Faster horses
Well-known member
From the Drovers Journal:
Western ranchers often get crossways with the Bureau of Land Management, and environmentalists often cite those incidents as reasons cattle should be banned from public lands. But sometimes the tables get turned, and in at least one such case the environmentalists have been caught up in a jackpot with the BLM.
The BLM has cited two conservationists for making false statements on grazing permit applications, and each have paid $250 in fines. According to a story last week in The Idaho Statesman, the two men were identified as Jon Marvel of Hailey, Idaho, and Gordon Younger of Seattle.
Younger owns the land in question through his company Valley Sun, and the management is handled by Marvel who is executive director of the Western Watersheds Project – an organization that has filed a wagon load of successful lawsuits against the BLM and other federal agencies in recent years – many claiming the agencies violated federal environmental laws in their management of grazing on federal lands.
Marvel is well-known by area ranchers because he has said his goal is to end grazing on federal lands to protect fish and wildlife habitat.
The case against Marvel and Younger began in January when BLM Challis Area Field Manager David Rosenkrance proposed canceling the permits for three allotments of federal land totaling 9,000 acres tied to Younger's 432-acre ranch near the Salmon River. The ranch and the federal land are managed by Western Watersheds as its Greenfire Preserve.
Rosenkrance told The Idaho Statesman that he proposed to cancel the permits because Younger "made false statements or representations in grazing applications." He also said Younger had given Western Watersheds control of the "base property" without filing a transfer notice in time, and that Western Watersheds had not provided the BLM with a maintenance schedule for the allotments.
In an application to leave his allotments without cattle for 2007, Younger wrote that Valley Sun "is in the process of acquiring livestock," but would like to "designate non-use for conservation purposes."
"In the proposed decision," Rosenkrance said, "I basically state that they provided BLM with contradictory, baffling and false statements. I could only conclude they never intended to purchase livestock on those allotments."
Attorney Laird Lucas represents Marvel and Younger, and he told The Idaho Statesman that the BLM always knew what his clients had planned. He said Younger had looked into buying cattle in part to meet the terms of a state lease that had been tied up in court, but an appeals court said the Idaho Land Board had arbitrarily kept Younger from winning bids and had violated his civil rights.
After Valley Sun and Western Watersheds protested the proposed cancellation of their grazing permits, BLM special agents showed up at Younger's Seattle office to serve him with the notice of violation and to question him.
"I think these were outrageous tactics," Lucas said.
Through Lucas, Marvel and Younger are now claiming "the BLM is treating Western Watersheds and Valley Sun in a discriminatory manner."
More than a few ranchers in the region think Marvel and Younger are hypocritical to criticize BLM rules and regulations that have them tangled in a legal mess, yet the two men have no problems using the same system in their efforts to end grazing on public lands.
Whether or not BLM or any government agency is out for revenge for the series of successful lawsuits is open for debate. But assistant U.S. attorney George Breitsameter said the men were treated the same way ranchers had been treated in similar circumstances.
The BLM has not decided whether to make the cancellation final.
Wally Butler, range and livestock specialist for the Idaho Farm Bureau and a rancher, said, "Mr. Marvel is expecting the ranchers to live by a different standard than he's willing to live by himself. The BLM has compromised and buckled to Watersheds many, many times. This is their opportunity, with excellent documentation, to treat (Western Watersheds) like anyone else."
Marvel and Younger have created a great deal of ill will in recent years, and more than a few ranchers hope the BLM exercises all of its authority against Western Watersheds.
Western ranchers often get crossways with the Bureau of Land Management, and environmentalists often cite those incidents as reasons cattle should be banned from public lands. But sometimes the tables get turned, and in at least one such case the environmentalists have been caught up in a jackpot with the BLM.
The BLM has cited two conservationists for making false statements on grazing permit applications, and each have paid $250 in fines. According to a story last week in The Idaho Statesman, the two men were identified as Jon Marvel of Hailey, Idaho, and Gordon Younger of Seattle.
Younger owns the land in question through his company Valley Sun, and the management is handled by Marvel who is executive director of the Western Watersheds Project – an organization that has filed a wagon load of successful lawsuits against the BLM and other federal agencies in recent years – many claiming the agencies violated federal environmental laws in their management of grazing on federal lands.
Marvel is well-known by area ranchers because he has said his goal is to end grazing on federal lands to protect fish and wildlife habitat.
The case against Marvel and Younger began in January when BLM Challis Area Field Manager David Rosenkrance proposed canceling the permits for three allotments of federal land totaling 9,000 acres tied to Younger's 432-acre ranch near the Salmon River. The ranch and the federal land are managed by Western Watersheds as its Greenfire Preserve.
Rosenkrance told The Idaho Statesman that he proposed to cancel the permits because Younger "made false statements or representations in grazing applications." He also said Younger had given Western Watersheds control of the "base property" without filing a transfer notice in time, and that Western Watersheds had not provided the BLM with a maintenance schedule for the allotments.
In an application to leave his allotments without cattle for 2007, Younger wrote that Valley Sun "is in the process of acquiring livestock," but would like to "designate non-use for conservation purposes."
"In the proposed decision," Rosenkrance said, "I basically state that they provided BLM with contradictory, baffling and false statements. I could only conclude they never intended to purchase livestock on those allotments."
Attorney Laird Lucas represents Marvel and Younger, and he told The Idaho Statesman that the BLM always knew what his clients had planned. He said Younger had looked into buying cattle in part to meet the terms of a state lease that had been tied up in court, but an appeals court said the Idaho Land Board had arbitrarily kept Younger from winning bids and had violated his civil rights.
After Valley Sun and Western Watersheds protested the proposed cancellation of their grazing permits, BLM special agents showed up at Younger's Seattle office to serve him with the notice of violation and to question him.
"I think these were outrageous tactics," Lucas said.
Through Lucas, Marvel and Younger are now claiming "the BLM is treating Western Watersheds and Valley Sun in a discriminatory manner."
More than a few ranchers in the region think Marvel and Younger are hypocritical to criticize BLM rules and regulations that have them tangled in a legal mess, yet the two men have no problems using the same system in their efforts to end grazing on public lands.
Whether or not BLM or any government agency is out for revenge for the series of successful lawsuits is open for debate. But assistant U.S. attorney George Breitsameter said the men were treated the same way ranchers had been treated in similar circumstances.
The BLM has not decided whether to make the cancellation final.
Wally Butler, range and livestock specialist for the Idaho Farm Bureau and a rancher, said, "Mr. Marvel is expecting the ranchers to live by a different standard than he's willing to live by himself. The BLM has compromised and buckled to Watersheds many, many times. This is their opportunity, with excellent documentation, to treat (Western Watersheds) like anyone else."
Marvel and Younger have created a great deal of ill will in recent years, and more than a few ranchers hope the BLM exercises all of its authority against Western Watersheds.
