NM ranchers confront feds over water

[phantom power]

The water is drying up, making every stream worth a fight.

Ranchers in Otero County are wrangling with the Forest Service over a patch of land where a creek called Agua Chiquita runs.

The Forest Service says it built a new, sturdy fence to keep cattle away from a recovering river habitat, but cattlemen say the new fence and locked gates infringe on long-standing water rights.

The battle goes beyond a single stream and the single ranching family directly affected, say ranchers and county officials, and rests on the principle that even on federal land, ranchers holding water rights dating to before 1907 – as often happens in Otero County – should have access to the water, including the portion downstream of the fenced-in area.

The Forest Service says it has a right to manage the land, including where water flows.

After the Forest Service refused to open the gates, the Otero County commissioners this week demanded the sheriff cut the locks, potentially igniting a confrontation on the order of Nevada’s Cliven Bundy, the rancher who has rallied armed supporters in a fight against federal land managers. So far cooler heads have prevailed in New Mexico.

...

“It hasn’t become a Cliven Bundy thing like in Nevada, but it’s coming to that,” said Ted Eldridge, who owns the Oro Grande Ranch in Alamogordo and sits on the board of the Otero County Cattlemen’s Association. “We’re trying to avoid that. But they take a little every year of your private property rights. That’s why we decided to stand up and fight this.”

http://www.abqjournal.com/396231/news/otero-county-ranchers-confront-feds-over-water.html

[Paladin]

1. This is what happens when domestic terror isn't promptly confronted. (nt)

[phantom power]

2. It's weird to me, how they convince themselves they have "private rights" on public land

Of course, Conservatism is all about dismantling the commons for private gain.

[KansDem]

3. "Conservatism is all about dismantling the commons for private gain."

At the point of a gun, apparently...

[phantom power]

4. The GOP has been quietly weaponizing the Cliven Bundys of the world for 30 years

The NRA convinces them they need more and more guns. Rush Limbaugh convinces them the government is their enemy, getting in the way of their god-given right to do... whatever they want to, I guess.

So here we are. They've finally started to aim their guns at "their enemy."

[enough]

10. Really. The inside of their heads is hard to imagine. (nt)

[Orsino]

9. Well, it's certainly what happens when climate change isn't, either.

The Water Wars will not be as big and noisy as the Oil Wars. They'll be local, mainly, and not heavily televised.

[piratefish08]

5. lemme guess - another case of "we have ancestral rights to free raw materials for our beef factory?"

[phantom power]

6. correct on the 1st guess

[piratefish08]

7. i didn't even have to read the article. either i'm that smart or they're that predictable.

[enough]

11. Both, apparently. (nt)

[wandy]

8. Here we go again. Will this be the new national passtime? n/t

[phantom power]

12. It will be until somebody puts them in fucking prison.

A lot like banksters, in that respect.

If our fearless leaders are hoping they'll just realize they're wrong, or get bored, and go home, they're going to be disappointed.

[jwirr]

13. They can either have immediate water and no water later when the river completely dries up or

they can have less access now and a river that is healthy enough to provide water in the future. They have a drought for gods sakes and there needs to be measurements taken to preserve it. Farmers and ranchers used to practice conservation as a part of their operation methods. Apparently greed has overcome common sense.