Wrangling over range rights lands rancher, government back at starting point

JOHN LOCHER/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

Cliven Bundy's family has grazed cattle on the Gold Butte range 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas since 1877.

By KEITH ROGERS

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Like a merry-go-round it can’t get off, the Bureau of Land Management is back where it started 15 years ago, faced with forcibly rounding up Cliven Bundy’s herd of more than 500 cattle from public land at Gold Butte.

U.S. District Judge Lloyd D. George recently ordered Bundy to remove his cattle from a large expanse of the Gold Butte range, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The area includes land around Bunkerville covered by a 1998 court order after biologists determined that grazing there damages habitat for federally protected desert tortoises.

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.

Bundy has said he would resist government efforts to remove his cattle from rangeland used by his family since 1877.

It’s unclear what the BLM will do next. Officials at the BLM Southern Nevada District Office had no comment Thursday. A spokeswoman said District Manager Tim Smith was unavailable.

George set an Aug. 23 deadline for compliance, ruling that “the United States is entitled to seize and remove to impound any of Bundy’s cattle for any future trespasses.”

Bundy said he won’t budge but will appeal part of the ruling that deals with the Endangered Species Act.

“I’m going to bring my battle right back to where we were in 1998,” Bundy, 67, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

“I’m not moving my cattle off,” he said. “This is putting a lot of pressure on the county sheriff. Is he going to protect me or sit on the sidelines?”

U.S. attorneys representing the BLM and the National Park Service filed a complaint in federal court against Bundy in May 2012, about a month after the BLM aborted the roundup. The complaint sought an injunction to force Bundy to remove his cattle. George granted it July 9.

About a week before last year’s planned roundup, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie toured the Gold Butte range with Bundy. Afterward, Gillespie told the Review-Journal he had told Bundy that “these are federal lands” and BLM officials “can do what they want to do.”

“I use my influence to make sure whatever is done is done by the law and No. 2, it is done peacefully,” Gillespie said at the time.

After the roundup was suspended, an environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, criticized the BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect tortoise habitat.

Reacting to George’s statement, the group said “the court has provided the BLM with a clear and undisputed mandate to proceed ahead with what should have occurred over 12 years ago — to protect the rights of the American public by ending illegal grazing that has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars while imperiling the protected desert tortoise,” said Rob Mrowka, a Nevada-based ecologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The foot-dragging by the departments of Justice and the Interior has been nothing short of criminal in itself.”

In his July ruling, George, the senior judge at U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, said Bundy’s opposition based on the premise that the United States doesn’t own the land is moot.

“The public lands in Nevada are the property of the United States because the United States has held title ... since 1848, when Mexico ceded the land the United States,” George wrote .

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.

George wrote that “Bundy has produced no valid law or specific facts raising a genuine issue of fact regarding federal ownership or management of public lands in Nevada.”

PRESS RELEASE

(Bunkerville, NV) Cliven D. Bundy, long-time southern Nevada rancher interviews with Las Vegas City Life Magazine, Dec. 2, 2010, with Amy Kingsley. This interview sparked an interest in Bundy's ranch, grazing the renewable resources, livestock fed on Clark County Public Lands. He operates a viable ranching business converting brush and grass from rangeland to an edible commodity for man, (red meat – Steaks!)

Shortly thereafter, Environmental groups threatened to sue BLM for not doing their job of removing Bundy from so called Federal land. They claim he was trespassing, and claimed BLM was not doing their job, order of US District Court and the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, ordering Bundy to remove his cows. (Case was closed 9/10/1999.)

The movement to make Gold Butte a National Conservation Area put more pressure on BLM to get cattle and all range improvements off the land.

Through the year 2011 and into April 2012, BLM sent Bundy livestock trespass notices, range improvement trespass notices to remove all livestock and all range improvements, notices of impoundment and counting of cattle, (March 2011, August 2011, February 2012, March 2012), using up to 27 personnel on the field, many so called law inforcers with helicopters, airplanes, and all in fully equipped armor vehicles and communications. A bureaucratic armed force with it's snipers. The bureaucrats were flexing their muscles, causing friction. RANGE WAR IS SMOKING!

Fearless Bundy smells the smoke, inquiring of his secret informers, NO fear of an army without Constitutional authority, without policing power, or arresting power. Bureaucrats out of their scope of authority.

Bundy, knowing Feds always get someone to do their dirty work, discovers his neighbor's brother, Dave Cattoor, had the contract to gather and impound Bundy's cattle. Cattoor's being a family friend and had been assured that Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc. would never contract with BLM to gather his cattle. Bundy delivers a friendly letter, asking the Cattoor family to reconsider their contract cowboy commitment with BLM and giving them a deadline of April 9, 2012, 4:00 pm.

Clark County Sheriff Gillespie, family, friends, and media are asking Bundy what are you going to do?  You've got to do something. You have got to hire a lawyer, file an injunction or something to stop the impoundment action. Bundy calmly says, “I do not have a takings. They have not taken one cow from me or one dollar, but I will do what ever it takes to protect my family's lives, liberty and property.”

After April 9, 2012, 4:00 pm, Bundy fires his first shot. It rang loud and clear. A Constructive Notice and Lien to the Cattoor family and company. Putting on notice:

DAVE CATTOOR, individually

SUE CATTOOR, individually

TROY CATTOOR, individually

SANDY CATTOOR, individually

CATTOOR LIVESTOCK ROUNDUP, INC. Nevada and/or Utah

ALL PARTIES RELATED THERETO; including but not limited to - hired laborers, sub-contractors, partner interests, financial institutes, mortgage holders, legal assistants, all others aiding and abetting with each or all listed above.

Bundy fired another powerful and loud long shot towards the northwest. It ricochets off the Nevada State Capital and back over Clark County. The shot was a Constructive Notice to:

Clark County Sheriff Douglas C. Gillespie

District Attorney Clark County, Nevada

Commissioners Clark County, Nevada

Governor of Nevada

Attorney General of Nevada

Director - Nevada Department of Agriculture

Director - Nevada Division of Brand Inspection

Nevada Board of Agriculture

Director - Nevada Department of Wildlife

Nevada Legislature

Nevada U.S. Representatives

Any person aiding and abetting to destroy my Life, Liberty or Property

Stating, you have been elected and are paid and have sworn an oath, even the US Constitution that you will protect my life, liberty, and property and you will be personally held accountable.

Bundy stands back, blows the smoke off the end of his long barrel, and cocks his head to hear the echoes.

Bundy did not shoot at federal bureaucrats, those without jurisdiction or constitutional authority. He shot a warning shot at those that have been elected and hired – those with jurisdiction and authority, with policing power and arresting authority, those who have taken an oath to protect We the People of Clark County Nevada. HE is putting his faith in the Almighty God. He states they have always did a good job for me in the past.

The date and time is set, tomorrow it will be. Helicopters, trucks, corrals, contract cowboys and the horses. Bureaucrat dogs jerking at the end of their chains, barking, growling, gnashing their teeth, they are ready to destroy Bundy, his cattle, all the range improvements that supply a drink to a dry desert. If they can get rid of Bundy Ranch, then it’s easy to get rid of the rest of us. He is the only one with a vested interest. BLM will rule with unlimited power, their rangers will assume policing power, they will lock up the Gold Butte 500,000 plus acres and give the people a Back Country Byway – a stay on the sidewalk and don't get off on the grass – they will ruin your country picnic by harassing and fining you in the US District Court. The land will be governed by territorial law, US unlimited power. Your rights and freedoms will be destroyed.

The Last Man Stands. He is the last full time rancher, of 52 ranchers, left in Clark County Nevada and where are all the cattle ranches across the Mohave Deseret to the Pacific Ocean? They are gone!

Does this man stand to protect We the People of Clark County Nevada, our rights and freedoms to access and to use and enjoy the natural resources, to camp, ATV, hunt, fish, to enjoy open space and fresh air, to travel thousands of miles of open roads, enjoy vast variety of scenery, share the excitement of wildlife, a squirrel, deer, donkey or a cow with a baby calf, and what about the desert flower, a Yucca blossom?!?!

These rights, Nevada sovereignty, are what Bundy Ranch stands for. He stands firm. He has not called his troops forward. No one knows what, (I will do whatever it takes.) means!

He can hear the chains rattle, the helicopter rev up, the horses whinny, and the contract cowboys’ spurs jingle! The telephone rings, it's Clark County Sheriff Gillespie. Cliven, I just received a call from the solicitor’s office in Washington DC, they have suspended the roundup indefinitely. Then he told Bundy to get to ranching! Bundy wants to say thank you very much!

Ranch chores needing attention, water troughs, salt/mineral licks, and cattle all need to be checked. It's getting hot and spring gathering has been delayed. Bundy has not received written confirmation from Sheriff Gillespie or BLM, confirming the roundup suspension, nor has he received cancellation of Letter of Trespass and Demand to Remove Improvements. The word indefinite seems to be a lie. Environmental groups threaten BLM and Clark County with a lawsuit. The media and many other groups and organizations are very interested in the Range War and Bundy's Last Stand. Zuma Press, LV Review Journal, Moapa Valley Progress, Mesquite Desert Valley Times, Federal Land Conference, and others sent camera crews and reporters, western state representatives, all seeking to know how Bundy whipped the BLM! Bundy would tell them, “Proper form of government. I ignored those without authority, and then supported those with authority, having faith. THEY WON THE BATTLE!”

Normal ranch work needed to be done. A roundup was organized to start on the east shore of Lake Mead across from Echo Bay. The Bundy Ranch helicopter paddles air, swooping up the slope toward the mountain moving cattle toward the lake's shore, Bundy needing to harvest his cattle and desiring to move cattle away from Lake Mead. Now cattle are moving. Surprising how fat the cattle are on the dry desert! Big bulls put up a great bull fight each time they herd a giant bull into the next bull's territory, (what a show), the dust flies as one bull tried to gore the other. They pay no attention to the helicopter. They have their work cut out. Most of the time they were left behind to finish the fight.

The helicopter was getting to hot to fly safe, cattle move slow, but cowboys and girls were now behind the cattle helping the helicopter. Cattle numbers were growing as the herd moves up the shore toward the Virgin River. Wild cows moving fast, maverick bull fighting, baby Brahma calves scrambling to stay up with their mother, Horses and dogs dooling with wild long horned bulls determined to go back down the shore line with rider, dog, and horse risking life as they fought against these vicious animals.

It's time to head the herd across Bitter Wash towards Bunkerville Mountain, heading for home ranch. Over 250 head going the right direction being led by one old fast, smart Brahma steer and two big wild cows. The herd is headed up Ice Cream Canyon, the old steer leading his herd toward the right split in the canyon, the two wild cows splitting the herd the wrong way, 30 miles further to the home ranch, plus they would be to hard to manage. Bundy directs the copter in front of the cow's herd hoping to force them to go with the steer's herd, as the cows stalled for a second, the steer left his trail and moves toward the cows, all the sudden all hell broke loose, the wild cows turned back through the herd, headed back to their home range. A real wild and dangerous stampeding was in the movement, the helicopter swapped ends of the herd, by now the lead cows were all the way through the herd, cowboys and dogs running full speed trying to turn the lead cows. Horsemen running, trying to turn the hundreds of cattle and save their own lives. Cattle were flipping upside down, knocking into horses, the copter pilot had the ship down in the faces of the stampeded cattle. There was no stopping the cattle's disappearance into the Tamarack bush along the Virgin River. Bundy says, “That's the way it goes, it was a good day, no one got hurt very bad and we did see cows!”

May 14, 2012 – Bundy was served US v. Bundy, a lawsuit against you, Summons in Civil Action. The chains were quiet for a few days, but they are rattling. RANGE WAR! Feds are suing for trespass on lands not on Bundy Ranch calling them New Trespass Land. Harassing this rancher bringing a several page lawsuit, 7 hour deposition, with six attorneys, 100 plus pages with exhibits, three reams of paper as a Motion for Summary Judgment.

Bundy's first instinct of action was to turn this lawsuit over to Nevada Attorney General; Nevada is a fence out state. Bundy is relying on Nevada Law (Nevada Public Lands Ownership Act of 1979 and Nevada Water Law) that is still the law of the land within the borders of the State of Nevada The new trespass land has a fence that needs repair. If this fence was repaired, it would prevent cattle movement from Bundy Ranch to new trespass land saving Bundy the liability and cost of retrieving cattle.

Bundy has the attention of Nevada State and Clark County officials. He is not pursuing Nevada State fence out law. RANGE WAR! The feds make another aggressive move. (New trespass land lawsuit, US v. Bundy). Has the Feds opened up a clear shot for Bundy? I doubt if Bundy is going to shoot high!

Bundy fires a Motion to Dismiss.

What's Bundy's next shot?

Where is he aiming? State sovereignty? Endangered species? Land ownership? Origin of the cattle?

- 30-

Last Cowboy Fighting

C o w b o y   F i g h t s   F e d s ,   K e e p s   W i l d   W e s t   A l i v e

article & photography by Mike Stotts –www.BackstageAccessVegas.com  Copyright June 3, 2012.  All Rights Reserved.  No use in whole or part without expressed written permission of author.

“The Duke” with his classic swagger is probably looking down with a jaundice eye from on high- his Wild West, though kicking, is on life support, and bucking with a major wallop- in more ways than one.   The modern day melodrama is personified by Riverside, Nevada’s rustic VO Ranch, otherwise known as Bundy Ranch, a smooth 80-mile drive northeast of Tinseltown, USA- Las Vegas, Nevada.

And just so you don’t get the wrong idea, this is far from an ordinary ho-hum tale about lethargic cows and tobacco-spitting cowpokes.  If this doesn’t provide all the elements for a classic movie or novel, then nothing does.

What it is, however, is major cultural history in the making:  It is the last remaining working cattle ranch in Clark County, Nevada.

And the ranch’s valuable contributions to the American way of life and justice system extend far and wide, really without any geographical boundaries, and its effects pertain to many similar situations throughout the country.

The Bundy Ranch is fighting tooth and nail to keep alive a uniquely western icon – the working cattle ranch.   The ranch is trying to survive in hard times, feverishly pulling out all stops to provide a whole host of luscious seasonal melons and prime organic-grown beef raised on renewable natural resources to their buying public.   Fertilizer and petroleum-based growth products are forbidden words around the ranch.

The sprawling, otherworldly 150,000-acre gem of a ranch borders the Virgin River and is centered on its quintessential cowboy and family matriarch, 66-year-old Cliven Bundy.  God-fearing Bundy is a devout family man – 14 children and 48 grandchildren- and a cowboy’s cowboy in every respect, from his distinguished chiseled looks, to his jangling spurs, to his wiry, once bare-back riding frame, to his uberman strength—let’s just say that he can make any rank cow wince just at the thought of being wrestled down for a hot branding iron.  Translated:  If you get Cliven Bundy irritated, just be prepared for the consequences.

And, as with any good classic western movie, there is, of course, conflict.   In the ranch’s case, the battle royale is provided courtesy of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Given their druthers, it seems, they would like nothing better to swoop down en masse under cover of semi-darkness with oodles of contract cowboys and helicopters to hijack Bundy’s 500 or so head of genetically superior range cattle from the so-called “Gold Butte” rangeland- home for the Bundy family and where they have legally lived and abided by all laws since 1877- that’s 135 years!

What’s all the hubbub about?  The BLM is, according to Bundy, now assuming the role of a landlord and not a manager, as was originally intended back in the 1990s, after initially having an administration-only role when the agency was formed in 1956.  The BLM strongly asserts that the Bundy land should be preserved for all and cattle over grazing and cowboys due irreparable damage to the land and the many critters that inhabit it, including the endangered desert tortoise.  Besides, they need to start collecting revenues in the form of public use fees.  In their minds, the Bundy’s are simply using the water and land rights for free.

From their perspective, it’s necessary to control and restrict access and allow the property to grow and develop in its own “natural” way, thereby turning the land into yet another federal conservation area, more aptly a stoic wilderness- and, in the process, add yet one more federal land parcel to their burgeoning land coffers– where the federal government already controls at least 86 percent of Nevada’s available land area.

As Cliven Bundy says, “The BLM puts a sidewalk through the land and then tells you not to get off on the grass.”  His point of view can easily be supported just by casually driving through the area – the growing “do’s” and “don’t” signs are clearly visible and restrict the public that the BLM serves from anything more than really a car-side snapshot of the land.

However, although the federal government purportedly claims “control” over these lands, there is mysteriously no bill of sale, says Bundy, to show the sale approval from the State of Nevada legislature.

What are some other points surrounding this intriguing Bundy-BLM feud?  Again, mysteriously, there is no evidence that the public and private interests have ever even joined together in a mutual environmental impact study on the lands up to this point, so it’s really hard to deconstruct the volatile situation and dissect fact from hearsay.

But even temporarily putting that embarrassing and tragic land management fopaugh aside, a simple visual tour of thousands of acres on the ranch reveals the much ballyhooed environmental “damage” is quite to the contrary:  The cattle, as witnessed, do not damage the land.

In fact, it was rare to find any trampled down vegetation and over-grazing effects, let alone remnants of human refuse and trash.

There is, however, plenty of evidence that Cliven Bundy has expended many railcars of sweat to tirelessly construct and maintain an unbelievable network of land access, grazing, and water improvements- including making water drip lines leading from tanks to water troughs on the property – 30 and counting – while always burying the supporting underground water lines for miles in the scorching desert.  The land provides way more than sustenance for his herd of cattle, too.  It also supports a thriving and growing population of wildlife, including deer, quail, chukar, coyote, mountain lion, and others.  One water access tank alone, says Cliven, provides a new home for up to 300 quail and chukar, as well as other wildlife.

It’s also already a great public place to come out and recreate, enjoying what the countryside has to offer.   Hunters, campers, sightseers, off-roaders, and multi-users alike have enjoyed access to these lands.  Cliven Bundy is not selfish.

Further, by permitting the cattle to selectively graze and feed (“prune”) close to the ground, as Cliven Bundy contends, this encourages the quick growing,  low-lying green vegetation to crop up in its place, which is then used as very nutritional feed by many smaller critters – yes, including (and especially) the maligned tortoise – while at the same time greatly reducing the massive fuel buildup caused by unchecked tall grasses that foster out of control wildfires resulting in a blackened landscape which ultimately yields an unsustainable plant and animal habitat for many years.

But, to see what this really means, you really need to go out and tour the area. It all then becomes crystal clear.

Quite simply, the all-day tour over thousands of acres (and over roads, many of which were made by the Bundy’s), revealed the Bundy Ranch is very pristine, almost angelic, effectively and efficiently serving a wide range of flora and fauna.

One could only wish that our national parks could be only half this conscientious in many of their land management programs.

Legally, though, it’s been a very tough calf to rope for Cliven Bundy.  Hardly a day goes by without some legal fandangling.  It just wears down your soul.   All 52 of his other nearby rancher friends eventually succumbed to the stress of it all over many years – some even dying from it – and ultimately gave up their preemptive resource rights due to government pressure, signing off their land grazing and water rights contractually to the federal government, and thus closing their ranches down for what, on the average, amounted to receiving the value of a new car.

But during it all, Cliven Bundy, somehow, remains steadfast and resolute in his desires and through his actions to keep his ranch open and free of any government encumbrances, no matter what, while buying or inheriting his land resource rights legally.

And, different than his past rancher bros, Cliven Bundy has had no contract with the federal government for 15 years.

But, apparently, that doesn’t matter one iota to the federal government.

Where the States and local entities and not the federal government should really get involved in matters of sovereign land and resource rights within its borders, by decree of the U.S. Constitution, the State of Nevada has remained mysteriously quiet on acting and voicing any statement or decree on the matter.

Applying not just to Nevada lands, it appears, the federal government, acting through the Department of the Interior and the BLM, has many times ostensibly created and authorized nearly carte blanche powers when it comes to controlling lands within western states.

To wit, on April 11, 2012, the federal government was about to raid the ranch and spirit the cattle off the Bundy Ranch, armed with an antiquated 14-year-old U.S. District Court of Nevada decision, but then mysteriously (amazing, how that word keeps cropping up, isn’t it?) called their coup off with but a week to spare.

The situation, however, remains very volatile and is far, far from being resolved. Cliven Bundy merely considers it a timeout – maybe a stay of execution? – if you will.   Although government authorities have verbally called off the raid, nothing official in writing, mysteriously, has ever legally been received by Bundy to permanently call it off.    The raid, then, can be renewed and take place on any given day.  Talk about living on needles and pins.

To make matters worse, with the BLMs lack of action, nearly immediately after their decision not to carry out the raid, The Center for Biological Diversity said it now plans to sue the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Clark County for “not taking required steps to protect the desert tortoise, a threatened species, from grazing in Southern Nevada.”

Although Bundy was not named in this latest action, only time will tell if this will become merely an end-around play with a flea flicker to the BLM and, once again, Bundy Ranch in the crosshairs.

While there can be an argument made for preserving the natural habitat of the Southern Nevada desert, there is also a valid argument that can and should be made for preserving a way of life – really, a culture – that extends back more than a century to when the Southwest was initially settled.

Bundy Ranch is not a place where visitors go to see a performer in cowboy boots and a red kerchief lasso a post and drawl on about chuck wagon dinners. When dad brings out the rope at the Bundy Ranch, it’s to heel a calf so it can be branded and dinners cooked in the long house by mom.  The next generation of Bundy Ranch cowboys – the Bundy children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and even his extended family, you might say – have already begun to learn how to manage the cattle herd and maintain the very desert land that the BLM is so worried about being desecrated.

And that may be the major point overlooked in this sad movie-like saga:  The Bundy family have a vested interest and ongoing active incentive to ensure that their land is not overgrazed or ruined.  Without their land, their cattle won’t survive, and other flora and fauna will go by the boards.  And there won’t be fresh, local-grown beef on your table either.

Being an environmentalist is not something the Bundy’s may talk about, but it is nonetheless a lifestyle they’ve effectively lived and prospered for more than 100 years.  There are no Las Vegas glitz and showgirls here- and, thankfully, never will be.

Few family-run businesses can claim they’ve been successful for five years, let alone in three different centuries, like the Bundy’s.  That’s an incredible accomplishment.  So, perhaps the BLM should pull out their play book and take a long look at how the Bundy Ranch family has accomplished this unusual feat.  And, in so doing, they would see a family dedicated to maintaining and preserving the natural desert habitat and its many renewable resources, while also maintaining their historic family legacy- the cattle ranch.

There has to be a way for both of these parties and their purposes to be served without sacrificing one for the other.