Thread: State officials slap feds: New Mexico board orders Forest Service fence opened

State officials slap feds: New Mexico board orders Forest Service fence opened

Clash over cattle follows feds’ dispute with Bundy

By Valerie Richardson
The Washington Times
Monday, May 12, 2014

In what some are calling a replay of the standoff with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, a New Mexico county board agreed Monday to instruct the sheriff to remove the Forest Service gates blocking thirsty cattle from reaching water, setting up a clash with federal agents over state water rights and endangered species.

The Otero County Commission voted 2-0, with one commissioner absent, to “immediately take steps to remove or open gates that are unlawfully denying citizens access to their private property rights.”

Ranchers became alarmed earlier this year when Forest Service officials refused to open gates allowing cattle in the drought-stricken region to reach a creek in the Lincoln National Forest.

Local rangers have said that they are trying to protect the riparian area, which is considered habitat for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.

The mouse is expected to be listed as an endangered species in June.

The proposed listing, which would include as much as 193 miles of critical habitat in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, comes after a 251-species settlement with WildEarth Guardians in 2011.

Commissioner Ronny Rardin said Monday he was uncomfortable with taking action “against people that are my friends,” apparently referring to local Forest Service rangers, but that he had an obligation as an elected commissioner to uphold the Constitution.“

That Constitution is in breach right now and it is our duty, it’s our civil duty, if we want to keep our nation free, and keep our country as it was intended to be by our forefathers, to stand up and take this type of action,” said Mr. Rardin.

About 20 ranchers attended the Monday morning meeting, according to KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas.

The only comment during Monday morning’s meeting came from Denise Lang, a local activist who said the commission should defer to the federal government on matters affecting forest sustainability.

“Many of us have families who have sacrificed lives and lands, but we trust the United States Forest Service to sustain our forest,” said Ms. Lang.

Otero County Sheriff Benny House said last week he may put off action on the issue until after attending a meeting the office of acting U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez.

The meeting, which would include a number of local and federal stakeholders, has been scheduled for Friday.

Mr. Bundy has clashed with federal Bureau of Land Management officials over access for his cattle to government-owned lands.

BLM officials say Mr. Bundy has refused to pay grazing fees, while Mr. Bundy and his family say the federal government has no rightful jurisdiction over the land in question.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz31X4R5gYW

1. Feds rile ranchers by fencing off water for cattle — to protect a jumping mouse...
   
   Washington Times‎ - 11 hours ago

I've always said for the last three decades that fights over water would come to America, though I'm a little surprised at this time.

To me it is as simple as this, the argument about this one. Livestock has to drink, ranching and farming must be sustained to feed the world including Americans. Many cattle went to market over droughts in TX, NM just a few years ago, thus beef prices at the market are sky high.

America, builds a fence to keep cattle away from water on land owned by the cattle's owner, but CANNOT build a fence secure enough to protect its citizens from alien invaders. America, turns loose a total of 104.000 alien lawbreakers including alien murderers and rapists upon its own citizens. AMERICANS, have we had enough of America's democrats and republicans?

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http://www.alipac.us/f9/new-mexico-b...eds%92-302644/

New Mexico county defies U.S. government over cattle grazing

BY JOSEPH KOLB
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico Tue May 13, 2014 6:01pm EDT

(Reuters) - A rural New Mexico county has voted to defy the federal government and give a rancher's cattle access to a watering hole fenced off by the Forest Service in the latest dispute over federal control of public land in the U.S. West.

Commissioners in Otero County voted 2-0 on Monday night to authorize Sheriff Benny House to open a gate allowing nearly 200 head of cattle into the 23-acre area despite Forest Service restrictions.

A third commissioner was out of town for the vote.

"We are reacting to the infringement of the U.S. Forest Service on the water rights of our land-allotment owners," Otero County Commissioner Tommie Herrell told Reuters. "People have been grazing there since 1956."

But a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said the fence has also been there for decades, protecting a delicate ecosystem surrounding a natural spring as well as an endangered species of mouse from being trampled by cattle.

The dispute is the latest squabble between federal authorities and conservative states' rights advocates in the West, who want to take back millions of acres of public land from central government agencies.

It comes in the wake of an armed standoff last month between supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and federal land managers who sought unsuccessfully to seize his cattle over his longstanding refusal to pay grazing fees.

Bundy and his allies do not recognize federal authority over the land, which has been cleared of other ranchers' livestock to protect the habitat of the desert tortoise.

In the New Mexico case, Forest Service spokesman Mark Chavez said an old barbed-wire fence had recently been upgraded in cooperation with the rancher, and allowed room for a watering canal for the cattle without disturbing protected land.

He said the fence allows calves in and out of the area and there were other watering holes on the rancher's 28,850-acre grazing allotment some 45 miles southeast of Alamogordo.

Herrell said the rancher involved had complained repeatedly to the commission about the fence. The rancher was unavailable for comment on Tuesday afternoon

Chavez said the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse was expected to be listed as an endangered species in June, which would mean those 23 acres would be considered a critical habitat.

"I've never seen one of these mice, and the Forest Service claims they caught one last year," Herrell said.

While Otero County commissioners had given the sheriff approval to obtain a court order lifting the restrictions, Herrell said that House would not act until after local officials meet with the U.S. attorney for New Mexico on Friday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A4C0XV20140513