Crowdog
09-11-2001, 09:18 PM
Same crazy environmentalist wackos - Center for Biological Diversity!!
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Crowdog
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SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN - Sept. 11, 2001 www.sbcsun.com (http://www.sbcsun.com)
Board of Supervisors backs grazing appeal
CHUCK MUELLER
BARSTOW -- High Desert ranchers and the county will seek a stay today of a
federal order to remove herds of cattle from seven grazing allotments in
desert tortoise habitat.
Attorneys for the cattle ranchers and San Bernardino County expect to file
requests for an immediate stay of the order and notices of appeal to
overturn a decision of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to seasonally ban
livestock grazing on 427,000 acres of desert.
The county Board of Supervisors approved filing the appeal during a closed
session Monday, said Brad Mitzelfelt, chief of staff for 1st District
Supervisor Bill Postmus.
He said the notice of appeal and request for an immediate stay would be
sent late Monday or today to the U.S. Department of Interior's board of
land appeals in Arlington, Va., and its regional office of hearings and
appeals in Salt Lake City, as well as BLM offices in Barstow and Needles
that oversee desert grazing allotments.
Meanwhile, Wyoming attorney Karen Budd-Falen also said she would file a
notice of appeal today with the Interior Department's office in Utah,
requesting suspension of the BLM order issued Friday.
"We will ask the appeals office to consider our request immediately," she
said.
Budd-Falen, who represented the livestock growers at a 13-day evidentiary
hearing here in late July and early August, said the BLM did not properly
consult with the ranchers before ordering them to start moving cattle from
427,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat on public land.
The grazing ban would be for two months, until Nov. 7, when tortoises feed
before going into winter hibernation.
"The bureau gave the ranchers only two days' notice of meetings to consult
with them (about the order)," said Budd-Falen. "The ranchers requested a
week's delay, but the BLM issued the decision before they could be heard."
Mitzelfelt said Judge Harvey Sweitzer, an Interior Department
administrative law judge who conducted the Barstow hearings, needs to be
advised how the BLM responded to his ruling.
"He needs to determine if the bureau's attempts at consultations with
ranchers conformed with his ruling," Mitzelfelt said.
Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological
Diversity, one of three environmental groups that took the BLM to court
last year to protect tortoise habitat on area ranchland, said the bureau
tried repeatedly to confer with ranchers about the grazing restrictions.
But ranchers refused to cooperate, he said.
"Their failure to show up for last week's consulations with the BLM shows
they have never been open to reasonable discussions on how to help the
threatened desert tortoise," he said.
Denver attorney Jay Tutchton, legal counsel for environmentalists, said it
would be futile to seek a stay since Sweitzer's Aug. 24 ruling was final.
The judge called for the BLM to move ahead with a prior court-approved
agreement to remove cattle seasonally from tortoise habitat.
Postmus calls the bureau's decision to restrict cattle grazing invalid
because it did not comply with Sweitzer's order to "meaningfully consult
with the affected rancher priors to issuing the (removal) orders."
Without conferring with the ranchers before ordering the grazing ban, the
BLM violated the cattle growers' rights, Postmus said.
Patterson said ranchers could face a far broader grazing ban if a
court-approved agreement calling for more limited grazing is cast aside in
an appeal.
He said the Center for Biological Diversity would return to federal court
to seek closure of grazing lands on critical tortoise habitat throughout
the California desert, about one million acres.
Daniel Patterson
Desert Ecologist
Center for Biological Diversity
POB 710 Tucson Arizona 85702 USA
520.623.5252 x 306 tel / 623.9797 fax http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
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Crowdog
------------------------------------------
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN - Sept. 11, 2001 www.sbcsun.com (http://www.sbcsun.com)
Board of Supervisors backs grazing appeal
CHUCK MUELLER
BARSTOW -- High Desert ranchers and the county will seek a stay today of a
federal order to remove herds of cattle from seven grazing allotments in
desert tortoise habitat.
Attorneys for the cattle ranchers and San Bernardino County expect to file
requests for an immediate stay of the order and notices of appeal to
overturn a decision of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to seasonally ban
livestock grazing on 427,000 acres of desert.
The county Board of Supervisors approved filing the appeal during a closed
session Monday, said Brad Mitzelfelt, chief of staff for 1st District
Supervisor Bill Postmus.
He said the notice of appeal and request for an immediate stay would be
sent late Monday or today to the U.S. Department of Interior's board of
land appeals in Arlington, Va., and its regional office of hearings and
appeals in Salt Lake City, as well as BLM offices in Barstow and Needles
that oversee desert grazing allotments.
Meanwhile, Wyoming attorney Karen Budd-Falen also said she would file a
notice of appeal today with the Interior Department's office in Utah,
requesting suspension of the BLM order issued Friday.
"We will ask the appeals office to consider our request immediately," she
said.
Budd-Falen, who represented the livestock growers at a 13-day evidentiary
hearing here in late July and early August, said the BLM did not properly
consult with the ranchers before ordering them to start moving cattle from
427,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat on public land.
The grazing ban would be for two months, until Nov. 7, when tortoises feed
before going into winter hibernation.
"The bureau gave the ranchers only two days' notice of meetings to consult
with them (about the order)," said Budd-Falen. "The ranchers requested a
week's delay, but the BLM issued the decision before they could be heard."
Mitzelfelt said Judge Harvey Sweitzer, an Interior Department
administrative law judge who conducted the Barstow hearings, needs to be
advised how the BLM responded to his ruling.
"He needs to determine if the bureau's attempts at consultations with
ranchers conformed with his ruling," Mitzelfelt said.
Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological
Diversity, one of three environmental groups that took the BLM to court
last year to protect tortoise habitat on area ranchland, said the bureau
tried repeatedly to confer with ranchers about the grazing restrictions.
But ranchers refused to cooperate, he said.
"Their failure to show up for last week's consulations with the BLM shows
they have never been open to reasonable discussions on how to help the
threatened desert tortoise," he said.
Denver attorney Jay Tutchton, legal counsel for environmentalists, said it
would be futile to seek a stay since Sweitzer's Aug. 24 ruling was final.
The judge called for the BLM to move ahead with a prior court-approved
agreement to remove cattle seasonally from tortoise habitat.
Postmus calls the bureau's decision to restrict cattle grazing invalid
because it did not comply with Sweitzer's order to "meaningfully consult
with the affected rancher priors to issuing the (removal) orders."
Without conferring with the ranchers before ordering the grazing ban, the
BLM violated the cattle growers' rights, Postmus said.
Patterson said ranchers could face a far broader grazing ban if a
court-approved agreement calling for more limited grazing is cast aside in
an appeal.
He said the Center for Biological Diversity would return to federal court
to seek closure of grazing lands on critical tortoise habitat throughout
the California desert, about one million acres.
Daniel Patterson
Desert Ecologist
Center for Biological Diversity
POB 710 Tucson Arizona 85702 USA
520.623.5252 x 306 tel / 623.9797 fax http://www.biologicaldiversity.org