NM Bootheel ranchers in fight with big landowner

Deep in New Mexico's Bootheel along the U.S.-Mexico border sits a historic 500-square mile ranch once owned by William Randolph Hearst. Now called the Diamond A Ranch and operated by Seth Hadley, a descendant of Anheuser-Busch founder Adolphus Busch, the large holding that straddles the New Mexico-Arizona border has been called one of the "Last Great Places" by environmentalists for its focus on saving wildlife. But among the canyons of the Peloncillo Mountains and the serenity of the pinon-juniper woods of the Animas Mountains, Hadley and neighboring area ranchers are locked in an ongoing dispute over traditional ranch land usages and access to public lands and country roads. Smaller, area ranchers accuse Diamond A Ranch of routinely putting up fences on public land and trying to close roads by erecting gates with padlocks, a move that on at least one occasion drew an injunction from a state judge. They also say Hadley's focus on environmental concerns, which sometimes result in vast chucks of land being set aside for wildlife, makes it harder for them to navigate through the sprawling ranch and keep up with usage rules. All those moves, ranchers say, are slowly changing the way of life in the Bootheel as areas long visited by hunters, ranchers and originally by homesteaders are being shut out. "I think (Diamond A Ranch) would rather ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission," said Judy Keeler, a neighboring rancher whoruns an 8,000-acre ranch. "We're friendly with them but it's been an ongoing battle."
A Diamond A Ranch spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.Currently, the two sides are locked in a fight over a fence on Diamond A property that prevents hunters from parking to hunt in the Coronado National Forest...more 

The Urban Brand is on the land. 

As the BLM, FS, USFWS, EPA, etc. continue to make these southwestern ranches unprofitable, the trust fund babies and their ilk are moving in.  It's like living next door to the Kennedys..."Oh Ranchers Of The West, We Hardly Knew Ye".  

They are locking out - their neighbors,  and they are  locking up - our history, our traditions and our liberty.