What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Cliven Bundy, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor
85 postsCliven Bundy is an American rancher who is in an ongoing dispute with the Bureau of Land Management about cattle grazing rights on federal lands in Nevada
David Bundy brings his family, including his two-year old son Cliven, from Bundyville, Arizona and buys a 160-acre ranch in Clark County, Nevada from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt. Water rights are transferred to Bundy’s land, but do not impact the federally managed land surrounding the ranch.
David Bundy, the father of future rancher Cliven Bundy, applies for permission to graze cattle on federally owned land in the Gold Butte area north of Las Vegas. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grants the request.
Rancher David Bundy is found to be delinquent on his grazing fees to the BLM. He will eventually pay what he owes.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy begins paying grazing fees in order to use publicly owned lands for his cattle.
Bundy applies for a transfer of his father’s permit to graze cattle on federally managed land. Bundy is already grazing his cattle illegally on the land. The BLM denies the permit, citing unpaid delinquent fees. Bundy continues to graze his cattle on the federal land.
The desert tortoise is officially listed as a threatened species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Among the land designated as a tortoise habitat is the federally managed area near Bunkerville, Nevada, where Bundy has been grazing his cattle for years.
The BLM offers a ten-year grazing permit to Bundy, written to alleviate the impact of his cattle on the endangered desert tortoise habitat by capping his allowance of grazing cattle to 150 head. Bundy refuses to accept the permit and continues to graze his cattle on the Bunkerville allotment, which by now consists of over 10,486 acres of National Park Service land at the northern end of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. He also stops paying his federal grazing fees (approximately $2/head) in what he calls a “protest” against the permit. The Washington Post reports,
Cliven Bundy, whose family homesteaded his ranch in 1877 and who accuses the government of a “land grab,” are digging in for a fight and say they will not willingly sell their grazing privileges to create another preserve.
The BLM revokes his permit to graze, and begins closely tracking his delinquent grazing fees. The BLM is charging Bundy $1.35 per month per head of cattle to graze on federal land.
Bundy, still refusing to pay his grazing fees to the federal government, sends a payment check to Clark County instead. The county returns his check, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
Tensions between the BLM and Nevada ranchers who refuse to pay fees or comply with regulations escalates. A small bomb goes off in the US Forest Service office in Carson City. Forest Service spokesperson Erin O’Connor says,
If it was sent as a message, we got it.
Federal workers travel the area in pairs and stay in contact with their offices for fear of being assaulted. Forest Service official Jim Nelson says:
I’m concerned about the safety of my employees. They can’t go to church in these communities without having someone say something. Their kids are harassed in school. Stores and restaurants are not serving them.
Nelson says that the government manages the land for the best use of ranchers and everyone else, and that unattended, free-ranging cows that graze the land illegally despoil the protected springs and stream banks. Bundy says:
They’ve taken their authority and abused it. I’m not being regulated to death anymore.
Bundy and some of his fellow ranchers say that the federal government has no rights to the 87% of the land it owns in that state. Bundy and his associates say that Nevada’s state rights invalidate federal rights. An area resident says that federal laws and court decisions mean nothing, and calls their resistance “a revolutionary war.” Bundy says:
I’m still saying the state of Nevada owns that land, and the federal government has been an encroacher. I’m not moving my cattle. We have … rights.
He says his personal rights to the land trump federal law, and that his rights derive from his contention that his Mormon ancestors were using the land well before the federal government claimed authority over it.
The Las Vegas police tell the BLM that they believe armed ranchers are planning a standoff in case the BLM moves to impound Bundy’s cattle. The BLM does not attempt to impound Bundy’s cattle or to make him pay his outstanding debt.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denies Bundy’s appeal of a federal ruling finding him guilty of trespassing and failing to pay his grazing fees. The court says,
Bundy has not shown why he could not or would not comply with the Court’s order [to cease grazing].
The court fines Bundy for willful trespass.
The BLM again decides not to forcibly impound Bundy’s cattle, and instead begins to formally investigate and document Bundy’s “willful trespass” on the designated land. By 2012, it will have documented 199 incidents of trespass, from a photograph of a single cow to the construction of an illegally built reservoir.
Bundy says that President Clinton’s establishment of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is an illegal federal land grab. His grandparents settled in the Parashant area of Arizona in 1877. Bundy says,
The terrible thing about it is there is private property, customs and lifestyles [at stake].
Virtually all of the 1.1 million acres of land in the monument area was federally managed land before it was designated as a federally protected monument area. The monument designation completes the protection of the entire Grand Canyon area, and renders it off limits for ranching, mining, oil/gas exploration, and development.
Bundy joins some fifty ranchers in a courtroom protest of rancher Cliff Gardner’s conviction of illegally grazing his cattle on federal land. The protesters say that states’ rights render federal law irrelevant, and say that Gardner’s conviction is meaningless. Some of them wear white wigs to emulate Revolutionary War patriots. Bundy says,
This court has tried to intimidate the citizens of Nevada by attempting to make an example of Cliff Gardner.
The BLM notifies Bundy that if he does not remove his cattle and fencing from federal lands, the government will do it and charge him the costs. In response, he tells the agency that he will do whatever he deems necessary to protect what he calls his “unalienable forage, water and access rights”.
Bundy says he does not recognize the federal government, and will continue to graze his cattle on federal land regardless of what actions federal agencies may take. He says he will resist any effort by government officials to remove his cattle from federal lands.
Bundy tells a reporter he has “fired” the BLM and will continue grazing his cattle on the federal allotment no matter what the BLM says.
The US Department of Interior offers to round up Bundy’s cattle and sell them, with Bundy receiving all of the profits. Bundy rejects the offer.
The BLM sends Bundy a list of the cattle seen grazing on public lands, and bills him nearly $330,000 for trespassing and investigation fees.