As Cliven Bundy Stands Trial, A Colorado Link To His 'Range War' May Surprise You

Jury selection ended this week in the trial of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. It's the latest chapter in his long-running saga of conflict with the federal government over intentionally grazing his cattle on public land while refusing to obey the law and pay for the privilege. It's also a conflict with a Colorado connection. Cliven Bundy has said all along that this conflict isn’t about grazing fees. This is about state sovereignty and who has access and control of public lands. For him this is about what he defines as constitutional freedoms. The Bundy family says that their ancestors were some of the first Mormon settlers of Bunkerville, Nevada in 1877. Bundy has said that before the federal government began managing lands in the West, the family had claims to this land and they inherited the authority to ranch. But to be clear, the federal government does have authority to manage public lands and this is something that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Gifford Pinchot to lead, in 1898, what became the U.S. Forest Service and he created the first modern regulatory law on public lands: If you grazed cattle on public lands you had to have a permit. Now, it was a tiny fee but ranchers were not happy. Enter Colorado rancher Fred Light who grazed in what’s now the White River National Forest. "So Fred Light decided he was not going to comply," explains Wilkinson. "But Fred Light was a gentleman. He called up the Forest Service supervisor [and says]. "Next Wednesday I’m going to drive my cattle onto the National Forest just like I’ve always have. If you want to try to stop me, fine. Let’s go to court against each other." Light moved his cattle and the Forest Service gave him a ticket for failing to get a grazing permit and Light went to court "with the whole state of Colorado behind him to the extent the legislature paid Light's attorney fees to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court," Wilkinson says. The court sided with the Forest Service, "Light had to get the permit and pay the grazing fee and Fred Light said OK, the court has spoken."...more

Here is the Sup.Ct. decision referred to, Light v. U.S.