• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Sunday, July 13, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home Current Events

County Defies Feds To Help Ranchers

by Off The Grid News Staff
in Current Events
Print Print
new mexico ranchers cattle

Image source: reviewjournal.com

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article
new mexico ranchers cattle
Image source: reviewjournal.com

A sheriff in New Mexico has been ordered by his own county to take a surprising action that could lead to a costly battle with the United States Forest Service (USFS).

Otero County commissioners passed a resolution this week that requires the sheriff to remove a lock from a USFS gate that keeps cattle from a creek known as Aqua Chiquita. The USFS contends the fence protects wildlife habitat, while the commissioners say that ranchers have the right to take needed water from the stream. The commissioners voted to take the action after the Service refused to unlock the gates. A specific species of a jumping mouse that may be listed this year as endangered lives on the land.

“The rancher in this case owns the water rights and has a right for their cattle to water,” rancher John Dalton Bell told El Paso TV station Channel 7.

The resolution said, in part, “The County is entreating the Sheriff of Otero County to immediately take steps to remove or open gates that are unlawfully denying citizens access to their private property rights.”

“Now the procurement is since they won’t, then we’ve instructed Sheriff Benny House to unlock those fences,” Otero Commissioner Tommie Herrell said.

Revisit the counsel of great men and learn how to reclaim the quality of government we once enjoyed.

USFS officials say the cattle already have access to the water, although ranchers say the cattle cannot find the tiny opening.

“We’ve provided reasonable access to the water even if there is a water right on these sites,” USFS Forest Supervisor Travis Moseley said.

The only action the Service plans to take against the county is to notify the US attorney, Moseley said.

County Wants to Avoid Confrontation

new mexico ranchThe commissioners’ resolution may not lead to a confrontation because the sheriff has decided to hold off on any action until he meets with the US attorney’s office on Friday, Channel 7 reported.

“I want to wait and give the US attorney’s office a fair shot at getting this thing resolved,” House said.

Said Bell, “We want to follow the right legal procedures and we need to go through the hoops right.”

Dispute Involves Historic Water Rights

“Fencing our cattle off of the water denies us our usage rights, and the cattle are only there three months in a normal rain year and six months during times of drought,” rancher Judyann Holcomb Meideros told The Alamogordo Daily News. “During the drought, our cattle have to walk extended lengths to reach water. The fences also cause the cattle to use the heavily used county road, and we have had cattle hit and killed or severely crippled or damaged by the impacts.”

Meideros is one of a number of ranchers who waters cattle in Aqua Chiquita, a small stream in the Lincoln National Forest in the Sacramento Mountains of Southern New Mexico. The ranchers contend that they have been watering cattle in the stream since the 1950s.

“I have conferred with United States Department of Agriculture counsel on the issues outlined in your April 25 cease and desist letter,” Mosely told the commissioners. “I have been advised that the actions the Lincoln National Forest employees have taken and are planning to take, are on sound legal footing and within our jurisdiction. As Forest Supervisor, I have an affirmative responsibility to implement and find balance within applicable federal and adopted state laws, such as Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act, Endangered Species Act and a myriad of others.”

Said Otero County attorney Blair Dunn, “They (USFS) have no lawful right to the stream, so to pen something off for wildlife to go drink and to appropriate that water for wildlife when they don’t have the necessary legal permits or rights to do so amounts to an illegal diversion of water.”

Who is right here — the county or the USFS? Tell us in the comments below.

Sign up for Off The Grid News’ weekly email and stay informed about the issues important to you

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

Vanishing Epstein Evidence… Data Brokers… And the Rise of Citizen Investigators

Vanishing Epstein Evidence… Data Brokers… And the Rise of Citizen Investigators

by Bill Heid

The Power of Cell Phone Data in the Age of Secrecy In a world where billion-dollar federal agencies seem to...

Behind the Curtain: How Diddy’s Trial Exposed the Elite’s System of Protection and Control

Behind the Curtain: How Diddy’s Trial Exposed the Elite’s System of Protection and Control

by Bill Heid

Verdict Shocked No One Inside When Sean "Diddy" Combs walked free from the most serious charges in a high-profile federal...

Red, White, and Blue False Flags? Growing Fears of a July 4th Psyop

Red, White, and Blue False Flags? Growing Fears of a July 4th Psyop

by Bill Heid

Have Yourself a Merry Little Fatwa Please understand, I love this country and its rich history. But we must be...

Next Post
children survival skills

6 Ways To Teach Your Kids Survival Skills This Summer

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

North Korea Uses Kim Jong-il Funeral to Threaten Imposition of Rotary Phones on World

North Korea Uses Kim Jong-il Funeral to Threaten Imposition of Rotary Phones on World

Democrats Reviving Ban On This Popular Bullet

Democrats Reviving Ban On This Popular Bullet

11 Crazy, Insane Ways You Can Repurpose Milk Jugs (Our Favorite: No. 3)

11 Crazy, Insane Ways You Can Repurpose Old Milk Jugs (Our Favorite: No. 3)

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

Privacy Policy   Terms & Conditions
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.