PLC; US Forest Service Extreme Actions Against Ranching Family

The Public Lands Council is not happy with how the US Forest Service is dealing with and treating the Maude family of South Dakota, who have worked under federal grazing permits for many years. Earlier this year, both a husband and wife were indicted separately on criminal charges related to the alleged theft of federal land. Public Lands Council Executive Director, Kaitylyn Glover.

“The reality is that the Forest Service, law enforcement officer who visited their operation suddenly took issue with a fence line that has been there for the last number of decades, and suddenly raised issues with cultivation of a Forest Service in holding in a pasture that has been there again for the last many decades.’

She says these issues are not uncommon across the West due to the challenges of managing checkerboard landscapes. However, given the circumstances, the criminal charges are extreme, especially when there are more effective alternatives to resolve such disputes, rather than working through administrative pathways like they do in every other case, the Agency and the Department of Justice decided to take this mother and father, put them in a really precarious position, indict them separately, as if this was a murder trial or other significant criminal act, and they are facing 10 years in prison each.”

In addition to hefty fines, according to Glover.