New Mexico fence impasse deepens as county weighs sanctions against feds

Blair Dunn

Caren Cowan

New Mexico ranchers are plenty mad over the U.S. Forest Service’s refusal to open a gate blocking their cattle from reaching water, but all sides say they are working hard to avoid an armed showdown reminiscent of Nevada’s Bundy ranch skirmish any time soon. But that doesn’t mean a resolution will be easy or that the pressure on the local officials at the center of the clash is any less. And still standing are the metal fences and locked gates along the banks of the Agua Chiquita, put up by the Forest Service to keep local cattle out. The federal government says the fences are merely replacing long-standing barbed-wire enclosures protecting a vital wetland habitat. Otero County officials say they’re exploring possible criminal and civil sanctions against federal agencies after failing to reach an agreement with federal stakeholders. The ranching community is also reaching out to Congress to step in on behalf of cattle owners. “It’s time for a congressional inquiry into this and probably a committee hearing somewhere in the West to deal with this, because it’s not just here. It’s Utah. It’s Nevada. It’s what’s going on in Texas,” said Albuquerque attorney Blair Dunn, who’s representing Otero County in the matter. “It was very frustrating for the sheriff and the county commissioners to go all that way, have that meeting in good faith, and nobody in that room from the federal government ever had any intention of compromising,” said Mr. Dunn. Fourteen federal officials and law enforcement officers attended the meeting, said Mr. Dunn, but they insisted that they have no authority to remove the pipe fencing, which is tall enough to block cattle from reaching the watering hole but short enough to allow elk and deer to leap over. Opening the fence may sound like an easy fix, but Mr. Joyner said it would require the Forest Service to reopen the NEPA planning process and change the rules governing the riparian area, which is being protected as habitat for at-risk species, such as the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, said the feud over the fence is just the latest example of the ongoing struggle between those who make their living off the land and the federal government, which owns 42 percent of the land within the state’s borders. “This whole federal lands’ abuse — and there’s no other term for it — has been something that has been building for years,” said Ms. Cowan. “Basically, we feel like here in the West, and particularly in New Mexico, we’re almost under siege with the federal government trying to drive us off the land.”...more