In rememberance of Marlene Braun who tried to protect federal land from grazing during Bush admin.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/aug/20/local/me-carrizo20

I lived very near where this happened when it happened. She was bullied by a Bush appointed supporter of grazing on public land.

Suicide Casts a Shadow on Conservation Battle

A CONSERVATIONIST'S SUICIDE


National monument official was distraught at shift she said favored grazing over grasslands.

August 20, 2005|Julie Cart and Maria L. La Ganga | Times Staff Writers

CARRIZO PLAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT, Calif. — First she killed her dogs, shot them in the head with a .38-caliber revolver and covered the two bodies with a quilt. Then Marlene Braun leveled the blue steel muzzle three inches above her right ear and pulled the trigger.

"I can't face what appears to be required to continue to live in my world," the meticulous 46-year-old wrote in May in a suicide note. "Most of all, I cannot leave Carrizo, a place where I finally found a home and a place I love dearly."


snip

In her suicide note, as well as a long chronology she prepared of her final year, Braun laid out her fears for the future of Carrizo Plain and told how her life had become "utterly unbearable." Braun accused Huntsinger, with whom she had clashed for months, of intimidating and bullying her.

The two disagreed about the future of livestock grazing on the monument, with Braun arguing that the practice be phased out in order to preserve native plants and animals. Huntsinger complained that Braun was insubordinate, suspended her once, and was preparing another reprimand at the time of Braun's death.