Monday, July 28, 2014

Rancher: Gov’t ‘Bullying People’ Who Have Been on Lands ‘for Generations’

Jose Varela Lopez
At a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation on Thursday, ranchers from Western states testified that they are routinely threatened and bullied by federal land management officials, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife. “I sit before you today to let you know what’s going on up there, and I hope that we can come to some kind of agreement on what needs to be done and move forward on it, because enough is enough when it comes to bullying people that have been on this land for generations,” Michael Lucero, fourth generation rancher in New Mexico, said in his sworn testimony at the hearing, entitled “Threat, Intimidation and Bullying by Federal Land Management Agencies, Part II.” Lucero said his family’s ranch was first established by a San Diego Land Grant and was eventually designated as land under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. He claimed the federal government is “driving us completely from the land.” “We feel that the government has taken away and are still trying to take away what is rightfully ours, from our grazing rights to our water rights,” Lucero said in his prepared remarks. “It seems that every year it gets more difficult to continue with our way of life and keep our heritage alive as the government is continually putting obstacles in our path. Jose J. Varela Lopez, who also is a 14th generation rancher in New Mexico, appeared on behalf of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association. Lopez testified that the “endangered species” was the “biggest culprit” in allowing the Fish and Wildlife Service to quash ranching activities. “At the moment, the Fish & Wildlife Service is considering critical habitat for the lesser prairie chicken, the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and two varieties of garter snakes,” Lopez said in his prepared statement. “Expansion of the Mexican wolf habitats is expected as early as tomorrow. “We have had 764,000 acres in New Mexico and Arizona recently designated critical habitat for the jaguar although only a few male jaguars have been sighted in the U.S. over the last 60 years,” Lopez said...more 
Mike Lucero



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