“We’ve won every step of the way but we’re still
fighting in court,” said Roxanne Knight in a recent interview about
the six year fight to renew their grazing lease in northeastern
Arizona. Roxanne and her husband, Galyn, have been waging a battle since
2006 with the non-profit environmental group WildEarth Guardians,
formerly called the Forest Guardians and even though a late 2011
decision made by the Arizona Superior Court upheld a decision in
their favor made by the State Land Commission, the Guardians have
filed appeals. The Knights were told by their attorneys that the case could go
on for another five or six years. “This is a precedent setting case that will affect grazing
leases for all ranchers if we fail,” said Roxanne. “We wanted to
celebrate when we won this recent decision, but the Guardians MO is
to appeal, appeal, and appeal to wear people down. They wait until
the last minute to file hoping to catch you off guard.” The Knights are a seventh-generation ranching family who have
been leasing and managing state trust land since 1952. They’ve had
the current contested lease since 1978. All of the Knights hold degrees in areas such as farm and ranch
management, agribusiness, conservation biology and environmental
resources. They have kept detailed records on their grazing leases
that include monitoring range conditions, rainfall data, grass
species and percentages, and other environmental factors. The WildEarth Guardians is headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico
with offices in Denver and Boulder, Colo. and Phoenix and Tucson.
On their website,
www.wildearthguardians.org, they state,
“Livestock production is by far the most widespread destructive
activity on the arid and semi-arid western landscape. Forest
Guardians is working to eliminate livestock grazing on public
lands…” “They said we were bad stewards of the land, but we’ve proven
that’s not true and the courts have agreed,” said Roxanne.
The Knights are able to use the grazing lease until the case is
settled but if they lose if could put them out of business said
Roxanne. “They don’t care, that’s what they want; to put us all out
of business and close down the land to only wildlife.”...
more
Ranchers take note:
They have kept detailed records on their grazing leases
that include monitoring range conditions, rainfall data, grass
species and percentages, and other environmental factors.
and
“They said we were bad stewards of the land, but we’ve proven
that’s not true and the courts have agreed,” said Roxanne.
The two are tied together: they are winning in court because of the records they have kept. Are you monitoring your allotment?
No comments:
Post a Comment