Feds move in on Nevada rancher's herd over illegal grazing

For 20 years, a tough-as-leather Nevada rancher and the federal government have been locked in a bitter range war over cattle grazing rights.

This weekend the confrontation got worse, when the feds hired contract cowboys to start seizing Cliven Bundy's cattle, which have been grazing on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The government officials brought a show of force that included dozens of armed agents in SUVs and helicopters.

Bundy, 67, who has been a rancher all his life, accuses BLM of stampeding over on his rights.

“This is a lot bigger deal than just my cows,” Bundy told FoxNews.com. “It’s a statement for freedom and liberty and the Constitution.”

The fight involves a 600,000-acre area under BLM control called Gold Butte, near the Utah border. The vast and rugged land is the habitat of the protected desert tortoise, and the land has been off-limits for cattle since 1998. Five years before that, when grazing was legal, Bundy stopped paying federal fees for the right.

“For more than two decades, cattle have been grazed illegally on public lands in northeast Clark County,” the BLM said in a statement. “BLM and (the National Park Service) have made repeated attempts to resolve this matter administratively and judicially. Impoundment of cattle illegally grazing on public lands is an option of last resort.”

But Bundy said he has grazed cattle on the land for decades, and his father and father's father did long before his 1,000 cattle roamed the area. He has long defied orders from bureaucrats he says are bent on running him out of business.

Just before the round-up began this weekend, Bundy said federal agents surrounded his 150-acre ranch. His son was arrested on Sunday in an incident involving the agents.

“They’ve been bringing men in and equipment and setting up a compound,” Bundy told FoxNews.com Monday. “They got helicopters flying low. They got snipers around the ranch. Our access to public lands has been blocked.”

“We’re not pointing guns at anyone but we’re sure getting a lot of guns pointed at us.”

- Carol Bundy, wife of Nevada rancher

Bundy said he is worried BLM might try to turn the situation into another Waco or Ruby Ridge.

“Yeah, there’s a little fear in me,” Bundy said. “They’re definitely set up to do that.”

Federal officials said BLM enforcement agents were dispatched in response to statements Bundy made that the agency perceived as threats.

“When threats are made that could jeopardize the safety of the American people, the contractors and our personnel; we have the responsibility to provide law enforcement to account for their safety,” National Park Service spokeswoman Christie Vanover told reporters Sunday.

Bundy, who does not have an attorney, spoke to FoxNews.com from Las Vegas, where he had gone early Monday morning to ask Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie for help. Last week, Gillespie told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that neither Bundy nor the BLM should resort to violence.

“No drop of human blood is worth spilling over any cow,” Gillespie said.

Back at the ranch, Bundy's wife Carol said she and her husband were not looking for trouble.

“We’re not pointing guns at anyone, but we’re sure getting a lot of guns pointed at us,” she said.

The trouble started when Bundy stopped paying grazing fees in 1993. He said he didn't have to because his Mormon ancestors worked the land since the 1880s, giving him rights to the land.

“We own this land,” he said, not the feds. He said he is willing to pay grazing fees but only to Clark County, not BLM.

“Years ago, I used to have 52 neighboring ranchers,” he said. “I’m the last man standing. How come? Because BLM regulated these people off the land and out of business.”

He said he won’t let the feds do that to him.

“I said, ‘No.’ Then, ‘Hell, no,’” he said.

BLM said in a statement two judges ordered Bundy to remove his cattle from Gold Butte. The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, said the federal action was long overdue.

“Despite having no legal right to do so, cattle from Bundy’s ranch have continued to graze throughout the Gold Butte area, competing with tortoises for food, hindering the ability of plants to recover from extensive wildfires, trampling rare plants, damaging ancient American Indian cultural sites and threatening the safety of recreationists,” Rob Mrowka, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement.

ST. GEORGE — By complaint filed Sept. 20 in the U.S. District Court for Utah, Washington County is being sued by a private land developer who, in 1995, volunteered to commit 2,440 acres of his own land into the Red Cliff’s Desert Tortoise Reserve. The land developer, James Doyle, claims that for 18 years the county has failed to meet its obligation to facilitate a deal with the federal government to either purchase Doyle’s land outright, or to exchange it for land of similar value.

County in crisis

In 1990, Doyle purchased 2,440 acres of land in the southern foothills of the Pine Valley Mountain with the intention of building a golf course and a community of luxury homes. In 1994, just as Doyle was preparing to break ground on the project, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated most of northern Washington County as a critical habitat for the endangered Mojave Desert Tortoise. Federal regulations prohibited development throughout much of Washington County until the county presented Fish and Wildlife with a Habitat Conservation Plan that protected the tortoise’s natural habitat.

The permit allowed development in Washington County to resume, just as demand for housing in the area was about to reach an all-time high

County officials worked with private land owners, various municipalities, and federal and state governments to create a conservation plan that set aside 62,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat, forming the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. As a result, in 1996, U.S. Fish and Wildlife issued a countywide incidental take permit: a permit which allowed for the “taking” (disruption) of desert tortoise habitat anywhere outside of the HCP. The permit allowed development in Washington County to resume, just as demand for housing in the area was about to reach an all-time high.

Doyle, along with more than a dozen other private land owners, voluntarily agreed to commit their land to the reserve with an understanding that the Bureau of Land Management would either purchase the land for a fair price or else offer an exchange of similarly valued property, elsewhere.

At a turtle’s pace

Doyle is now suing Washington County, as well as the BLM, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, and current U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell. Doyle claims that both federal and local governments have not followed through on their promises and, as a result, Doyle has been ruined, financially.

In a 2000 hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management, Doyle testified that delays in reaching an agreement with the federal government had forced him to sell his personal belongings in order to meet the demands of his creditors.

I have had to sell my business assets, including my airplane and my office building in St. George, Utah

“I have had to sell my business assets, including my airplane and my office building in St. George, Utah,” Doyle testified. “I have also had to sell my home in St. George, and just recently, I had to sell my family home in Idaho.”

Doyle’s attorney, Timothy B. Anderson, said that, before the Desert Tortoise issue arose, Doyle incurred many expenses while preparing the land for development.

“Doyle invested significant funds to plan and develop his Washington County land as a golf resort and residential development,” Anderson wrote in the lawsuit, filed on September 9. “He created a Master Plan, obtained water rights, secured zoning adjustments, commissioned transportation and engineering studies, and built infrastructure.”

Doyle said that the government sanctions placed on the HCP land made it difficult to borrow the money he needed to pay off his creditors and meet his tax burdens while he waited for a land-exchange or outright sale to take place.

“I have had to borrow substantial amounts of money, sometimes at  interest rates as high as 100 percent,” Doyle said in his testimony to the subcommittee. “I have exhausted both my personal and company resources trying to obtain fair compensation for my property.”

Once Washington County had what it wanted, then it’s incentive to follow up and treat Mr. Doyle fairly had gone away

Anderson said that the HCP implementation agreement obliged Washington County to facilitate compensation for Doyle’s land, or else to purchase it themselves. After 18 years, neither has happened. “Once Washington County had what it wanted, then it’s incentive to follow up and treat Mr. Doyle fairly had gone away.”

Nearly every other private land owner who entered into the HCP agreement was compensated for their land, Anderson said, except for Doyle.

Doyle now retains only 247 of the originally 2,440 acres he originally placed into the reserve. In order to meet the demands of his creditors, he said, he has been forced to sell his holdings, piece by piece, for far less than he believes the property is worth.

“The land developers got what they wanted, the people got what they wanted, but Jim Doyle had his property taken away by creditors,” Anderson said.

Who’s to blame?

Washington County Administrator Dean Cox said the county has done everything it was supposed to do under the HCP agreement.

“The county’s responsibility under the HCP was to facilitate (a deal between Doyle and the federal government).” Cox said that that several deals for land exchanges or purchases for Doyle’s land have fallen through for various reasons.

“Offers were made,” said County Commissioner James Eardly. “There were offers, substantial offers, but again, the agreement said there has to be a willing buyer and willing seller.”

Doyle turned down multiple offers from the federal government, Eardly said. “One offer was just south of $28-million,” he said, “which would have been many, many, many times what he invested in that land.”

Janine Blaeloch, the director of Western Lands Project – a public lands advocacy group that fights the exchange of government lands into private ownership – spoke about Doyle’s land issues in 2001 to the U.S. House Subcomittee on Forests and Public Land Management. In her testimony, Blaeloch said that when Doyle purchased the land in 1990, he knew that his land was on Desert Tortoise habitat.

For him to portray himself as an innocent victim of federal regulation is grossly misleading

“Mr. Doyle did not make a down payment to the state on his land purchase until June 1990, well after the tortoise was first listed (as an endangered species),” Blaeloch said. “Mr. Doylye did not go blindfolded into this land purchase, and for him to portray himself as an innocent victim of federal regulation is grossly misleading.”

Anderson does not deny that his client rejected a $28 million offer from the BLM. “If I said I wanted you to accept $28 million for all of St. George, that would not have been a very good offer,” he said.

In March, 2006, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Doyle commissioned an appraisal that valued his land at $70 million. Doyle has maintained that his land should be valued at what it would be worth if there were no tortoise issues at all because of a special provision of the Omnibus Parks and Public Management Act of 1996 (sec. 309); the provision states that HCP lands in Washington County must be valued “without regard to the presence of a species listed as threatened or endangered.”

Washington County denies that Doyle has a legitimate claim against the county. The county has done everything in its power to help facilitate a deal between Doyle and the federal government, Cox said. In a motion to dismiss Doyle’s lawsuit, attorneys representing the county reject Doyle’s claims because private landowners were not specifically listed as parties in the HCP implementation agreement. Furthermore, the motion claims that the statute of limitation for taking action on the damages alleged by Doyle has long expired.

Cox said that he can understand Doyle’s frustration in dealing with the federal government. “The county really does empathize with these land owners,” he said, “but we’ve done everything that we can do.”

Washington County filed a motion to dismiss the case on Nov. 22, which Doyle has opposed. If his case survives the motion and proceeds, he has asked for a jury trial.

YOU HAVE BEEN ASKING WHAT YOU CAN DO!
AND NOW ITS TIME!!!!!!

They have my cattle and now they have one of my boys. Range War begins tomorrow at Bundy ranch at 9:30 a.m. Bring your signs and horses ,and plan to stay as long as you can!
We are going to get the job done! 

Cattle thieves! Should be hung!

Because the sheriff is the only one that can legally do that while they are in the state of nv. Let's Hang them with words of disapproval and let him know that it is wrong! If he has a soul or heart his Guilty Conscience will beat him up! 

OPINION

Reading the unfolding saga of the Bundy family and the BLM over the last week has given me chance to reflect on the West and its relation to the story of America. The struggle over the control of whom, what and which “business” can be conducted on BLM land has sparked strong emotions on both sides of this argument.

Locally it has been on talk radio almost every day and the story has even been published in the LA Times earlier this week. It goes with saying that this is a hot topic in the American Southwest at this time.

I’ve been surprised by the number of people who are siding with the BLM

As I have read the comments on the story I’ve been surprised by the number of people who are siding with the BLM and calling the Bundy family every name in the book while giving Federal Bureaucrats a free pass.
I guess Americans have forgotten what the West means.

BLM sign along Interstate 15. Bunkerville, Nev., April 3, 2014 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News

The West has always represented freedom and the ability of man to go there and be left alone, historically as the United States filled up its cities and people grew tired of rules, regulations and being told by some “official” what they can and can’t do- city dwellers that longed for the freedom our country was founded on left it all behind and headed out West.
One of the things completely left out of this Bundy vs. BLM debate is that it is almost a certainty that had the Bureau of Land Management and its ability to block, regulate, fine or tax a citizen from “trespassing” on their own “public” lands (remember that all BLM land signs say “your public land” on the bottom) existed in the early days of the American West none of the thriving, vibrant cities we currently have would likely exist.
Phoenix? No way, endangered owls, desert foxes, mountain lions and coyotes have to be protected.
Los Angeles? Nope, those LA Brea tar pits (in the middle of downtown L.A) are a culturally sensitive landmark that must be preserved.
Denver? No, as cutting ski resorts in the mountains or mining would have never been “approved” by the BLM.
St. George? Not in a million years would the BLM would have granted a group of exiles permission to displace a few Gila monsters in the red hills and settle on the habitat of a scarce turtle and lizard.
See where this is headed?
Does anyone reading this actually think the West would have been settled had the BLM been there to “manage” the/”our” land?

Ranchers, Cowboys, Pioneer Women, and Homesteaders settled the West and created something amazing in a harsh and hostile land

Ranchers, Cowboys, Pioneer Women, and Homesteaders settled the West and created something amazing in a harsh and hostile land- and they did it without the BLM “administering” every facet of their lives- it’s called the Spirit of the West and the (lost) American ideal of hard work.
Fast forward just 100 years- what happened to that Spirit?
Why do so many feel that the Federal government must give everyone permission to do anything on “YOUR public lands”? – quick question; if they are “our” public lands then why don’t “we” get to decide what happens on them? Why does the D.C beltway policy tell us what to do with “our” Public lands?
Think about it residents of Nevada and Utah – what does the term “your public lands” mean to you?
While you are pondering that, listen closely for the sound of hoof beats, lowing of cattle and a lone Cowboy calling in his dog ………. you may never hear it again if the BLM has its way on “your” public lands.
Submitted by Jason M. Smith

http://youtu.be/VPaabtP9Aro

This land is YOUR land! This land is OUR land!

Stand behind Cliven D. Bundy -The Last Man Standing-
Lets NEVER let him Stand alone!

There taking them!!!

With the help of the the state officials that are paid to protect or life, liberty  and property 

the Feds and Cattle Thieves have officially stolen six total truck loads of cattle! (that we know of)

THEY HAVE OFFICIALLY STOLEN CATTLE!