We’re off to a new week and a new month here at RANGE, developing more exciting ideas for this weekly newsletter and making it as useful as possible for you. We got our foundation website up and running and will continue to build that so it’s easy for you to see which projects the foundation is supporting and give proper recognition to those who make our projects possible.

We are also elbow-deep in the editing/design/creation of the Summer 2026 edition of the magazine and having a great time in the office working with all the amazing RANGE writers from across the country. Although I wish I could meet each one of them in person, I’m grateful for the technology that is making all this possible.

Besides all that, the photo contest is in the bag, and preparations have started for the 2027 Real Buckaroo Calendar. How are we prepping for 2027 already, and it’s just now March? We hope all is well for you, wherever you are in our vast RANGE family — and if you would, please forward this email to anyone you think would get some use out of it.

By Chance Gowan

Just when you thought the “far-left–anti-everything” crowd couldn’t swing any further, Oregon animal rights petitioners have introduced Initiative Petition 28. Supporters of this petition call the proposal the PEACE ACT, short for People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions.

In a nutshell, this measure would prohibit and criminalize hunting, fishing - including catch and release, scientific research, ranching, pest control, and essentially any other activity that may have an impact on animals or insects. Yes, pest control, even for farmers, would be outlawed and criminalized.

This is their third attempt, with similar measures failing to make the ballot in both 2022 and 2024. This time, though, supporters have raised a lot more money and have already gathered nearly enough signatures to ensure a spot on the ballot in November.

The chief petitioner, David Michelson, has openly compared the initiative to the women’s suffrage movement, stating, “We’re inspired by women’s suffrage, which used the ballot initiative to get the right to vote. In Oregon, it took six election cycles before it finally passed.” The intent is to keep re-packaging this initiative while continually re-phrasing and modifying the verbiage in hopes of someday tricking and ultimately wearing down the voting public with misinformation campaigns.

Make no mistake, this petition would ban all hunting, fishing, livestock production, and animal research throughout the state. If enacted, the economic impact would be substantial. Hunting and angling industries, livestock operations, and agricultural pest control practices would be affected statewide. Rural communities dependent on outdoor recreation, animal agriculture, and food production would face sweeping change.

Critics argue that the proposal would effectively eliminate animal agriculture in Oregon and sharply reduce in-state food production, increasing reliance on imports from other states.

The full text of this initiative covers nearly every industry that involves animals and farming. The extent of this lunacy goes so far as to reclassify animal husbandry practices as “sexual assault of an animal.”

I’ve no idea where these people expect to get their next meal – agricultural production, including dairy and cheese, and even lettuce, would essentially be prohibited.  This may seem like laughable craziness, but the threat is real. The economic impacts on Oregon and other states that follow its lead are incalculable.

Ranchers Question Compensation as Navy Completes Land Withdrawal

By Leanna Lehman

Ranchers whose private ground and grazing allotments were included in the expansion of the U.S. Navy training ranges in central Nevada met with officials from Naval Air Station Fallon and the Systems Command Southwest from San Diego, along with the Bureau of Land Management, last week and voiced concerns over the process being used to value compensation the Navy promised over an eight-year negotiation.

Navy personnel confirmed that land withdrawals for the B-17 and B-20 ranges are complete, and those areas are now closed to ranchers and the public. The expansion, authorized by Congress in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, transferred approximately 489,000 acres of federal land to Navy control, affecting 13 grazing allotments.

With reduced grazing access now in place, the BLM has begun issuing new permits reflecting lower Animal Unit Month (AUM) levels. At the same time, the Navy is developing compensation packages for what it describes as long-term losses to affected ranching operations.

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) estimated permanent economic losses in Churchill County alone between $490 million and $683 million over time. While the EIS concluded that overall, county-wide economic activity would not be significantly affected, individual ranching operations face substantial reductions in grazing capacity.

Much of the Feb. 11 discussion centered on compensation methodology and whether signing new BLM permits could affect payment negotiations. NAS Fallon Commanding Officer Capt. Mike Haymon said the two are independent, and BLM officials agreed to amend permit language to clarify that signing does not constitute acceptance of compensation terms.

Still, ranchers voiced deep concerns.

Justin Snow, who has already gone through the valuation process, said the compensation he received for projected losses was minimal. He also expressed frustration with the documentation requirements tied to valuation.

“I felt trapped by the permit language,” Snow said. He declined to sign his revised permit and said the compensation for his projected losses was “nominal.”

Snow and others questioned whether contracted appraisals adequately account for the realities of legacy ranch operations, agricultural lending structures, and fluctuating cattle markets.

The Navy maintains that individualized financial data is necessary to determine fair market value and that lessons learned from previous range transfers are being applied to improve the process.

For ranchers, however, the larger issue remains unresolved: grazing land lost to withdrawal cannot be replaced elsewhere, and long-term compensation models do little to address immediate debt and operating costs.

The land is now restricted - negotiations continue.

USDA - Secretary Rollins commented this week, as was reported by several news outlets, as saying, “I have learned that my words can move markets,” adding that any future announcement would be made carefully.”

The secretary was speaking at the Commodity Classic, where she discussed opening southern border livestock ports and the New World Screwworm. Producers have expressed frustration at announcements made by the secretary and other leaders that have immediate effects on cattle prices at local auction barns, as well as the cattle market as a whole.

The 2026 Farm Bill is scheduled for a full committee hearing tomorrow, March 3, at 5 p.m. in the Longworth Building in Washington, D.C. The committee will consider H.R. 7567, The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, and has provided a link for the public to watch. There is also a fairly easy-to-use webpage that does a good job of making it easy to understand various pieces of the bill; click here to see that information.

RANGE in the wild — we’ve received several calls in the last month from people who haven’t been able to find their RANGE magazine on newsstands where they regularly like to buy. We think we’ve tracked down why, but if you would do us a favor and, when you see RANGE magazine in local stores, snap a quick picture and email it to [email protected] We sure appreciate the help, and it would be fun to see RANGE magazine out in the world. Be sure to include yourself - we would love to see our readers too!

The RANGE Community Foundation is our permanent funding arm dedicated to preserving and building on the important work CJ began when she first established RANGE magazine – independent rural journalism and national distribution of reporting on ranching, farming, land stewardship, and rural policy.

Our purpose is simple: ensure that fact-based, field-driven reporting from rural America continues and expands.

Through this effort, RANGE publications and books will be placed in schools, libraries, medical offices, and policy institutions nationwide, while new reporting and publishing initiatives are developed.

This is not a short-term project. It is a long-term investment in the health of our communities.

If you believe rural reporting is civic infrastructure — and that the stories of land, water, livestock, and community deserve to be told with accuracy and depth — we invite you to join us.

You can find all the fun RANGE merch in the store and online at Great Basin Trading Co. Check out our original RANGE t-shirts, our new “Confessions of a Red Meat Survivor” wear, and we even have coffee mugs.

We also have the beautiful RANGE books for sale at the RANGE magazine website — check out “Skinner’s Landscapes,” by The Wandering Scout, “At the Edge of Out There,” the book CJ published last year, “Brushstrokes & Balladeers,” and all the other beautiful books by the talented writers who have contributed to RANGE over the years

We’ll see you next week, there’s work to do — load up!

Top photo by Rachel Dahl — Great Basin sunset