Open range, one of the West’s oldest prerogatives,
needs to be retired, according to a new activist group, the
Alliance for Property Rights. The alliance, based in Hailey, Idaho,
is collecting horror stories from people whose property has been
trampled or who have suffered car wrecks due to wandering
livestock. “Clearly this is an ongoing problem for many people, and
there is no recourse under law to recover damages,” says Jon
Marvel, who heads the alliance as well as the nonprofit Idaho
Watersheds Project (HCN, 7/25/94). Generally in the rural West,
landowners who want to shut out wandering livestock have to erect
the fences; owners of livestock bear little or no responsibility.
Fenceless open range enabled the old cross-country cattle drives,
but today the laws are an unconstitutional infringement on private
property rights, Marvel says. Not without irony, he says, “It’s a
takings issue” similar to ranchers’ claims that government
regulation of grazing hurts them economically. The alliance will
serve as a clearinghouse of information about open-range law and
impacts, and will lobby state legislatures to repeal such laws. For
more information or to offer your story of open-range problems,
contact Alliance for Property Rights, P.O. Box 1602, Hailey, ID
83333 (208/788-2290).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Sue the cattle.
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