Free Republic

If you watched Donald Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, you may have seen Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hold up a photo of the Maude family of South Dakota. I'd heard a little bit about the fifth-generation ranching family before that, but I decided to learn more because I couldn't believe the story Rollins told about how the Joe Biden administration treated them. It's unbelievable. Or maybe it's not, given all we're learning about the last four years. ... Trump Admin is reversing Biden-era failures in 100 days! The U.S. Gov has dropped charges against the Maude family, victims of...

Ranchers and their elected representatives have won a major battle. The federal government dropped criminal charges against Charles and Heather Maude of Caputa, SD. Ben Patterson, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Federal District Court in the Western Division of South Dakota signed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Charles Maude and Heather Maude, dated April 28. South Dakota ranchers Charles and Heather Maude were indicted separately nearly a year ago on charges of theft of federal property stemming from a fenceline dispute about a fence built before either were born. Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman is pleased with the news...

Concern is growing in a conservative, remote corner of Oregon as people start arriving in a national forest for a Rainbow Family of Living Light annual gathering, a counter-culture get-together expected to draw thousands. Officials with the Malheur National Forest said this week that around 600 Rainbow Family members are already camped at a gathering site near Flagtail Meadow and that between 10,000 and 30,000 are likely arriving by July 4, when the multi-day event peaks with a prayer for world peace. People with small children, those with disabilities and senior citizens were among those who wrote to the event's...

The cut and baled land and the untouched land in this photo represent where survey markers indicate property boundaries exist between Maude private property and USFS property. Charles Maude and Heather Maude were indicted separately for theft of federal property, and each must retain their own attorney — doubling their legal costs. Courtesy photo Screen Shot 2025-04-10 at 10.57.18 AM The Western South Dakota couple indicted for theft of federal property will not go to trial in April. A new court date of July 22, 2025, has been established for Charles and Heather Maude of Caputa, in federal district court...

...Sidney Noble clocked out from his job as a botanist for the Payette National Forest last Friday afternoon after surviving the first wave of federally mandated workforce cuts. By Sunday night, he too had been fired. .. The statement said the USDA let go employees in the probationary period of their employment.... ...The firings have left vacancies across the Payette and Boise forests that employees who have not been fired claim will be difficult, if not impossible, to fill.... ... Those projects include work related to wildfire risk mitigation, timber harvest preparations, ,,,......environmental reviews,,,,,,and maintenance of bridges, roads, campgrounds, and...

A senior administration official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that DOGE has worked with various agencies to cancel several contracts in the Social Security Administration, the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor, and several other areas. "Taxpayer dollars will no longer be wasted on nonsense," the official told Fox News Digital. ADVERTISEMENT The canceled spending includes a $36,000 contract for DEI related workshops at Homeland Security and the cancellation of a $1 million contract that supports the "Gender X Initiative" and involves public-facing SSA applications that allow for the "non-binary" field. Doge Slashes Over $100M In Dei Funding At...

Amap of the U.S. showing land under federal control paints large swaths of the West. In August, Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that it’s unconstitutional for the feds to retain unappropriated land in a state indefinitely. Since the lawsuit was filed, a dozen other states, including Idaho, Alaska and Wyoming, have filed briefs asking the court to hear the case. Additionally, a coalition of counties in Arizona and New Mexico, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Utah Legislature and the Wyoming Legislature have also filed briefs in support of the lawsuit. “The federal burden in the West...

A devastating Wyoming wildfire season got its start more than 20 years ago with a disastrous Bill Clinton roadless rule, Harriet Hageman said Wednesday. Those in the path of the fires can thank the feds and their “bad policies.”. Wyoming’s lone member of Congress said she’s heartbroken over the devastating wildfires that have burned more than 600,000 acres across the Cowboy State this fire season. That includes her family’s Hartville homestead that burned in the 29,000-acre Pleasant Valley Fire. Now with the volatile and obstinate Elk and Pack Trail fires that are making national headlines, having burned about 180,000 combined,...

Ranchers across the U.S. have expressed outrage over the Forest Service prosecuting a South Dakota ranch couple for allegedly stealing public land. The feds, who showed up armed and in tactical gear, say a fence that’s been on the owners' land for 75 years crosses a boundary with federal grasslands. A South Dakota ranch couple is fighting federal indictments served to them by a U.S. Forest Service agent who allegedly showed up unannounced on their front steps — armed and in tactical gear. The agent was there to serve them with indictments in a modern-day range war between the ranchers...

In a decision that could end a years-long battle over commercial extraction of water from public lands, the U.S. Forest Service has ordered the company that sells Arrowhead bottled water to shut down a pipeline and other infrastructure it uses to collect and transport water from springs in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Forest Service notified BlueTriton Brands in a letter last month, saying its application for a new permit has been denied. District Ranger Michael Nobles wrote in the July 26 letter that the company “must cease operations” in the San Bernardino National Forest and submit a plan for...

At last report, there were three confirmed fatalities in the landslide, one known survivor and three people still missing. A massive landslide took out three homes on a highway outside of Wrangell late Monday. Three people had been found dead as of Tuesday night, and search and rescue efforts continue, along with an outpouring of community aid. KTOO’s Anna Canny is in Wrangell and says the most recent update from authorities is that three people are still missing. Anna Canny: So right now, we still don’t know any of those names that have been released publicly. But we do know...

Everything Is “Woke” Now. Even The U.S. Forestry Service. (Kellogg, Idaho) — After a student was banned from graduation in Kellogg Idaho for making some off-the-cuff remarks about how “Boys are boys. Girls are Girls. There is no in between,” the young student named Travis Lohr has now had his job offer rescinded. According to the Blaze Media: Lohr told Campos-Duffy he was slated to start work Sunday, but when he went in to complete the final paperwork, his boss informed him he was rescinding the offer. He described the job as "fighting wildland forest fires." "That's part of life,...

The new BLM rule introducing so-called conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s vehicle for locking up federal property. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to fundamentally reshape how public lands are managed without congressional approval. In March, the agency unveiled a sweeping proposal to establish a framework for “conservation leases” that places a newfound priority on preservation. The new Public Lands Rule presents a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” Congress outlined for the agency in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). New Rules Are a ‘Game Changer’.. FLPMA requires federal lands...

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore appeared this week before a U.S. Senate committee where he was pressured by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to speed up thinning work on federal forests. The Biden administration identified over 175,000 square miles of old growth and mature forests on government lands. The administration plans to craft a rule to protect forests from fires, insects, and other effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) Moore faced pointed questioning from U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a Republican who warned the administration's conservation efforts could "lock Americans out of the public...

BIDEN ORDERS EARTAGGED COWS KILLED IN NEW MEXICO TO PLEASE ENVIRO WACKOS! Less than 24 hours before bullets are set to fly, a group of animal activists including the Humane Farming Association hopes an 11th-hour lawsuit stops the planned aerial slaughter of 150 cattle in New Mexico. During a federally-approved, three day-event set to start Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service plans to shoot feral cattle from a helicopter roaming a southwestern area of the state. The federal agency announced its decision on Feb. 16, explaining feral cattle on the 560,000-acre Gila Wilderness Area “pose a significant threat to public safety...

TIERRA MONTE – The air smells of ash and the landscape is leached of color. Spots of green punctuate the valley floor in places. But along the ridges, the powdery residue of charred trees has fallen like snow, accumulating up to 4 inches deep. These are the slices of forest where the fire burned the hottest, scorching ponderosa pines from crown to root. Once titans, they are now matchsticks. Pola Lopez gestures their way, southward toward Hermits Peak. Before a tsunami of flames ripped through this canyon in Tierra Monte, the canopy was so thick it was impossible to see...

The Calf Canyon Fire was caused by a “pile burn holdover from January” that was started by the Santa Fe National Forest Service, officials said on Friday. The blaze later merged with the Hermits Peak Fire – also started by a federal prescribed burn – to become the largest fire in New Mexico history. The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire has burned more than 312,000 acres as of Friday morning and is 47% contained. More than 3,000 personnel are battling the blaze that has destroyed 761 structures, including hundreds of homes. “The Santa Fe National Forest is 100 percent focused on...

There is a federal court ruling late today regarding mail-in ballots here in Pennsylvania but first... The US Forest Service announcing a temporary halt to controlled burns. The move comes after the service ignited New Mexico's largest wildfire ever during a controlled burn... Joe Biden's approval rating hits a new rock bottom... The Democrat controlled January 6th Committee met with former lawyer for President Trump former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani... Syria Says Three Dead In Israeli Strike Near Damascus... A federal judge ruling against the Biden Administration on its controversial plan to roll back Title 42 designed to control...

908 Devices, manufacturer of purpose-built handheld and desktop devices for chemical and biomolecular analysis, and the United States Forest Service (USFS) are collaborating on a research effort to extend the capabilities of the MX908 handheld device for rapid detection of toxic pesticides used in illegal marijuana grows on federal lands. Drug traffickers plant marijuana in remote areas on U.S. federal lands, mainly in the Pacific Southwest, and use toxic and illegal pesticides to accelerate crop growth. USFS personnel currently have no safe and reliable method to conduct pesticide testing at the site of these illegal marijuana grows. They often must...

Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, testified in federal court in 1993 that she sent a threatening letter to the Forest Service warning that a local forest had been sabotaged with tree spikes. Stone-Manning told a local news outlet in 1993 that she could have faced conspiracy charges had she not struck an immunity deal with a federal prosecutor in return for her testimony. Court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that Stone-Manning testified that her friend and former roommate John Blount, who was found guilty and sentenced to 17 months...