It wasn't your typical meeting.

First off, only two agenda items. And they both got done.

'Course, there were only eight of us there, so that might have something to do with it. The likelihood of any meeting actually accomplishing something seems to be inversely proportional to the number of people in attendance.

As for the agenda items... the powers that be who want to build 15 miles of new fence out in the desert, where it will undoubtedly be a problem for migrating antelope (although not a great problem, as it is currently designed), will get their fence. Thereby allowing roughly 100 square miles of desert to be used as a grass bank.

For those of you unfamiliar with that term, a "grass bank" is exactly that. A place where you save grass, until you need it. A place for ranchers to let their cattle loose to feed, while giving someplace else, presumably more important to wildlife, a brief respite from that grazing.

For example, after burning an area, ideally you want to let the land rest, ungrazed, for at least two growing seasons. To give the new plants a chance to get established before critters start munching on 'em. Mind you, that is not the same as resting the pasture for two years. Burn in March and you could be grazing again by September of the following year. But still, what do you do with your cows for those 17-18 months?

Well, you truck them off to a grass bank somewhere, an allotment that is set aside, ungrazed, until needed for such purposes. Provided, of course, that said allotment has fences all the way around, so the cows stay where they're supposed to.

Since most years a grass bank generates zero revenue from grazing, you shouldn't be surprised that there aren't a lot of grass banks around. So, turning one of the outfit's habitat units into a grass bank is probably a good thing.

Except, of course, for the additional 15 miles of fence needed to close off the allotment. In an antelope herd that already has to contend with hundreds and hundreds of miles of life-threatening, migration-blocking fences. But these 15 miles of new fence will only be three wires, with the bottom wire set 20 inches off the ground to make it easier for antelope to pass under. Which is usually adequate.

Except when you have twenty inches of snow on the ground, and then they have to either jump over, charge through, or die. But still a lot better than the hundreds of miles of sheep-tight woven-wire fences that are out there right now that most antelope can neither crawl under, push through, nor jump over.

Hence the need for the meeting to resolve our complaints and concerns about antelope and fences versus the desires of the powers that be for a grass bank.

Naturally, the powers that be will win. That's why you call them "the powers that be".

But as a result of this meeting, the antelope will win, too. To mitigate the 15 miles of new fence, the outfit has committed to ripping out roughly 18 miles of the old woven wire, and replacing it with more antelope-friendly three and four-wire fences.

Replacing fences that I have been bitching about for, quite literally, more than a quarter century. And the guy in this job before me bitched about them, too. Fixing them was just no one else's priority.

Until now. They're already working on the first seven miles. Be done in two to three years.

A win-win situation. How rare.

A meeting where every one leaves happy. Probably even rarer.

'Course, this meeting did go over the time allotted, so that was fairly typical. And ended with the scheduling of yet another meeting which, unfortunately, is also typical.

But still, a good meeting.