Feds extracting their pound of flesh.
Her husband will never return to trail the cows to winter range again, but Jeanette Finicum is determined that she will get the job done, eventually.
Although she’s provided a check to fully cover fines assessed over the last year, the Arizona rancher continues to be locked out of both her winter and summer grazing ranges.
Jeanette, whose husband Robert “LaVoy” Fincium was shot and killed by Oregon State Troopers last January, has managed grazing decisions on their northern Arizona ranch alone since his Jan. 26, 2016 death.
Pounding staples, doctoring sick calves and putting out mineral are on Jeanette’s list of tasks to complete throughout the year. Those are the easy jobs. She can soon add a much more painful item to the list: filing suit against the Bureau of Land Management. She plans to file suit within the next two weeks.
The Finicums manage two separate grazing permits – summer and winter. Their 16,000 acres of winter range is to be grazed between Oct. 15 and May 15.[…]
Rather than allow Jeanette to take over the grazing allotments after LaVoy’s death, state BLM representatives said she was not considered the heir to the allotments, even though she was the widow of one. They told her the grazing permits terminated upon his death and that she would have to start at square one with the application process to graze her (their) cattle on the allotment. Jeanette said the BLM also told her that her grazing rights are not “inheritable,” but she and her attorney disagree. “It is property and an asset to our estate,” she said.
The BLM said an environmental impact study would have to be conducted to determine whether or not she was eligible to graze the allotments.
HT: Wirecutter