DIAMOND BAR RANCH PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

Kit & Sherry Laney
Diamond Bar Ranch
Winston, New Mexico
February 21, 2004

The Gila National Forest has sent an Amendment to its Solicitation to the parties who bid on the removal of our cattle from the Diamond Bar and Laney ranches. The Amendment provides an advisory statement that reads “This solicitation in part satisfies the Federal Court Order mandating the Forest Service to remove and impound livestock from the Diamond Bar and Laney Allotments. We do have concurrence on the legality of this court order from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, as well as the District Attorney for Catron and Grant County. The Forest Service has been notified the Catron County Sheriff will not interfere, nor will the permittee. This amendment also serves as notice to all who will submit a proposal the possibility does exist that the permittee may attempt to prosecute individuals who remove livestock from the allotments.” [emphasis added]

The Court Order only applies to national forest system lands. We have given Notice to the Court, the Forest Service, and N.M. public officials that our cattle are not ranging on national forest system lands. We have a lawfully and legally recorded deed to a fee interest for raising cattle on the lands within the boundaries of our ranches. Since our livestock operations are not part of the national forest system lands, we are not “permittees.” We therefore, do not know whom the Forest Service is referring to by the use of this term.

Our fee interest is a separate freehold estate. This estate (fee interest) is a property right in land, the underlying title to which is held by the U.S. Government. It is privately owned real estate. Our ownership of this fee interest is not based on a frivolous claim, but on an exhaustive chain of title. Our predecessors appropriated and severed this vested fee interest from the public domain of the United States under the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation in accordance with the local laws, customs, and decisions of the courts prior to the forest reserve. Our title is as valid as any other proprietor in the State of New Mexico that holds a deed to real estate.

Our title has not been disputed, either by the Federal District Court or the U.S. Justice Department. The cornerstone of our private property rights for raising livestock is the livestock water. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Diamond Bar v. U.S., assumed without deciding that we owned the stock watering rights within our ranches. The U.S. Supreme Court went farther and ruled that not only did the ranches own the stockwater, but also cattle grazing was not a purpose for which the Gila River Forest Reserve was withdrawn from the unappropriated public lands. Also, no quiet title action has been taken against our title. Therefore, our title stands valid under New Mexico Statutes.

Regardless of any concurrences to the contrary, the fact is that neither the Forest Service, the New Mexico Attorney General, the District Attorney, the Livestock Board, nor a County Sheriff has the authority to authorize anyone to violate New Mexico State law with respect to our cattle. In the absence of a legal and lawful transfer of ownership from us to a new owner, our livestock cannot be rounded up, impounded, transported, and/or sold without the action being in violation of the New Mexico Livestock Code.

Please be advised that no Forest Service personnel or State or County public officials, including N.M. Livestock Board members or their inspectors, have the authority to transfer ownership of our cattle to any other person(s) without our consent.

Please be assured that neither we, nor anyone associated with us, will take any physical action against, or interfere with, anyone who attempts to remove our cattle. We will, however, take steps to film and/or document all actions involved in the attempted removal of our cattle and damage to our private property rights.

We will file charges in a state court of proper jurisdiction against all persons individually (not collectively as an agency) who are involved in the decisions and actions to remove our livestock and who illegally use our stockwater without our consent. We will also file civil charges against all such persons, as individuals without immunity, for any and all damages to our livestock and the productivity of our livestock herd. This is not a threat. It is merely a statement of fact.

We want the non-ranching public to understand that our ownership of a fee interest to raise livestock in our ranches does not in anyway keep them from enjoying these lands as they always have.