The District Court of New Mexico ruled in late December that a rancher who lost his grazing permit in 2018 after he killed a wolf has been trespassing on land since his appeal was lost in 2019.
Craig Thiessen pleaded guilty to knowingly taking an endangered species, but he claimed his grazing allotment was privately owned and he did not need a grazing permit from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).
Thiessen also sued USFS in the District Court of New Mexico in 2021 but lost the case. He appealed the ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is still pending.
The most recent decision pertains to the USFS’ case against Thiessen, where the agency asked for the rancher’s cattle to be removed from the public lands and for him to pay monetary damages and fines for using the land since his appeal was lost in 2019.
The court agreed with USFS, and penalties will be determined later in January. Conservation groups celebrated the decision.
“Grazing permits are a privilege and not a right, and Mr. Thiessen lost that privilege after he pleaded guilty to bludgeoning an endangered young Mexican gray wolf to death with a shovel,” said Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project deputy director.
