LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF RANGE MANAGEMENT 

 By Perry J. Moore 



It is a pleasure to be asked to come here today. It is true that my 

 family has been in the state for over 100 years. We have been at the Two 

 Dot Family Ranch since 1875* 



I am a lawyer and rancher and I think some of you may have heard me 

 say in the past that that presents some problems. Among lawyers I am a 

 cowboy and among cowboys I am a lawyer and am held in contempt by members 

 of both professions.' 



If cattle prices continue the way they are, I may have to raise my fees 

 to $50 per hour in order to subsidize the cattle ranch a little more. 



I suspect that I was asked here because lawyers in this day and age are 

 considered to be good, honest, well-respected fellows. It was always thus. 

 When I was in the State Legislature, Senator Pete Story, a Livingston ran- 

 cher used to sit between Senator Gene Turnage, a lawyer, on one side and 

 Senator Tom Harrison, a lawyer, on the other side and whenever I looked at 

 that arrangement I thought of Ben Franklin's statement, "A coiintryman bet- 

 ween two lawyers is like a fish between two cats". 



If you think the lawyers have a bad public image today, I want you to 

 know it has gone on for a long time. Lord Brougham, speaking in the 17th 

 Centviry in England said "A lawyer is a worthy gentleman who rescues your 

 estate from your enemies and keeps it for himself!" 



I was interested in the slide program we saw this morning. We've had 

 tours at the ranch of the kind you've seen. Don Ryerson and Bob Ross, thr- 

 ough the years, have tried to teach me plant identification. When the test 

 comes, the children always pass and I always fail. They don't give up; they 

 have me crawling in the grass everytime they show up at the ranch. I'm sup- 

 posed to talk to you about the legal aspects of range management. One of 

 these times I'm going to stick my knee in a cactus plant and they're going 

 to find out another legal aspect of grass management — I'm going to sue 

 them I 



You might be interested in knowing I have always been a rancher and I 

 think of myself as one more than as a lawyer. One reason I became interes- 



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