1 ranch, 26 wolves killed: Fight over endangered predators divides ranchers and conservationists

Northeastern Washington's Diamond M Ranch produces some very dodgy numbers together with a dismissive attitude toward those who voice concerns.

Here's the link to an excellent LA Times article that digs into the issue fairly deeply.  For those who may not have the time to read it all, the gist is that of 31 wolves eradicated in Washington state, 26 of them were on or related to a single ranch in NE Washington.  The Diamond M Ranch's owners are singularly unrepentant, deny having acted improperly and in general appear to be a perfect type-specimen of the kind of anti-government entitlement that informs the political thought of so many rural westerners.  The situation also highlights the urban/rural cultural divide that's been belabored so extensively elsewhere on this blog.  In this case, as in Oregon, it's a divide that often --though not always-- coincides geographically with the Cascade Crest.  

Finally, as we've said here so often, the question really comes down to who owns the land.  

Is it really public land that accordingly should be administered by those practices endorsed by a majority of citizens, or should ranching families that have lived on the land for multiple generations have some kind of preemptive claim? 

I deliberately pose the question this way because these are the competing equities that have to be balanced.  While it may seem obvious that the larger public will should prevail with regard to public lands, it's also true that it's a very hard-sell for families that have made their living for generations out on the land to be told that they must change their way of life at the behest of the city-dwelling masses.  Nor should we be at all surprised when said families utterly reject said will of the masses, whatever the historical truth that underlies the mythology of the western rancher may be --and I can assure you, it is ugly, often very violent, and to paraphrase Conrad, mostly involves the taking away of land from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves.   
  

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