Following up on the last post, were you wondering why we were on top of a mountain in the first place?

We were fixing fence; a never-ending job on this ranch.

Before we move cattle into a field, we ride around the perimeter of that field to check the fence. Sometimes we're lucky and there are only a few places that need patched up. On this occasion, there was a stretch of fence about 200 feet long where most of the wires were broken. Fences this high up on the mountain usually have several broken wires, damaged by either snow and high winds or herds of elk.

I have received a few emails asking about who owns Elk Mountain and the other areas in the photos from the last post.

It's somewhat difficult to answer those questions because there are so many agencies and individual people involved in the management of the lands on our ranch. There are multiple types of land ownership, including BLM, Forest Service, state lands and private lands.  In some areas, it is easy to assume only irrigated farmground is private and everything else must be federal lands. However, there are private lands scattered throughout most federal lands. It is difficult to distinguish between private land and federal land unless they are posted with signs. Some landowners do not mind recreational use on their private land. All they ask is that users pick up their trash, stay on the roads, respect structures and livestock, and leave the gates as they were found. Landowners who do not allow recreational use on their private land post No Trespassing signs.

At one time, a ranch's private lands were managed no differently than the surrounding federal lands. In recent years due to constant litigation and pressure on the federal agencies by enviromental extremist groups, federal lands have many management and use restrictions. Oftentimes these restrictions have the potential to put a rancher out of business. Therefore, private lands have become increasingly more important to the sustainability of individual ranches.