Ranchers sue Idaho-based conservation group for trespassing

Over a dozen Wyoming ranchers and landowners are accusing a nonprofit conservation group and its state director of blatantly and repeatedly trespassing on their land to collect water quality samples. “It’s been persistent all this time,” said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, which is also involved in the lawsuit. The complaint cites about two dozen instances stretching back to 2005 in which employees and volunteers with the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project ignored direct instructions or written signage warning them not to trespass on private land in Fremont and Lincoln counties. The lawsuit directly accuses Wyoming director Jonathan Ratner of multiple instances of trespassing. Ratner was unaware of the lawsuit when contacted for an interview. “I won’t say it’s absolutely impossible, but I am extremely careful on those fronts, and I cannot believe that,” Ratner said. “Any other situations I have no information to comment on at the moment.” The ranchers and landowners are seeking actual, nominal and punitive damages, claiming that the trespasses interfered with the use, enjoyment and possession of their property...more