America’s Most Famous Cattle Drive Saved!
Mountain States Legal Foundation Press Release
By Alfonso Tarantino, Communications Manager
For years, Mountain States Legal Foundation has fought to defend Wyoming’s Upper Green River Drift ranchers and their right to graze from environmentalists looking to shut down grazing and one of America’s last great historic cattle drives. Love for the land is close to the heart of these ranchers, whose families have cared for the land far longer and far better than any agency or activist has. The Green River Drift provides 124 years of evidence that ranchers are the real conservationists.
The environmentalists say they’re trying to save grizzly bears. But the grizzlies are no longer endangered, as measured by every metric the government has ever published as a standard for grizzly populations.
In fact, grizzly bear populations have recovered so much that they increasingly encroach on grazing land. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) officials have twice recommended grizzlies be removed from the endangered species list, most recently in 2017.
On Tuesday, May 17, the Honorable Nancy D. Freudenthal agreed that approval of continued grazing in the Upper Green River area did not violate the Endangered Species Act and ruled that the FWS properly took into account possible grizzly bear preservation and that the cattle drives and associated grazing may continue. The court stated that federal agency documents allowing the grazing were “supported by substantial evidence, and neither arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or inconsistent with law.”
This affirms, once again, that the people who know how to take care of the land the best are those who have been taking care of it for centuries. Mountain States Legal Foundation will continue to fight for America’s ranchers and farmers threatened by encroachment from those who want to dictate what our country does with the people’s land.
You can find our original case summary of CBD v. Haaland here and a video press release regarding our victory here.
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