TRESPASSING CATTLE: Rancher gets fine, house arrest

The Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | Tuesday, March 12, 2002 | SCOTT SONNER -- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Second conviction includes 30 days in halfway house

RENO -- A Nevada rancher convicted twice for trespassing cattle on national forest land was sentenced Monday to a halfway house for 30 days and to house arrest for three months.

Cliff Gardner, 63, of Ruby Valley, also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and placed on probation for a year for his latest conviction in an 8-year feud with the Forest Service over livestock grazing regulations.

After his release from the Reno halfway house, which a federal prosecutor described as a "jail-like facility," Gardner will be subject to electronic monitoring during house arrest at his ranch in eastern Nevada.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben fined Gardner $1,000 last year for trespassing on Forest Service lands and noted Monday that he had shown some leniency by rejecting the Justice Department's request that the rancher be given a suspended jail sentence at that time.

"You nevertheless elected to violate the law again," McKibben said in issuing the new sentence Monday.

"It is without question and quite clear from the record that your actions were willful," he said, adding that Gardner has been "contemptuous of this court" in the process.

"Most, virtually all the ranchers in the district of Nevada are law-abiding," McKibben said. "They don't follow the law just as they see it; they follow the law."

More than 50 state's rights activists, ranchers and other critics of federal management of public lands rallied in front of the U.S. courthouse, then packed the courtroom to show their support.

About a dozen protesters on horseback carried Nevada state flags and waved signs that read, "Save the stockmen from BLM and Forest Service" and "Endangered Species: Ranchers on public land."

"Stand up against the tyranny of the government," shouted one protester dressed in a white wig as a patriot from the American Revolution.

Gardner maintains neither the Forest Service nor the federal court has the authority to prohibit grazing by ranchers whose families were on the land before the Humboldt National Forest was established in northeast Nevada in 1907. He argues his cattle must graze on the forage to reduce the threat of fires that nearly destroyed his ranch in recent years.

He said he would appeal the sentencing but intended to report April 3 to the Reno halfway house as ordered.

"All I have done is stand up for my rights," Gardner told McKibben.

"Over the past 10 years, the government has been successful in causing a great number of ranching families to abandon their (grazing) allotments, not only in Nevada but across the West," he said.

Gardner said later he probably would have to sell 200 to 300 head of his 500 cattle to pay the fine.

[ridensm]

I think that they should recuse themselves from any case where an enviral agenda is key to the case if they or their spouse are key envirals.

Wouldn't it require principles in order to do something like that? I'm afraid those go out the window for a just cause with some of these folks.

[sistergoldenhair]

Thanks for the ping.

More than 50 state's rights activists, ranchers and other critics of federal management of public lands rallied in front of the U.S. courthouse, then packed the courtroom to show their support.

This warms my heart.

"They don't follow the law just as they see it; they follow the law."

The judge must have thought Mr.Gardner was a sheep rancher. :-)

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the flag.

[Willie Green]

humpty-bumpty

[jrewingjr]

They are taking our land thousands of acres at a time and turning the whole rural part of our nation into "The King's Woods" just as in feudal England. We must destroy the system and concept of National Forests, as it is the scythe of rural cleansing.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!

[Cuttnhorse]

bump

[cake_crumb]

"...8-year feud with the Forest Service over livestock grazing regulations"

That pretty much sums up the situation.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[philman_36]

...an 8-year feud with the Forest Service...
Isn't that such a cute "phrase".
The modern day equivalent of the Hatfields and McCoys? Or is it so only in the eyes of the author or the Forest Service. Nothing in quotes so there is no way to tell.
"We been feudin' with them Feds for nigh on eight years now..."
Oh yeah, nice terminology.
Who is servant and who is master?

[cascademountaineer]

Theres a balance to be struck.

Currently, even if you take the opposite side in this and contend with the radical greens, environmental policy as practiced by Gvt. just is not working in any way shape or form. Its not doing what they claim it is - protecting valuable acreage but instead actually ends up trampling upon the rights of people whose livelihoods are dependent on farm/ranchland.

There is another option.

Those who are concerned about environmental issues can begin to invest in land and acreage themselves to protect it and steward it as opposed to expecting an agency of some sort to do it for them. Its an approach that gives the maximum amount of rights and freedoms to the individuals whose livelihoods depend on their land not being confiscated or taken away while giving the option to protect valuable acreage around the US.

Its a complex issue and thats just an idea. But there are options that can be win/win solutions.

[Bob J]

Radio Free Republic Presents

The Banana Republican Hour

With your host Luis Gonzalez

This week’s guest:

Brothers to the Rescue founder, José Basulto

---

On February 24, 1996, three light aircraft left Miami on a routine flight. Their missions, to search the waters off the Florida Coast for rafters trying to reach the US shores, and bring them help by guiding the US Coast Guard to their location. That day in February, only one plane would return to its home base in Miami.

Tune in to Radio FreeRepublic this Thursday, March 14, at 9 PM EST, and listen to the actual sounds of a terrorist in action, murdering unarmed American citizens.

Sr. José Basulto, founder of Brothers to the Rescue and pilot of the surviving Cessna, will shed light on the events of that day, and detail how the Clinton administration withheld advanced knowledge of the attack from the humanitarian volunteer group, helping seal the fate of these four courageous flyers.

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