Tension Between Ranchers and Federal Officials Is Dangerously High in Nevada
“Everybody felt a little more empowered when the BLM didn’t impound Cliven Bundy,” Smith said.
John Ruhs, the Bureau of Land Management’s state director, took over negotiations with the Battle Mountain ranchers last summer. Ruhs — a former Marine who dresses like a rancher in cowboy boots, wool vest, jeans and a forked beard — brokered a temporary agreement that allowed the families to continue grazing.
“I don’t feel BLM backed down,” Ruhs said as he sat in his Reno office within view of a Black Angus herd. “We are trying to make decisions where it is more of a collaborative process…. In our job now, we have to be careful we put some warmth back into that, some humanity. Because we got smacked in the face on some of this.”
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