DuBois column - Lawyers, grazing permits, wildlife corridors and beasts on the ballot

Lawyers, grazing permits, wildlife corridors and beasts on the ballot

Attorney’s fees

According to a recent memo from Principal Deputy Solicitor Daniel Jorjani the Interior Department will start publicly listing attorney’s fees paid out for legal settlements. The memo says this information will be available on a new page of Interior’s website. Environmental groups have been very successful in filing these so-called citizen suits under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. A 2016 investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that during the Obama administration, “federal agencies paid out $49 million for 512 citizen suits” filed under those three laws.

Environmentalists have also sued under the Equal Access To Justice Act. That act, however, limits attorney’s fees to $200 per hour. It also stipulates the fees can only be awarded to entities with less than $7 million in total assets.

There are no such limits on these type of lawsuits under the Endangered Species, Clean Water and Clean Air acts. Earth Justice, with net assets of $68 million, received $2.3 million from the Dept. of Interior during Obama’s reign. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued the Trump Administration 100 times and has assets of $19 million, also received taxpayer funded fees according to the 2016 investigation.

Congrats to the Department of Interior for the new transparency on this issue. Perhaps it will spur action by Congress. Let’s also recognize everyone owes a debt of gratitude to Karen Budd-Falen. It was her 2009 memorandum “Environmental Litigation Gravy Train” that first brought national attention to these payouts. You can draw a straight line from that memorandum to the recent secretarial order to publish these figures on Interior’s website. Thank you Karen, and a long-overdue congratulations on your appointment as deputy solicitor for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Hammond’s grazing permit

The poor Hammond family. Father and son, Dwight and Steve, for taking action to defend their private property (selective burns), were found guilty of being “terrorists” and sentenced under an anti-terrorism law. They served their sentence, but BLM appealed to the Ninth Circuit because the mandatory minimum sentence had not been met as established in the anti-terrorism act. The feds won, and back to jail the Hammonds went. BLM employees were so vindictive against the Hammonds they even assumed false names and used government computers to disparage the Hammonds on social media platforms.

President Trump finally stepped in and pardoned the Hammonds, and former Secretary of Interior Zinke, in one of his few pro-grazing actions, ordered the BLM to renew the Hammond’s grazing permit.  This has the enviros furious, so they have, of course, filed a lawsuit.

Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, and Center for Biological have sued to stop the livestock turn out, alleging violations of the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), among others. They claim a violation of FLPMA because the Hammonds don’t meet the “satisfactory record of performance” required by the act and its regulations. They allege a violation of NEPA because the permits were issued using a categorical exclusion, and they claim a violation of the ESA because specific management thresholds were not included to protect the endangered sage grouse.

In other words, they’ve thrown the entire kitchen sink at this hoping something will stick. Problem is, these folks have an excellent record of finding something that will “stick”.

Wildlife migration routes

The National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA) is working to have former Secretary Zinke’s order 3362 on wildlife corridors rescinded. The NCBA says the order has resulted in “prioritization of big-game habitat conservation and restoration,” and “inappropriate impacts to adjacent private lands.” They further say elements of Zinke’s order “typically result in inappropriate restrictions on grazing and ranching activities.”

This is no surprise to me. In February of last year I wrote:

The order calls for "prioritizing active habitat management." That would mean such management or projects would have priority over other uses or projects, such as livestock grazing. The order also says it is "crucial that the Department take action to harmonize state fish and game management and Federal land management of big-game winter range and corridors." It will be interesting to see who "harmonizes" who. We know what that has resulted in historically. 

It is nice to see the big boys finally catching on.

Colorado wolf vote

High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA), Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and other wolf advocates want to see wolves in Colorado. This time they are taking their efforts straight to the voter, by way of the ballot. “Colorado is the gap,” said ecologist Delia Malone of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. “We not only need wolves ecologically, but wolves need Colorado to restore connectivity between the population in the Northern Rockies and the populations in New Mexico and Arizona.” If passed, the resolution (Initiative 79) would require the Colorado Wildlife Commission prepare a plan to introduce gray wolves on federal lands west of the Continental Divide by the end of 2023.

Norteños should be watching this closely.

USDA economists

Ag Secretary Sonny Purdue has announced the majority of the economists in the Economic Research Service will be relocated outside of the Washington, D.C. area. Purdue defends the move and denies they are political. “We don’t undertake these relocations lightly, and we are doing it to improve performance and the services these agencies provide,” Perdue said.  “We will be placing important USDA resources closer to many stakeholders, most of whom live and work far from Washington, D.C.” Current and former employees have said the specialties of those being asked to move correspond closely to the areas where economic assessments often clash with Trump's policies, including tax policies, climate change and farms. “This was a clear politicization of the agency many of us loved for its non-partisan research and analysis,” a current ERS employee has stated, claiming that department leaders picked those whose work was more likely to offend the administration and forced them to move “out or quit.”

Personally, I think Secretary Perdue should call this relocation “Operation Rawhide”.

Head’em up and move’em out Mr. Secretary.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

This column first appeared in the June editions of the NM Stockman and the Livestock Market Digest 

Also available on the internet here.