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Cattle in Gila Forest Stir Protest
The Albuquerque Journal (subscription required) ^ | August 14, 2003 | Rene Romo

Posted on 08/14/2003 7:04:50 AM PDT by CedarDave

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Cattle in Gila Forest Stir Protest

By Rene Romo

Journal Southern Bureau


    SILVER CITY— The protest signs being paraded in front of the Forest Service headquarters here Wednesday said: "Remove the sacred cows" and "Where's the beef? Trespassing in our wilderness."
    Roughly two dozen sign-carrying protesters staged an hourlong demonstration in front of Forest Service offices Wednesday to express their impatience with the agency's failure to remove cattle that Catron County ranchers Kit and Sherry Laney are running in the Gila National Forest without a permit.
    Forest Service officials said the case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office, which in June filed motions asking the federal court to find the Laneys in contempt of a 1997 order requiring the ranchers to remove their cattle from the national forest. A hearing date on the matter has not been scheduled.
    Forest Service director of range Steve Libby agreed with those who believe the agency has the authority to impound the Laneys' cattle now because they are grazing without a permit. Forest Service administrators, after consulting with officials in Washington, D.C., decided to let federal prosecutors handle the case.
    "It was decided that the course of action we are pursuing would make for a better long-term solution," Libby said.
    Ultimately, Libby said he believed, those wanting the illegal cattle out of the national forest "are going to be satisfied with how this plays out. Regardless, we have to let due process play out."
    Silver City businessman Mike Sauber, who is president of an environmental group called Gila Watch, said: "It's taking a painfully long time."
    The Laneys could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
    The Laneys became darlings of the New Mexican ranching industry in the late '90s when they waged a long legal battle with the Forest Service.
    The Forest Service eventually gained a federal court order in 1997 ordering the Laneys to remove more than 800 cattle from the 147,000-acre Diamond Bar allotment, because their grazing permit had expired. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the lower court's ruling.
    In April, the Laneys returned to the Diamond Bar, about 10 miles northeast of Lake Roberts and southeast of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, with a 300-head herd of cattle.
    The Laneys are trying to advance a legal argument the U.S. Attorney's Office says federal judges have already rejected. They argue that they have a private property right based on historical use predating the creation of the national forest around the beginning of the 20th century.
    "This is a land grab," said Michael Robinson, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity in Silver City. "They've got free forage without any protections for the environment for months."

Copyright 2003 Albuquerque Journal



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: New Mexico
KEYWORDS: cattle; environment; grazing; usforestservice

1 posted on 08/14/2003 7:04:51 AM PDT by CedarDave
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To: Grampa Dave; BOBTHENAILER; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SierraWasp; NormsRevenge; bedolido; EBUCK; ...
BUMP to your PING lists
2 posted on 08/14/2003 7:05:40 AM PDT by CedarDave (New slogan for the environmental whackos: "Its for the Landscape")
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To: CedarDave
I really want to know who pays the tab for the Center for Biological Diversity.
3 posted on 08/14/2003 7:43:27 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (California! See how low WE can go!)
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To: Carry_Okie
I presume its the usual suspects: Rich eastern US foundations primary motivated by a strong case of liberal guilt.
4 posted on 08/14/2003 8:02:23 AM PDT by CedarDave (New slogan for the environmental whackos: "Its for the Landscape")
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To: CedarDave; AAABEST
good luck to the Laney's. I'm off till Monday. Thanks for the ping
5 posted on 08/14/2003 8:24:01 AM PDT by BOBTHENAILER (One by one, in groups or whole armies.....we don't care how we getcha, but we will)
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To: farmfriend
ping
6 posted on 08/14/2003 9:10:24 AM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
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To: Carry_Okie; SandRat
SandRat, you did the research on this...

Didn't you trace the money to the University of Denver Law School and federal grants? Something like...The Center for Bio-Dumbness looks for feasible lawsuits, then turns them over to the faculty at UD, who in turn give the suits to the students as projects for their classes?

My memory is a little rusty, but I believe I remember you saying this is one of the ways Dr. Robin Silver and Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biodiversity got their legal work done.
7 posted on 08/14/2003 9:25:25 AM PDT by HiJinx (The Right person, in the Right place, at the Right time...to do His work.)
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To: CedarDave
Probably the same group of foot soldiers employed by the gang who wants to import Mexican coyotes and set them loose in the wilds here to persuade the outlanders to move to town. Probably the same group of whackos who prance around the boonies here planting dead minnows and declaring them an endangered species so they can fence off the rivers to public use. Probably the same group behind the spotted owl fiasco. Probably the same group behind the Border XXI water and land grab scheme which seeks to de-populate 125 miles on each side of the American-Mexico border.

Just another bunch of steenking commie NGO's with the slogan, 'sustainable development' tattooed on their butts. May the javalinas not pass them by.

8 posted on 08/14/2003 9:32:09 AM PDT by Eastbound
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To: CedarDave; AAABEST; Ace2U; Alamo-Girl; Alas; amom; AndreaZingg; Anonymous2; ApesForEvolution; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.

9 posted on 08/14/2003 10:00:47 AM PDT by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: farmfriend
BTTT!!!!!!
10 posted on 08/14/2003 10:18:05 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: CedarDave; farmfriend; Carry_Okie
These idiots are all pretty much PETA types. It is their desire to steal more and more lands from private land owners, raise the price of beef and leather goods so high that normal folks will not be able to afford them, thus forcing folks into eating "their" tofu increasing their financial incomes and "saving the world."

They use the excuses that cattle is destroying natural flora and funa and polluting the steams and rivers.

My question to them, Just what did millions of buffalo do to the "natural" flora and funa, streams and rivers???

Michael Robinson's above statement, This is a land grab", is right, from our American Private Property Ranchers, farmers and other rural landowners!
11 posted on 08/14/2003 10:30:35 AM PDT by countrydummy
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To: countrydummy; CedarDave
Cattle are a necessary tool for rangeland weed control.

So are sheep.
12 posted on 08/14/2003 10:55:57 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (California! See how low WE can go!)
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To: Carry_Okie
These cattle are eating up the martijuana that the wonderful illegals are growing in the Park. They have complained straight to our President and he promised he will get on it. Just like he has with arming the pilots.
13 posted on 08/14/2003 11:02:29 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Most of us are wasting rights other men fought and died for.)
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To: HiJinx; Carry_Okie
That's right and it's all suppoerted as a part of the University of Denver College of Law as part of the course work for Environmental Law using University $$, and the email was earthlaw@du.edu. Hovever the Univerity has since severed the relationship "Earthjustice discontinued its environmental law clinic at the University of Denver in July 2003 and active cases were assigned to the Denver office" at eajusco@earthjustice.org and http://www.earthjustice.org/regional/denver/
14 posted on 08/14/2003 11:12:16 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: countrydummy
They use the excuses that cattle is destroying natural flora and funa and polluting the steams and rivers.

In some cases they do cause a problem, especically in the drought stricken SW -- hillsides are entirely denuded of vegetation and what little grass there is is located in the stream bottoms. Guess where the cows end up? It's a battle between the rancher trying to make a living in a time of low cattle prices and drought requiring a lot of supplemental feeding. I don't blame the rancher, but obviously he is trying to get as much out of the natural growing feed as possible. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

My question to them, Just what did millions of buffalo do to the "natural" flora and funa, streams and rivers???

Not much. The buffalo were free roaming and could travel long distances. When they chewed up most of the grass, they had the freedom to move on; compare that to livestock crossing over the same ground time and time again looking for a blade of grass.

I have a rancher friend who carrys only enough cattle that can be supported by his land and waterholes. He sold quite a few head so that they wouldn't stave due to a lack of grazing. I suspect most ranchers do the same -- they care about the land as well as their herd. But I have seen the opposite too. Polluted streams, and barren hillsides, so I know that abuses do occur.

15 posted on 08/14/2003 11:19:55 AM PDT by CedarDave (New slogan for the environmental whackos: "Its for the Landscape")
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To: CedarDave
The Laneys are trying to advance a legal argument the U.S. Attorney's Office says federal judges have already rejected. They argue that they have a private property right based on historical use predating the creation of the national forest around the beginning of the 20th century.

When the federal park was enacted, what compensation was proposed? If none, then let the cattle graze.

16 posted on 02/25/2004 4:38:32 PM PST by KC_for_Freedom (Sailing the highways of America, and loving it.)
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