Posted on 08/22/2005 5:30:23 PM PDT by Brian328i
ARIVACA, Ariz. -- Jim Chilton is one of hundreds of ranchers targeted by environmental groups for allegedly allowing cattle to despoil the West's backcountry. Now Mr. Chilton is showing ranchers how to turn the tables on the green groups by using their own playbook.
The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson is known for its lawsuits against ranching practices -- and for its methods of posting photos on the Internet that it says depict land destruction. So when the Center came after Mr. Chilton, he struck back with a defamation suit in Arizona Superior Court in Tucson last year.
He produced his own photos of lands the group claimed he spoiled in order to argue that their photos had exaggerated the damage. He snapped one photo, for example, of a hillside featured on the Center's Web site to show that what looked like barren earth was just a tiny patch surrounded by lush grass.
After a jury trial this year, Mr. Chilton was awarded $600,000, including $500,000 in punitive damages against the environmental group. "I had to decide whether I was a cowboy or a wimp," Mr. Chilton says. "I decided to be a cowboy...and not ignore people saying bad things about my ranch." The Center denies wrongdoing and has appealed the decision.
For years, environmental groups have worked to curtail grazing on national forests and other public ranges, arguing that cows eat too much grass, destroy young trees and turn streams into fetid mud holes. The groups have sued the government for generations-old grazing practices, seeking closure of grazing lands. Often, the environmentalists have won big-dollar awards, partly because of their highly persuasive way of showing damage to lands through photos.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
An Arizona rancher has employed activist tactics to win a lawsuit against a conservation group, and his success may inspire other ranchers to fight back against greens. Jim Chilton took the Center for Biological Diversity to court last year for defamation, after the group posted photos to its website showing destruction on land that Chilton has long leased for grazing from the U.S. Forest Service. The center claimed that bad grazing practices caused the devastation. Chilton produced new photographs of the same areas, shot from different angles, to support his contention that the center exaggerated its claims. In January, a jury awarded Chilton $600,000, including $500,000 in punitive damages. Paying up may devastate the center, says cofounder Kieran Suckling. The group is planning to appeal. Suckling admits that its photos weren't representative of all the land Chilton leases, but, he says, "What law in the universe says I'm not allowed to take pictures showing [just] damaged areas?"
Summarized version from Planetizen
Interesting ping for you.
Hehehehe. I love a good story. This one has a very happy ending. Hehehehe.
Chilton's actions should serve as a template for others blackmailed by whacko environmental groups.
---I'd like to see the NRA start using this tactic---
Sounds to me as if RICO could be brought to bear here.
I sure hope it does!
The same one that doesn't say your adversary can't take other pix of the same area and out you as a lying moron.
Best of luck in collecting, Mr. Chilton.
"Paying up may devastate the center, says cofounder Kieran Suckling"
Suck it up, bucko!
And this group, I'm sure, doesn't cry at night when others go bankrupt from their court settlements.
Oh that's just too ironic for words!
"Paying up may devastate the center, says cofounder Kieran Suckling"
What is the sound of one Kieran Suckling, if no one pays his salary, lol?
This is the best news I've heard all day!Give them a taste of their own medicine!
He seems to have a good grasp of the situation....lol
It's like analyzing Randy Johnson as a pitcher based on the one game where he got lit up like a Christmas tree. It's intentionally deceptive. I can't believe this moron said that....Wait a minute...yes I can.
Looks like this cowboy landed a big right hook. I'd like to see more of this kind of stuff.
The judge, in affirming the jury’s decision in March, 2005, found that the Center’s press release made “false, unfair, libelous and defamatory statements” against Chilton.
Chilton said the suit was filed to challenge the way the Center for Biological Diversity consistently does business. “They don’t use science, they just wear people down and drive them out of business,” said Chilton. “They routinely use endangered species to raise money and fund their attacks on the cowboy and western culture.”
“This case will help the public become aware that ranchers support real recovery of endangered species because quality habitat makes quality ranches,” said Chilton.
At the trial, the Center claimed to have filed over 170 lawsuits against federal agencies. Chilton said these lawsuits have stopped school construction, terminated thousands of lumber production jobs, put Arizona and New Mexico communities into economic distress, and driven many western ranchers to the verge of bankruptcy. These lawsuits also prevent agencies and landowners from actually working to recover species.
The trial revealed that the Center collected nearly $1 million from the federal government in 2003 by suing the federal government under the ESA. Back in the 1970s, an obviously insane US Congress granted left wing activists standing in federal courts to sue the government for any perceived inaction in enforcing environmental laws.
Win, lose or draw, these Marxists are allowed to collect attorney fees and court awards from the taxpayer. And the proverbial vicious circle is established.
Money collected from these lawsuits allow these groups to file more lawsuits against agencies for not meeting deadlines because they were busy defending themselves against lawsuits.
Today, more than 7,100 environmental lawsuits are being litigated in the U.S.
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