn’t have to. It is allowed to be there until it gets fenced out. Open Range is a type of land use that is a byproduct of very old Colorado Fence Out laws. Basically, you have to fence livestock out; ranchers don’t have to fence livestock in. These laws are nearly as old as Colorado.
Open Range in my part of Colorado is becoming rare as development pushes up every valley and former grazing grounds become a series of vacation homes. Open Range to me signifies the tension between the urban-rural interface - oftentimes a very literal space when cattle come face-to-face with a city Subaru, each thinking that the dirt road is their part of Colorado. Law is on the cow’s side, but Open Range is a chance for us to be on common ground — a place where we can meet “face-to-face” and hopefully learn something about each other.
Speaking of that cow, most of the top cuts you grill come from the back of that cow- between the shoulders and the hip bones. Right where the sun hits it!
Hungry for a T-bone steak now? A big steer, not like our smaller cattle, will produce about a dozen T-bone steaks. Take a peek at the T-bone. See the T? The big side of the T is a New York Strip and the smaller side is Filet Mignon. I like to remind myself how few top cuts come from each of those cattle you see standing on the dirt road. I hope it makes us all appreciate that streak just a little more and perhaps you can taste the sunshine and Open Range that helped raise the beef you are enjoying.
Mountain Range
Let’s focus on the Western Slope
Wolves and water are at the top of mind for many people. This week, let’s howl about wolves since this week marks the final day for public comment on the draft management plan. After a statewide vote and a couple bills, the state will introduce about 15 wolves captured in the Northern Rockies and then release them somewhere south of Vail and north of Crested Butte….maybe. The goal is to have about 50 news wolves introduced into Colorado’s woods. The draft management plan is intended to be the blueprint for how we interact with wolves. For example, yes, you can move a wolf den if it is inside a municipality. No, you can’t shoot a wolf if it is killing a cow unless it has already killed one. Yes, you can kill a wolf if it is killing your pet dog. Or so proposes this draft.
Wolves are majestic creatures that deserve respect, and I can tell you as a rancher that we respect and cherish our wildlife. But, plans for reintroduction need to take very seriously the real-life financial, cultural, and personal impacts wolf attacks can have on a herd and a rancher’s bottom line.
I’ve found the plan to be long on exposition and sparse on action. At times it feels a little bit like a college essay trying to make a word count versus a document that will really direct how we interact with wolves. That being said, I think that is okay as long as the state continues to revisit and revamp how we take care of wolves while also making sure those that feel the biggest impact of wolves are fully supported and compensated for the loss of their animals.
The draft puts a lot of responsibility on ranches to manage this challenge. It also caps compensation for animal lost at $8,000.00. That’s pretty low. No, not all cows, steers, or bulls are worth $8,000.00 but some are worth far more and the state should compensate for full market value. Period. If a beginning rancher invests in a top bloodline cow to improve their business and a wolf, the government introduced into the region, kills that business investment, then the state should be on the hook.
I’m nervous about 50 additional wolves coming to the mountains around our ranch. We’ve gotta do this right or it’s not going to go well for the wolves or for the ranches with wide-open spaces where the wolves will roam.
Free Range
A few random things that caught my attention
An interesting article that looks at one very unsexy committee in Congress that found simple ways to work together and to find simple inefficiencies standing in their way. The article focuses on the horribly boring sounding Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Bor-ing. 6 Republicans. 6 Democrats and they need a supermajority to get anything passed. This doesn’t sound like a hopeful mix to get things done; but they did!
From Amanda Ripley: The Opinions Essay
A lovely video from CNN on the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. Vermeer has all those pretty paintings where the light falls across the canvas. This charming video shows what is under the painting revealing what Vermeer chose to omit in the final version. Fascinating and illuminating.
From Nick Glass for CNN: Never to be repeated Vermeer exhibition stuns with scientific revelations
Another great article that caught my attention recently is from the Archaeological Institute of America. New soil sample analysis is revising our theories around when that very famous land bridge from modern-day Russia to modern-day Alaska was open for business. It may have only been a passable land bridge between 24,500 and 22,000 and 16,400 and 14,800 years ago. Those are pretty brief windows for the first migrations into North America to occur.
Brief Summary from Archaeology
Range Finder
Pictures from Colorado’s past
A view from the State Capitol looking towards downtown from around 1910.
From Denver Library’s Digital Collections
Take care and stay in touch.
Copyright (C) 2023 Kerry Donovan CO. All rights reserved.
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