Jeff, you have any intell on this?
He leases (or used to) large portions of his ranch from the Federal government. This is nt uncommon in the west where the Federal government “owns” anywhere from 60-80% of the land in these intermountain western states.
I understand that his family has been using the land, probably before the Federal government got involved. but for years he & his family paid the Federal leases. Then he stopped.
He is going to have a tough time of it. Since his family and he paid those leases, they established the relationship...and did so for many years. Now he wants to not pay the leases any more (and in fact stopped paying some time ago I believe) and does not want to have that land administered by the Feds.
It is an understandable position...but since they paid the lease for so many years, he established he relationship with the Feds. And, since the Federal government “owns” the land (whether they should do so or not is a different discussion) and since he paid them to lease it...he is going to be hard pressed not to abide their rules for the lease.
Anyhow, that it as I understand it.