Forest Service officials are under intense political
pressure to reverse a decision ordering most of a rancher’s cows
from the 227-square-mile Diamond Bar allotment on the Gila and Aldo
Leopold Wilderness areas near Silver City, N.M. (HCN, 5/2/94). The
agency told ranchers Kit and Sherry Laney to move 90 percent of
their 660-cow herd off the allotment until Aug. 30 to avoid
long-term damage to the grassland. That triggered an alternate
rancher proposal from staffs of New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici and
Rep. Joe Skeen, to keep up to 500 cows on the Diamond Bar and move
the rest to a neighboring allotment. Gov. Gary Johnson and the Farm
Credit Bank of Texas, which holds the Laneys’ mortgage, have
written letters to the Forest Service on their behalf.
Environmentalist Susan Schock of Silver City’s Gila Watch said,
“The cowboys’ senator and congressman are pushing a proposal that
would sacrifice wilderness areas to protect a bad rancher.”
Domenici denied he was taking sides. “There must be a way to grant
a permit without driving the ranching business into the ground or
causing irreparable damage to a beautiful area,” he said. A final
decision is expected shortly, but Wilderness District Ranger Sue
Kozacek in Mimbres, N.M., acknowledges politics can’t be kept
totally out of the case. “The higher up you go, the more political
it becomes.”
*Tony
Davis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The heat is on.
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