World's biggest lie "we are from the government and we are here to help."
I think it is push back for Trump pardoning them. That was even mentioned in the article.
"This land hasn't been grazed for five years, providing sage grouse and their habitat a much-needed reprieve from the harmful impacts of cows," said Judi Brawer, Wild Places program director at WildEarth Guardians, in a news release. "Starting grazing now will have serious ecological consequences that must be considered. Every other grazing permit is supposed to go through the environmental review process; Trump and his henchmen should not be allowed to constantly claim exceptions to that rule."
The Hammond family's grazing permit was not renewed in 2014, or for five subsequent years afterward. When the father and son were found guilty of arson and sentenced to federal prison, the BLM determined they did not have a satisfactory "record of performance," citing, in several cases, actions the men were accused of but not found guilty of.
The Hammonds were pardoned by President Trump in 2018, and allowed to return home after serving more than half of their five year arson sentences for the approximately 140 acres of BLM land they burned in two separate occasions in 2001 and 2006.
Dwight was found guilty of burning one acre of BLM land, when a prescribed burn on private land to reduce overcrowding juniper, spilled over onto the adjoining federally administered land in 2001.
Dwight's son Steven was found guilty of burning that same one acre, plus 139 more acres in 2006, when he lit a back burn to protect the family ranch headquarters when a series of lightning-lit fires was heading toward them. The backfire succeeded in protecting the home quarters.
The Hammond permits total over 26,000 acres, so the burned segment amounted to about one half of one percent of the total range the family owns the grazing rights to.
The anti-grazing groups claim in the opening statement of their lawsuit that the two fires set by the Hammonds "resulted in the destruction of important habitat for greater sage-grouse and in the spread of…cheatgrass."
A range specialist testified under oath that the condition of the rangeland actually improved following the fires.
The Western Watersheds spokesman did not return a call requesting an interview.