There is no doubt in my mind that the Hammond family was a political target. Last week the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and the WildEarth Guardians filed a suit against the government for giving the Hammonds back their grazing allotments, which haven’t been used for the past five years.
These environmental groups have become just flat-out mean at this point. They have no conscience or heart or feeling for humanity in this case. Their purpose is to be nothing but disruptive under a host of environmental laws which are far overdue for a reality update. Our litigious society has made a point of using the courts as a political weapon. If you don’t like something, cherry-pick your favorite jurisdiction and file a suit. It’s a shame that this is a modern legal business model.
The Hammonds were pardoned by President Donald Trump last year after Dwight and Steven spent three of a five-year sentence in federal prison on arson charges for burning 140 acres of BLM ground covered with juniper and invasive species. For most of us, it’s no big deal and originally the judge sentenced them to one year in prison. Then the U.S. Justice Department showed up and didn’t like the sentence, retried the case and determined they were in violation of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and gave them the five-year minimum sentence.
Now former Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke decided to give them their grazing allotments back and happened to sign the order on his last day in office. The Western livestock industry was pleased that the Hammonds were made nearly whole again.
It’s crazy that the Obama Justice Department went to great lengths to prosecute the Hammonds. They’re not terrorists by any stretch of the word. Today the Justice Department is under federal investigation because of the Trump-Russia scandal, and the Clinton email scandal. Who in their right mind would trust the U.S. Justice Department after it was weaponized by politicians?
The Hammonds certainly didn’t get along with the BLM. It all seemed to start with the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge right next door. The BLM helped themselves to the Hammond’s water rights to fill a lake. BLM was essentially stealing the Hammond’s water, which is a private property right.
Fast forward to today. The plaintiffs are saying that the Hammonds shouldn’t get their grazing privileges back because they don’t have “a satisfactory record of performance.” The Hammonds have been ranching there for 50 years, with only a government-induced hiccup, which they have paid dearly for.
The plaintiffs say in their suit, “Resumption of grazing on these allotments after five years of rest will irreparably harm these areas by degrading sage-grouse habitat, increasing invasive weeds, and increasing the likelihood of destructive fire, both through grazing and given the Hammonds’ longstanding pattern of fire-setting to increase forage for their cattle.” What possible harm have the plaintiffs endured, and what are the damages? Never mind that many of the Hammonds’ fires have been on their private land.
Ironically, the suit claims that the Hammonds shouldn’t be allowed back on their allotments because a recent land health assessment done in 2018 said the allotment failed to meet Article 5 for wildlife habitat due to juniper encroachment and annual invasive species encroachment (cheatgrass). These were the very elements the Hammonds were trying to remove when the fires got away from them. But after five years of nonuse, the juniper and cheatgrass are back. What would you expect after five years? Everyone who knows anything about grazing management knows their allotments are in desperate need of grazing and perhaps need additional AUMs to get the job done.
The plaintiffs are hung up on procedure more than anything else, citing grouse regulations, which are hung up in court and new ones being adopted, and NEPA, which Zinke allowed the use of in their 2014 environmental assessment, in effect until 2024. It’s mostly technical jargon.
Right now, the best course is to just let it go. The Hammonds seem to have a good relationship with their BLM office, as does the entire community.
The damages have been done and paid for, and the Hammonds should be allowed to go forth peacefully. But I suppose it’s asking too much for these environmental groups to develop a conscience or the attorneys to have a heart. — PETE CROW
