(Kris Stewart) – I’ve spent more than two years with you good folks writing about everything from ranching, Nevada’s wildlife and beautiful wild spaces to grief, faith and family.
I’ve pretty religiously stayed off the subject of politics, until now. I just believe that today, the stakes for our nation, our families and our very way of life have never been higher, and I know with my whole heart that as a citizenry, we are being lied to and manipulated.
I want to back up and tell you a personal story that I think will illustrate some essential truths if you are willing to absorb them. First, I want to say that I acknowledge that Donald Trump is a divisive figure, and at least some of that controversial nature is of his own making. Now onto my story.
In July 2018, the Martin fire destroyed over 430,000 acres of Northern Nevada. It remains the single largest wildfire in our state’s history. It devastated our ranching operation along with damaging nine other operations in and around Paradise Valley.
Because so few “people” were hurt, a net total of zero FEMA dollars rolled into to assist us in recovering. We outright lost our entire BLM grazing permit (60,000 acres), 15% of our cattle herd, and an additional 50% of our cow herd miscarried or aborted calves that fall. We also lost over 33 miles of fencing and more than 1/3 of our private property (6,280 acres plus a dwelling).
As the fire still raged, two executive directors of Nevada Cattlemen’s Association called to implore Fred and me to share our story real-time. These men were headed back to DC to testify before Congress and their plea was “it’s finally happened to a historic ranch that no one can ignore, please write your story and let us tell it”.
Long story short, they didn’t tell our story in DC, guess something else was more important. It made Fred and me so angry that we organized our own trip and vowed not to return until we had been heard.
The subject was simple. Poor management of the public grazing resource had allowed what should have been an unfortunate but controllable wildfire to turn into something that devastated nearly a half million acres of land, animals and our ranching community.
We arrived in September once the political class had returned from summer break and we along with our congressional delegation worked doggedly to get us in front of everyone from the head of the US Forrest Service, Director of the BLM, Undersecretary of Interior to more than two dozen key members of the house and senate. On our last day, we got the unexpected call that senior White House staff would also meet with us.
We told our story, left before and after photos and delivered a two page, 8 point, common sense plan to reform the use of grazing resources on the public lands of the West. We came home, not sure if our efforts would succeed in changing minds or policy. Four days after our return, I received a call asking if I would be available to talk with the President later that evening. My response? “President of what?”
The caller was Madeline Westerhout, personal assistant to our 45th President. I indeed took President Trump’s call four hours later. He was kind, knowledgeable and very interested in not only what had happened to our ranch, but about my plan for reform. He liked the plan and promised action.
On December 21, 2018, he followed through with Executive order 13855, Promoting Active Management of America’s Forests, Rangelands, and Other Federal Lands To Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk
I ask you a simple question, could or would a man who has been portrayed as self centered, evil, immoral, egotistical etc. really take the time and burn the political capital necessary to help a handful of very average, politically unconnected, rural folks from a state with two electoral college votes?
Come on, no matter where you land on the political continuum, you have to honestly know that he took this action because it was right and good for real citizens, not because it helped him politically.
My bottom line is that, my true story explains exactly who Donald Trump really is, no matter what you have been bottle fed by corrupt corporate media and left wing pundits and politicians.
If you really care about the future of our great nation, please digest this. If you believe Donald Trump is a monster, you have been lied to. He is our best and perhaps last great hope to restore and repair the greatest democratic republic in history.
Kris Stewart is a rancher in Paradise Valley, Nevada