Feds seize family's ranch

When Kit Laney answered a knock on his door Saturday, law enforcement officers from the U.S. Forest Service handed him a piece of paper announcing his Diamond Bar Ranch in southwest New Mexico would be shut down Wednesday and his 300 head of cattle grazing there would be removed – one way or the other.

Other Forest Service officials were busy nailing similar notices on fence posts along the highway and informing neighbors that after Feb. 11, they should not attempt to enter the Diamond Bar property.

Laney was not surprised. He knew someday there would be an on-the-ground confrontation to enforce a 1997 court ruling which says his cattle are trespassing on federal land. That day has arrived.

Laney insists the land in question belongs to him; the Forest Service says it belongs to the federal government. So far, the federal court is on the side of the Forest Service. But Laney is not willing to throw in the towel and give up the land that has been in his family since long before there was a U.S. Forest Service.

Moreover, in New Mexico, there is a "brand law" that says, essentially, no cattle may be sold or transported out of state without approval from the State Livestock Board.

Local sheriff Cliff Snyder has notified the Forest Service and other state and federal officials that even though the Forest Service has a court order authorizing the confiscation of the Diamond Bar cattle, they "cannot be shipped and sold without being in direct violation of NM Statute."

His memo also says "I intend to enforce the state livestock laws in my county. I will not allow anyone, in violation of state law, to ship Diamond Bar Cattle out of my county."

Kit and Sherry Laney are one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ranching families who are being squeezed off their land throughout the West. This case has the potential to erect a barrier to further expansion of federal land takeovers in the West or to erase the last hope of retaining ranching as a part of Western culture in the United States.

Both ranchers and federal officials are watching with great anxiety as the conflict moves toward resolution.

The Diamond Bar Ranch is at least 180,000 acres and includes some of the most beautiful land in southwest New Mexico, situated between and including portions of the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness areas.

Laney's ancestors began the "Laney Cattle Company" there in 1883 when the area was still a territory. In those days, "prior appropriation" of water determined grazing rights to the land. That meant the first person to make beneficial use of water obtained the "rights" to the water and to the forage within an area necessary to utilize the available water.

Laney's ancestors acquired the water rights and the attendant grazing rights on the land now claimed by the federal government.

In 1899, the federal government withdrew from the public domain the land that later became the Gila National Forest, which included much of the land on which Laney's ancestors had valid claim to water and grazing rights.

Several court cases have determined that land to which others have claims or rights attached cannot be considered "public land."

Specifically, "It is well settled that all land to which any claims or rights of others have attached does not fall within the designation of public land," according to Bardon vs. Northern Pacific Railroad Co.

Consequently, Laney reasons, since his ancestors had acquired legal rights to the water and adjacent grazing land before the federal withdrawal, his land could not be considered a part of the public domain.

When the U.S. Forest Service was created in 1905, one of its first concerns was to find a way to settle disputes among ranchers whose water rights resulted in conflicts over grazing areas. The Forest Service stepped into these territorial conflicts and proposed a way to resolve the disputes.

The rancher parties to the dispute voluntarily agreed to allow the Forest Service to measure the available water to which each participant had legal rights and designate the appropriate forage land required to make beneficial use of the available water. The designated area was called an "allotment."

The ranchers paid the Forest Service a fee for their adjudication service, a portion of which went into a fund from which the ranchers could make improvements to the range and water access. The Forest Service issued a permit, which designated the forage area and the number of cow/calf units, or AUMs, that could graze the allotment.

Laney's ancestors participated in this type of Forest Service adjudication process in 1907, three years before New Mexico became a state. The system worked well until 1934, when Congress enacted the Taylor Grazing Act. This law changed the status of the grazing permit from a voluntary process agreed to by the ranchers, into a "license" required by the federal government.

Few ranchers realized this law eventually would strip them of their rights and the land they had worked for generations.

Laney's problems began shortly after he acquired the Diamond Bar Ranch, adjacent to the original Laney ranch, in 1985.

The bank from which he bought the ranch had entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Forest Service which passed to Laney, the new owner. The agreement required the owner to make certain improvements to watering systems within the Wilderness Areas on the ranch.

The original agreement allowed access to the work areas by mechanical equipment, but environmental organizations pressured the Forest Service to forbid mechanized access, and the agreement was modified. Laney agreed to use mules and non-mechanical means to live up to his end of the agreement.

When he acquired the Diamond Bar, the allotment provided for 1,188 head of cattle. By 1995, the Forest Service reduced the allotment to 300 head. When the permits came due for renewal on the original Laney ranch and the Diamond Bar, in 1995 and 1996, Laney decided he would not sign the permits, since he believed the land was his, not subject to permits issued for grazing on federal land.

Kit and Sherry have spent hours in courthouses in Catron, Grand and Sierra counties, searching titles and documents all the way back to the original claims of water and grazing rights in the 1800s.

They have developed a clear chain of title showing continuous private ownership of the water rights and the attendant grazing rights on the land that is now claimed by the government.

They believe the government's original withdrawal of the land in 1899 could not include their land, since private property rights had attached to the land.

Neither the Forest Service nor the federal court are impressed with Laney's reasoning, and the Forest Service is moving to rid the ranch of cattle. And without a means of utilizing the water and land for any productive purpose, the Laneys too will have to leave – unless they can get someone to pay attention to their rights.

For nearly 100 years, federal agencies and ranchers worked together to improve the range and to develop a growing economic foundation for Western states.

Things began to change with the rise of the environmental movement in the late 1970s. By the mid 1980s, there was a concerted, coordinated effort to rid the West of ranchers. In 1992, with the publication of the Wildlands Project, the reasons for squeezing out the ranchers, and other resource providers, began to come into focus.

The Wildlands Project envisions at least half of the land area of North America, restored to "core wilderness areas," off-limits to humans.

Wilderness areas are to be connected by corridors of wilderness, so wildlife will have migration routes unhampered by people. The Diamond Bar ranch lies directly in the path of a key wilderness corridor.

Bill Clinton's election in 1992 resulted in the placement of environmental organization executives in key positions throughout the government.

Bruce Babbitt, formerly head of the League of Conservation Voters, became secretary of the Department of Interior, and George Frampton, formerly head of the Wilderness Society, became chief of the U.S. Forest Service. These, and other environmentalists in government, came from the very organizations that promoted the Wildlands Project.

Environmental organizations pressured federal agencies with lawsuits and good-ol'-boy influence to impose the goals of the Wildlands Project through various government initiatives.

Kit and Sherry Laney are among hundreds whose lives and livelihoods have been forever uprooted by the government's willingness to advance the goals of the Wildlands Project.

The Laneys say they have a ray of hope, however. On Jan. 29, 2002, Judge Loren Smith ruled in a similar case that Wayne Hage "submitted an exhaustive chain of title which showed that the plaintiffs and their predecessors-in-interest had title to the fee lands" which the federal government had claimed to be federal land.

Wayne Hage lost his cattle, but now the court has ruled that a "takings" has occurred, for which the government must pay "just compensation."

The Hage decision has sent ranchers across the West rushing to courthouses, searching for and documenting the "chain of title," to the land, grazing and water rights.

Kit Laney has completed his search, and recorded the "exhaustive chain of title" is each of the county courthouses where his land lies. He may not be able to stop the removal of his cattle, even with the help of the local sheriff. But Laney has served notice that he does not intend to roll over and let the government simply take what his family has worked for generations to build.

He says he will fight as long as he has breath. The Forest Service, and the other federal agencies now know they can no longer pick off a single rancher, and move on to the next. The Hage decision, and the determination of Kit Laney has inspired thousands of ranchers to resist the government's squeezing and to push back.

These ranchers are from the same stock of ranchers who pushed the United States all the way to the Pacific ocean; once riled, they may push the Forest Service all the way back to Washington.

ANOTHER UPDATE FROM THE WILDERNESS

A couple of weeks ago, the Forest Service moved onto the Diamond Bar, in force. There are LEO vehicles parked at MeOwn in rows three vehicles deep. They have automatic weapons, K-9 units, and just about every other imaginable evil you can think of.

After chasing my Husband and 13 year old Son (who were horseback, and driving 3 other horses from one private property to the other private property, on the road) with lights flashing, sirens blaring and repeatedly trying to get them off their horses, 1 regular LEO vehicle and 1 K-9 unit came to the house (on private property that's posted with No Trespassing signs) and confronted Kit.

The first thing the one apparently in charge (name tag merely said Nelson, no one knows if it's the first, middle or last name of this obnoxious LEO) said they don't want anyone to get hurt. All this, while wearing a gun. Nelson also said that we are only allowed to go from one private property to the other by the main road, never vearing from it or stopping anywhere or getting out of the vehicle unless on the private property.

Nelson also denied that the FS was taking possession of the 400 some odd cattle on the ranch, but neither can any of the family give care to them. They belong to Kit and Sherry until they are sold at auction.

The day after this happened, they stopped my Husband, Son and Kit on the main road, and tried to give them all tickets for trespassing on the forest. As they have no authority over civilians, Hubby drove away from them.

A few days later, Hubby and Sherry, his ex-SIL (who is still a partner in the ranch) were going to the other property, horseback, and came up on 7 riders: 2 LEOs, 1 FS employee, and 4 of the new contractor bunch. They were able to ride right up behind them, and no one had a clue they were there. When the LEOs discovered them, they rode back to tell them they couldn't be there, and had to go back to the private property right then, and not "interfere with the gathering of the cattle". Hubby and Sherry denied the order and the LEOs rode away, it was then that Hubby noticed the machine gun the one LEO had in his scabbard. No one of the rest of us ever goes armed like that, wonder what they thought they were gonna run into, some of the wolves they've admitted to turning out on us, or some of the Grizzlies they deny turning loose but have been seen around?

This past Wed, Zeno Kiehne and his young son, were able to obtain a permit from Wilderness District Ranger Annette Chavez, to come interview BIL for a small newspaper he runs here in Catron County. The permit was issued for the one day only, and he could go to the Black Canyon property and back, it stated that he could only be on the main road, couldn't stop anywhere or get out anywhere other than the private property.

The same day, our sheriff, Cliff Snyder served a constructive notice to the contractor hired to do the gather, informing him that he could and would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if any Diamond Bar Cattle were removed from the ranch. On the way out to meet Sheriff Snyder, Kit got a notice from the FS off his gate, stating that the FS had 23 head of cattle in possession and he could pay an exhorbitant amount to get them back, but they could not be put on the Gila or Apache NFs, nor on the Diamond Bar or Laney Allotments. Otherwise, they would be sold at auction in 5 days.

I'm not sure who Russell Ward is, but he was quoted in the newspaper as saying if they couldn't sell the Diamond Bar cattle, they would give them away. We can hardly wait to see if they're actually dumb enough to try that!

Night before last, the folks that are staying at the other private property on the ranch, came in and there was an urgent message for someone that was supposed to be at MeOwn, asking if they would deliver it to them there. The woman drove her personal vehicle to MeOwn, and asked if this person was there, two cowboy looking guys standing near the corral, pointed him out to her. They called him over, and when the LEOs saw what was going on, two of them grabbed him, bodily packing him into the building, drawing curtains, etc. One LEO came out, with a sandwich in one hand, and a gun in the other. No one is sure who he was. Steve Libby (FS personnel) came out and asked what was going on, and denied that anyone by that name was even there. When she stated that the two men had pointed him out, he backtracked like crazy, saying he'd deliver the message to him....but never even asked what the message was, and told her to go back to the private property.

The person the message was for, we found out later, is the contractor hired to impound the cattle. For some reason, the FS is very protective of him, even the FOIA is going to take at least 20 days to process. One week down, two to go.

Right now, we're asking anyone who can, to call Annette Chavez at 505 536-2250, and ask for a permit to come see us at the ranch. When the request is denied, which it will be, then ask for the reason in writing to be mailed, emailed, etc. to them, then forward it on to us at ddalaney2002@yahoo.com , deb_laney@yahoo.com , or PO Box 4, Luna, NM 87824. They will then be used to present in an argument concerning the infringment of our civil rights. We are basically under martial law over there, and there's not much we can do about it. The roadblocks are manned 24 hours a day, and the FS personnel are not nice about it either.

So, that's the latest from the Diamond Bar Ranch....thanks so much for all you guy's support! It really is appreciated by the whole family!!!!

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