DESERT TORTOISE – OH, GIVE ME A HOME!

(Bunkerville, NV) Oh give me a home on the range where my grandfather was not in a box, but his house was a hole in the rocks.  If we are going to get these tortoises out of the sanctuary prisons and get them back to their natural habitat on Bundy Ranch, the time is right.  The weather has cooled, the summer rains have brought green fresh tortoise feed.  Within the next 30 days all the tortoises should be moved.  Bundy said, “I have offered to share my ranch with the imprisoned tortoise.  I do not want them to be euthanized.  I decided to visit the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) to see the 1400 imprisoned tortoises so I could determine how big of a trailer it would take to transfer the tortoise to my ranch.  I found Rainbow Blvd. traveled south, which always seems west to this old cowboy when he’s in Las Vegas.  I came to the end of the street, made a three-mile detour around a large new subdivision, back to Rainbow Blvd.  There I see a heavy steel gate with a badly maintained trail for a road behind it, gate locked and a sign that reads, open two days a week before 12:00 noon.  My trip was in vain.  I climbed up a bank of dirt to a high vantage point.  I could see buildings and fencing.  There it is, a tortoise prison.  Urban development had sprawled across the Las Vegas valley desert floor, up the slope toward California, new houses almost outreach the tortoise sanctuary. 

 There was a little breeze in the air.  I thought I could hear a whispering sound!  Oh, give me a home on the range.  Oh, oh, give me a home on the range.  I do not want to live in a box any more!  I want to go where my grandfathers explored. This sound could be coming from the prison at Jean, Nevada, but I don’t think so.  I can hear!  Oh, give me a home on the range so I can roam, before the doctor comes and sticks that needle behind my ear!  Or before the bulldozer comes to build new homes!  My heart sinks a little as I think of what man has done to this creature.” 

 Bundy said his thoughts went back to how big of a truck do we need to move the tortoise?  A recent Las Vegas Review Journal article said that there are 1400 tortoises.  If we are in time to save the 700 that were to be euthanized, then there should be 1400 tortoises, but LVRJ also said that the sanctuary had been taking in over 1000 tortoises every year for almost 20 years.  Tortoises live over 60 years so most of those tortoises should still be alive.  That’s 20,000 tortoises that need to be removed and relocated to their native habitat, but what about the 20,000’s clutches?  Each mature female should have laid an 8 to 12 egg clutch and if they all hatched each year there could and should be hundreds of thousands of imprisoned critters. Oh, Bundy said he knows that they try to sex them. He means separate the Hes from the shes.  He means the girls from the boys.  You know, the tortoise lovers keep the tortoises from loving!  Now if the ravens have not flown over the tortoise fence and ate all the juveniles and the stewards that have cared for them have not euthanized them, let’s guess, maybe 100,000 are left alive.  A big double-decker cattle truck has 800 sq. ft. of floor space.  We will give each tortoise 1 sq. ft. of floor space in the truck. Volunteer tortoise lovers can help carry each tortoise up the ramp into the two storied 50 ft. truck.  800 tortoises per truck divided by 100,000 tortoises, equals 121 truckloads to move to the Bundy Ranch.  He said the big trucks could drive across his ranch to deliver the tortoise but the roads are not maintained because the Clark County Road Department and the BLM and Park Service wants it (the land) to go back to wilderness status.  We could have tortoise lovers bring ATVs with special padded baskets to transfer tortoises to tortoise habitat where in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, there were lots of cattle, thousands of sheep and abundance of happy tortoises which for thousands of years dug burrows in hard cleechie ledges along washes.  These burrows are still waiting to be reshaped and made into their new winter home.  WE HAVE A PROBLEM! Lots of roads and trails have Road Closed signs stating, Stay on Designated Road 10-years or $100,000 fine.  We cannot risk a tortoise lover who is only trying to get an imprisoned tortoise to its native habitat before getting euthanized.  The Good Samaritan will be arrested for getting off the trail and on the grass by a BLM or park service ranger (impersonating a county sheriff) given a ticket or transported to federal jail with a 10-years or $100,000 charge in federal court.  That’s just too much risk upon the tortoise’s friends. Too much money, and too much of a hassle and worry to go through the US Federal court system.

 WE NEED HELP – Nevada Governor Sandoval, Clark County Commissioners, and Sheriff Gillespie!

LA TIMES

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. — Squinting into the morning light, Cliven Bundy lifted the brim of his western hat and watched his youngest son, who sat silently in the saddle of a mixed-breed horse he named Turbo.

At 15, Arden Bundy is cowboy sturdy, a trusted ranch hand on the family spread 100 miles north of Las Vegas. He wears dusty boots with bloodstains on his chaps from calf-roping escapades. He also has the cowpoke pose down cold: the knowing slouch, right thumb hooked into his oversized belt buckle.

The 67-year-old Bundy, a father of 14, said the boy reminds him of himself, his own father and grandfather — generations of Bundys who have ranched and muscled this unforgiving landscape along the Virgin River since the 1880s.

"He's a real cowboy," he said of Arden, his only child still living at the ranch. "Those bloodstains could be from the cattle, his horse or even him. I want him to run this ranch one day. He's the one I'm fighting for."

Bundy believes big government is trying to sabotage his plans to one day hand over the ranch's reins to his son, by stripping Bundy of land-use rights his family spent a century earning. He says overregulation has already driven scores of fellow ranchers out of business in sprawling Clark County, leaving him as the last man standing.

For two decades, Bundy has waged a one-man range war with federal officials over his cattle's grazing on 150 square miles of scrub desert overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. Since 1993, he's refused to pay BLM grazing fees. He claims he "fired the BLM," vowing not to give one dime to an agency that's plotting his demise. The back fees exceed $300,000, he said.

Now a showdown looms, one with a hint of possible violence.

Officials say Bundy and his son are illegally running cattle in the 500,000-acre Gold Butte area, a habitat of the protected desert tortoise. In July, U.S. District Judge Lloyd D. George ruled that if Bundy did not remove his cattle by Aug. 23, they could be seized by the BLM.

That hasn't happened — yet — and the rancher insists his cattle aren't going anywhere. He acknowledges that he keeps firearms at his ranch and has vowed to do "whatever it takes" to defend his animals from seizure.

"I've got to protect my property," Bundy said as Arden steered several cattle inside an elongated pen. "If people come to monkey with what's mine, I'll call the county sheriff. If that don't work, I'll gather my friends and kids and we'll try to stop it. I abide by all state laws. But I abide by almost zero federal laws."

The face-off is the second time Bundy has challenged federal officials. In 1998, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against the white-haired rancher, ordering his cattle off the land.

Representing himself, Bundy lost his appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A simple man in a plaid shirt and denims, he's handled his legal battle from his Nevada ranch house, arguing in mailed-off court filings that his Mormon ancestors worked the land long before the BLM was even formed, giving him rights that predate federal involvement.

Despite the court order, he refused to pull one head of cattle off BLM land. "At first I said, 'No,'" he said, "then I said, 'Hell, no.'"

His defiance led to visits by Department of Homeland Security officials and local sheriff's deputies, who interviewed Bundy's neighbors to determine any possible threat. But the BLM took little public action — until this summer.

The case is the latest flourish of the civil disobedience popularized during the 1970s Sagebrush Rebellion, a movement that sought greater local control in 12 Western states where the federal government administers 60% of the land. In Nevada, the BLM manages 87% of the state's land.

Experts say antigovernment clashes at Idaho's Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, are the modern chapters of an old Western story.

"It's the 18th century mind-set that the sweat off your brow determines your ability to survive, not the government," said Jeffrey Richardson, a historian at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. "But the notion of the great pioneer has been slowly chipped away by barbed wire and government regulation."

Bending to federal will is hard for independents like Bundy, Richardson added: "If a family has worked for generations to shape the land to their needs, it's difficult. These people have long thrived in difficult territory."

Others say Bundy's rugged individualism is misguided. "The reality is this is public land, and that means something," said Paul Starrs, a geography professor at the University of Nevada at Reno. "He's part of a long chain and he's entitled to feel oppressed. But that doesn't mean he's right."

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie visited the rancher last year but has resisted enforcing federal deadlines, declining to put his deputies in danger over a herd of cattle. Gillespie called Bundy recently with the names of a few lawyers to contact. "I don't know if he's looking out for me or trying to protect his own skin," Bundy said. "But I told him he needs to defend my life, liberty and property."

Bundy's supporters include Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins, who doesn't buy the BLM's argument that it's trying to protect the desert tortoise. "The U.S. government has perpetrated a bigger fraud on people over those tortoises than Al Capone did selling swampland in Miami," he said.

Collins added that Nevada officials were studying whether to petition the federal government for local control over a wide swath of land that includes the area Bundy is fighting over.

"Cliven doesn't want to be a martyr — the guy who shot it out with the feds, Waco-style," he said. "I just hope the government isn't stupid enough to go pick a fight with him."

Bundy and Arden recently sat at the kitchen table, eating bacon and sourdough pancakes coated with heavy cream and peaches, before heading out to repair their irrigation equipment on public land. Bundy admitted his own spread runs to just 160 acres, far less than he needs to keep 500 head of cattle alive.

But he said his improvements, including 100 wells his family dug from beneath the desert scrub, have bettered the land. He says the federal plan to close off the area for the sake of the tortoises will ban not just his cattle but the general public from land with natural beauty that should be enjoyed.

He shook his head: And all over a tortoise.

Carol Bundy said her husband is not a violent man, just a person who will protect what he owns. For that matter, so is she. "I've got a shotgun," she said. "It's loaded. And I know how to use it. We're ready to do what we have to do, but we'd rather win this in the court of public opinion."

Grabbing another fistful of bacon, Arden said he wants to be part of any upcoming battle. His mother smiled. "Arden doesn't know life any other way," she said. "We've been fighting this war before he was born."

The 10th-grader said most students respect his buckaroo persona. "Others think I'm a joke," he said. "But I don't care what anyone says. This is the life I want to lead. I'm a cowboy and always will be."

He has plans for the Bundy ranch and wants to attend technical school so he can fix his own equipment. For now, he gets up at 5 a.m. to finish his chores before school, although he'd rather stay all day right there at the ranch, by his father's side.

While Bundy may be ready to hand over the ranch, Arden still knows who's boss.

Before heading out in the old pickup that Bundy has run 200,000 miles across the Nevada desert, Arden asked his dad a question.

"When we gettin' back?"

The old man sat silent.

"When we get back."

WATCH VIDEO HERE :

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nevada-range-wars-20130915,0,5168128.story by John M. Glionna

September 14, 2013, 9:08 p.m.

IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

BUNDY HAS REMEDY TO UNNECESSARY KILLING OF TORTOISE

(Bunkerville, NV) Cliven Bundy offers to take in all Desert Tortoises marked for senseless killing and have them brought to his ranch where he grazes his cattle on Nevada State Public Lands.  He says they can range on his ranch while the Nevada State Officials establish an adoption program to place these Tortoises scheduled to be killed by the federal Tortoise caretakers. Bundy Ranch is a perfect habitat for the Desert Tortoise, proper elevation, proper climate, proper terrain; the Tortoise’s diet is the same as the Brahma Cow’s. It is a well-established scientific fact that the Tortoise lives well on cattle droppings (cow pies) because the cow does not digest very much of the nutrients in the grass they eat which leaves much protein still for the Tortoise to live on. “I am happy to share my forage and water rights in order to save the devastating euthanization of this innocent and interesting critter,” Bundy notes. For thousands of years the Desert Tortoise could have wandered to the mountain areas, or they could have traveled to the lower wetlands and meadows, but they chose to live in this rough desert habitat which has been designated as “critical”.  Bundy says, “I’m not doing this because of some phony Endangered Species listing of the Tortoise, not at all; I’m doing this for the humanity of preventing the senseless killing of innocent wildlife that is the property of the State of Nevada and its Citizens.  It’s very clear now that it was always about money and never the betterment of the Tortoise.”

It is well established that the Bundy Ranch has served for several generations a well-managed safe haven for wildlife due to the extensive range stewardship implemented by Bundy in his continued development of his water out here on the dry desert.  All forms of wildlife have flourished along with much plant life as well.  Cliven is an animal and plant lover and for his entire life on the ranch as he continues on into his late 60’s to cultivate the soil to grow the best melons around and put up the finest hay for his cattle.  The Bundy Ranch has also for several generations been providing food for public consumption and one more batch of wildlife to come onto the Bundy Ranch for sustenance and salvation like that of this Desert Tortoise will be no bother at all.

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Desert tortoise faces threat from its own refuge

Posted: Aug 26, 2013 9:20 AM PDT

Updated: Aug 26, 2013 9:20 AM PDT

 

A desert tortoise finds relief from the sun under a bush in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve north of St. George, Utah, Wednesday, April 18, 2001. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

LAS VEGAS (AP) -

For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.

Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It's been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas.

But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it.

Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they've been caring for since the reptiles were added to the endangered species list in 1990.

Officials expect to put down more than half the 1,400 tortoises at the research and holding facility in the coming months in preparation for closure at the end of 2014.

Rancher Bundy files for appeal in land dispute

Cliven Bundy has filed an appeal in an attempt to stave off the seizure of his cattle by the Bureau of 

Land Management, which is scheduled for Aug. 23 based on an order issued by Nevada District Judge 

Lloyd D. George on July 9. The appeal is the latest in a nearly two-decades-old battle between the 

rancher and federal government regarding grazing rights.

The ruling is actually an extension of the original 1998 action in which Bundy was "permanently 

enjoined from grazing his livestock within a different area, the Bunkerville Allotment, and ordered 

Bundy to remove his livestock from the Allotment before November 30, 1998."

Also, in May 2012, another complaint was filed in which Bundy was allegedly found to be grazing his 

livestock without authorization on land owned by the United States, administered by the secretary of 

the Interior, BLM and the National Parks Service. The action included more area because Bundy's 

animals allegedly had drifted even further into an area that includes some of the Gold Butte around 

Lake Mead National Recreation area and the Overton Arm, otherwise known as "New Trespass land," 

according to court papers.

Allegations also include Bundy's livestock "cause damage to natural and cultural resources and pose a 

threat to public safety." The threat to the endangered desert tortoise that resides in Gold Butte and other 

areas is part of the "damage," according to documents.

"I am not done fighting by any means," Bundy said.

If his appeal is not accepted, or a stay isn't granted, Bundy said he will just "keep on ranching, like I've 

always done."

The Bundy Ranch, he said, extends north to south from the Lincoln County line -- or the Mormon 

Mountains -- to the Gold Butte area known as Whitney Pockets and from east to west from Bunkerville 

to Lake Mead, he said.

His argument is that he grazes his cattle on Nevada and Clark County land in accordance to Nevada 

law, and that the federal government has no jurisdiction overRancher Bundy files for appeal in land 

dispute the state lands.

"Are we a state or a territory in the United States?"

George's ruling is that "the public lands in Nevada are the property of the United States because the 

United States has held title to those public lands since 1848, when Mexico ceded the land to the United 

States," according to court documents.

"I can't believe a federal judge wouldn't recognize the sovereign right of the state of Nevada," he said.

"The pilgrims came her seeking liberty and happiness ... and when the Constitution was written it 

mandated only 10-square miles to the United States," the rest is public land, he said. "They did that for 

a reason. They wanted to prevent the government from having too much power."

George did not consider that concept in his ruling, Bundy said.

"I will hold George accountable for this," he said.

In his newest appeal, Bundy writes that the designation of the desert tortoise is a "fraud," that the 

tortoise has never been proven to be an endangered species according to the Endangered Species Act of 

1973 and that state sovereignty is not upheld with the current ruling.

But the problem is also in that "the cattle have drifted further because there is no fence maintained," he 

said. "That's the whole problem. They haven't maintained a fence, and they expect me to shoulder the 

expense to get them (off the land)."

The BLM is supposed to have a fence, he said, and maintain it to prevent drifting, whether it be his 

animals or someone else's, he said.

Hillerie Patton, BLM public affairs officer, would not comment on the situation because the case is 

ongoing.

Bundy emphasized that the battle is not just his, but that of anyone who wants access to those lands.

"I want to be able to keep the public access, keep my vested water and grazing rights and keep the 

economic value of the land," he said.

An example of federal intervention would be the Echo Bay area of Lake Mead, he said.

"I went there, and everything is closed or locked up," he said. "There are animal tracks but not a single 

human track. You can't buy gas or even a hamburger. That's what happens when the federal 

government gets involved, everything gets shut down and no one can use it."

Bunkerville rancher appeals ruling on cattle grazing on Gold Butte range

JOHN LOCHER/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Cliven Bundy moves hay to feed cattle at his ranch near Bunkerville on April 13. Bundy has filed an appeal to a judge's ruling, ordering him to remove cattle from the Gold Butte range, which is public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.

By KEITH ROGERS

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that orders him to remove cattle from the Gold Butte range where they have wandered from a grazing allotment that public lands managers canceled 19 years ago.

Bundy filed an appeal Friday to the July 9 ruling by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Lloyd D. George that gives Bundy until Aug. 23 to remove strays from his herd of more than 500 cattle grazing on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. If he doesn’t comply, federal agencies can seize and impound them.

The possible action is tied to a related case that resulted in a 1998 ruling ordering Bundy to remove his cattle from the former Bunkerville allotment, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The BLM canceled Bundy’s permit for the Bunkerville allotment in 1994. But he continued to let his cattle graze on the vast, sage-dotted landscape — without paying the $2-per-head, per-month fee.

Although that case was closed in 1999 after Bundy lost an appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. attorneys filed a new motion this year that seeks a court order for the state brand inspector to allow impounded cattle to be sold at auction. In addition they seek a directive that precludes Bundy from physically interfering with the government’s effort to round up any of his trespass cattle.

In a news release accompanying his appeal of the July 9 ruling, Bundy said he will be filing a motion for stay to prevent the government from proceeding with George’s order.

“The big question not addressed by the lower court was the fraud committed by the BLM in ordering all cattle off the Nevada public lands back in the 1990s,” Bundy’s news release states.

The basis for his appeal is his belief that federal biologists wrongly used the Endangered Species Act to claim that his cattle grazing damaged habitat critical to the federally protected desert tortoise, which is listed as a threatened reptile.

“It is very clear that this critter does not come under the jurisdiction of the Endangered Species Act and all actions taking the BLM to strip me of my property rights, and all the folks here in Nevada that had to pay mitigation fees for the tortoise were stolen from also,” Bundy stated.

Officials for the BLM’s Southern Nevada District Office had no comment Monday on Bundy’s appeal.

When Bundy didn’t comply with the 1998 order, the BLM had authority to seize the herd but did not act until April 2012, when a roundup was planned and then abruptly suspended. BLM officials cited safety concerns for people involved with rounding up an estimated 900 head of cattle as reason for suspending the roundup indefinitely.

Bundy has said he would do “whatever it takes” to resist government efforts to remove his cattle from rangeland used by his family since 1877. In an April 11 motion filed in the related case, U.S. attorneys noted Bundy’s “often confrontational behavior” and “the possibility that Bundy will attempt to physically resist any federal impoundment action.”

“The United States therefore requests that this court direct Bundy not to physically interfere with the federal impoundment of his cattle, should such an impoundment become necessary,” the government’s motion reads

.

BLM may seize Bundy’s cattle after Aug. 23 deadline

The rock formations at Whitney Pockets sizzled under Saturday’s clear skies and blazing sun. The BLM-managed area is part of the proposed Gold Butte National Conservation Area to be considered by the U.S. Congress after the August break and a part of the area where Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy is accused of grazing cattle without a permit. Several head of free-roaming cattle were seen crossing the Gold Butte Road during this excursion. Photo by Kent Harper

Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy’s long battle with the federal government over cattle he grazes illegally in the Gold Butte area may be coming to an end.

United States District Judge Lloyd D. George on July 9 ordered Bundy to remove his cattle by Aug. 23 or face having them seized and impounded by the Bureau of Land Management.

Bundy’s claim that federal district court doesn’t have jurisdiction because the United States does not own the public lands in question also was denied by George in his summary judgment.

The ruling again would allow BLM law enforcement agents to remove feral cattle and cattle with Bundy’s brand from the Gold Butte area, which has been designated as habitat reserved for the protected desert tortoise.

A plan to remove the cattle last fall was canceled after BLM officials said they feared Bundy might resort to violence if the attempted to round up his cattle.

According to a Nov. 26, 2012, article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Bundy had notifiedCattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc., the company contracted to gather the cattle, that he would "do whatever it takes to protect his property and rights and liberty and freedoms."

That canceled roundup was to enforce a judgment against Bundy dating back to Nov. 3, 1998, when the court ordered him to remove his cattle from the Bunkerville allotment before Nov. 30 of that year.

He later lost an appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. But the federal government, nonetheless did not enforce the court order, and Bundy’s cattle freely roamed the allotment and onto public land around Gold Butte and National Park Service area along the Overton Arm of Lake Mead.

The case ruled upon July 9, 2013, was filed by U.S. attorneys on May 14, 2012, and addresses that “broad swath of additional federal land,” the court referred to as “new trespass lands.”

Bundy’s legal woes with the federal government began in the early 1990s when he stopped paying his mandated grazing fees. Citing his family’s use of the land since 1877, he complained the BLM’s management was geared to get ranchers and livestock off public lands. The BLM canceled his Bunkerville allotment in 1994, but he has continued to graze his cattle there and allowed them to roam outside of that allotment.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal article cited a BLM investigation conducted in March 2011 that discovered more than 900 cattle roaming throughout the 500,000-acre Gold Butte area.

In seeking injunctive relief, the U.S. attorneys said Bundy’s trespassing not only causes damage to natural and cultural resources, but also poses a danger to motorists as free-roaming cattle frequently cross the Gold Butte Road which in some areas has blind curves and frequent hills and dips which impair visibility.

By Kent Harper