ABSTRACT
The American people in general, and specifically those with environmental/conservation interests, have long had a love/hate relationship with ranching. On the one hand, ranches and ranchers are frequently discussed among our unique contributions to world popular culture. The cowboy image evokes a yearning, if not precisely for cows and sheep, for wide open spaces, simple virtues, masculine self-sufficiency, and healthy living. This image, though widely at variance with the actual working conditions of the real “cowboy,” nevertheless drives movie stars and Los Angeles dentists to purchase Montana ranches. The less well-heeled among us are inspired by the marketing of the ranch mystique to buy all sorts of products including some that are not good for our health, such as high-heeled, pointy-toed shoes and cigarettes. On the other hand, followers of John Muir * have also reviled ranching, ranchers, and livestock as land grabbers, cattle barons, hooved locusts, and whatever else the rhetoric of the day required.
