Posted on 12/15/2001 11:50:52 AM PST by brityank
The Bureau of Land Management is allowing Gary Snow of Fallon, Nevada and Bud Johns and his son of Silver Peak, Nevada to run cattle with BLM temporary non-renewable so-called "permits" on Wayne Hage's and Ben Colvin's ranches.
Hage and Colvin are well-respected Nevada ranchers who have resisted federal "takings" of their private property through bureaucratic enforcement of regulatory schemes.
Ben Colvin, in a telephone interview from Goldfield, Nevada said, "In the mid-1990's I let Bud Johns run his cattle on my ranch as a favor to help him out when he was out of feed. This was before the BLM had revoked my so-called 'grazing permit'. I was doing him a favor so he could have some feed close to home."
Johns owns a ranch on the west side of Colvin called the Yellow Hills Allotment. Colvin continued, "He (Johns) has been big buddies with the BLM for sometime. When he called me and told me he was putting cattle on my ranch I told him, "Don't do that Bud while I am in this legal battle with the BLM."
Colvin stated, "This is how BLM pits one rancher against another. Greed wins out over principle."
Johns and his son are now running approximately 150 head with permission for 200 head of cattle on Colvin's ranch at this time. The BLM gathered 62 head of Colvin's cattle this past July and finally was able to sell them after several failed attempts through a silent/secret bid auction from their Wild Horse and Burro Palomino Valley Facility north of Sparks, Nevada, on November 13, 2001. The buyer was a 19-year old man with his grandmother's credit card who tried later to return the cattle. The BLM would not accept them back.
Gary Snow another BLM parasite has now put cattle with BLM "permission" onto Wayne Hage's Pine Creek Ranch near Tonopah, Nevada. Hage has been in a long running showdown over private property rights to Nevada range with the Forest Service and BLM.
Dave Horton, attorney for Ben Colvin, said, "Hage won several land mark decisions in favor of the rancher's rights to graze and the fact that the public lands are no longer public lands after they have been adjudicated. Public Lands, as defined in several Supreme Court decisions, are lands that have no prior claim to them by any kind of entryman whether prospector or a rancher with grazing rights. Therefore, after adjudication of the grazing rights, which were based upon state water law, the lands were no longer 'public' although the public still had access rights to recreation, hunting and mineral location preserved."
Gary Snow who feeds wild horses at his Fallon, Nevada feedlot and is well compensated by taxpayer dollars, has now been allowed to put approximately 350 head of cattle on Hage's ranch. Snow also accepted 62 head of Ben Colvin 's seized cattle from the BLM to his Fallon Auction Yard earlier this year. Gallagher Livestock Auction in Fallon refused to allow the BLM to sell the cattle at their yards. Now the BLM has paid off Gary Snow by bestowing grazing rights so he can use Wayne Hage's ranching property.
David Holmgren, Chairman of the Nevada Live Stock Association and Ranching Representative of the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood said, "This raises questions and allegations of corruption, collusion and insider deals that need to be answered by further investigation. It certainly smacks of a potential payoff to Mr. Snow."
Holmgren went on to say, "First the BLM drives the rancher off his adjudicated grazing rights through arbitrary and capricious regulatory schemes and then ironically quotes the same regulations to say the forage is mandated to be grazed. What they leave out is that the forage is mandated to be grazed by the owner of the ranch. It is not the BLM who is to do the grazing, but the owner and operator of the ranch who holds the appurtenant grazing rights."
"No wonder the BLM officials continue to claim that the majority of ranchers support them. If ranchers oppose the BLM's tyranny they are persecuted and run out of business. If they aid and abet the BLM's tyranny they are paid off with the spoils," stated Daniel Hansen, Vice-Chairman of the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood. "Obviously, they are not worried about conservation, there is plenty of forage on the range. The BLM's concern is fascist control of the ranchers, which means, private enterprise under strict government regulation."
These revelations about BLM corruption come on the heels of Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton's trip to Las Vegas this week. Norton was interviewed on the Rusty Humphries KKOH talk radio program on December 11th emanating from Reno. It was clear from the questions by callers and Norton's responses that she was completely unaware and uninformed about the BLM/Ben Colvin case.
"I let Secretary Norton know that I had faxed all of the information on Ben Colvin's case directly to her office. Apparently, the censors in her office did not give the information to her," said Janine Hansen, Executive Director of the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood. "I asked her to read former Idaho Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage's Final Report on the Hearing on the Jarbidge Road from the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. This report traces the legal history of the land and explains how the Forest Service and BLM are violating the ranchers' property rights. Norton seems to be out of touch with the real issues in Nevada. Nothing has changed under President Bush, in fact, it is worse."
Mr. Humphries said he would forward the information to Secretary Gale Norton pertaining to Colvin's situation. Norton was in Nevada to answer concerns over the large decline in tourism, "I will do what I can to let the public know they should come out and visit their public lands."
"That provides us with an interesting dilemma. The federal bureaucracy, the BLM and Forest Service, are closing roads, many of which have been open and accessible to the public for over 100 years. How is this going to help tourism in Nevada? However, the more important question is, shouldn't Secretary Norton be more concerned about the corruption flourishing within the Bureau of Land Management which is part of the U.S. Department of Interior and her responsibility?" stated O.Q. Chris Johnson, Chairman of the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood.
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"I let Secretary Norton know that I had faxed all of the information on Ben Colvin's case directly to her office. Apparently, the censors in her office did not give the information to her," said Janine Hansen, Executive Director of the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood. "I asked her to read former Idaho Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage's Final Report on the Hearing on the Jarbidge Road from the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. This report traces the legal history of the land and explains how the Forest Service and BLM are violating the ranchers' property rights. Norton seems to be out of touch with the real issues in Nevada. Nothing has changed under President Bush, in fact, it is worse."
Norton doesn't know. Gee! What a surprise. NOT.
Thanks for the ping
BY, This is EXACTLY what godgov is doing. Thanks for the bump. Peace and love, George.
Wouldn't that be an oxymoron?
Did you really expect a change? It's a one party country and they take turns as repubs and dems
"Wouldn't that be an oxymoron?"
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P, YEP!! But it also fits Mussolini's defoinition of Fascism, and Hitler's definition of socialism {or "The Third Way"}. But, oxymorons aren't being taught in today's evil that they call education. They are only teaching "moron" {dumb, stupid, etc} in the schools today. Peace and love, George.
Unfortunatly... I think you hit the nail on the head with that one.
There's a BIG difference between the two definitions.
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Z-28
San Diego
(former rancher)
The federal government does not own fee simple title to land in the West, like it does in the East, where it was granted title by deed of cession from the original states. The federal government doesn't grant land in the West, because it doesn't have title to it. In the West, the claim to split estate property is on the state level. (The state is the traditional authority for what is and isn't property.) First in time, first in right established this equitable right among men. The BLM then issued a patent, which was a tribunal judgement that the equitable claim had been perfected on the state level among claimants. The patent was also a quit claim of interest in the land for any legitimate national purpose such as treaty obligations. It stands as the highest evidence of title.
In the case of grazing lands, the homestead requirements and limitations were not satisfied by grazing. So the use of the land was never recognized as elligible for patenting. The old split estate equitable property rights still exists. It was in recognition of these split estate rights that grazing allotments were originally devised. The grazing "fee" was originally a federal tax, not a rental.
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