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Donald D. Alt and "Pastor Rick" McKinney
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Silver Springs Ranchers
Defy Federal, State Laws
Part Five
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November 18th, 2007
Volunteers had scheduled to meet with Craig Downer on Stockton Flat to practice range forage assessment techniques. They staged at the corrals and while waiting for Downer to arrive they cleaned up some debris around the corrals and nipped off a rather treacherous piece of rebar that was sticking out of a damaged portion of the cistern.
During this time, Don and Maryanna Alt arrived. They accused the volunteers with trespassing and with vandalizing their property. Not intending to get into this kind of argument, the volunteers called BLM Law Enforcement Ranger Stan Zuber who responded to the allotment.
Maryanna and Don Alt.
Ranger Zuber arrived and took some GPS readings to establish that the incident was occurring on federal public lands. He then approached Mr. Alt who accused volunteers of a variety of transgressions ranging from "camping out" next to his property in order to keep his cattle from drinking to damaging his corrals.
Don Alt and Ranger Zuber.
Ranger Zuber had a lengthy discussion with Mr. Alt. He informed Mr. Alt multiple times that cattle were not presently authorized on the allotment and Mr. Alt responded by informing Ranger Zuber that his cattle were on the allotment and that the range improvements belonged to him.
At first Mr. Alt said that his cattle were coming down from "his property" to the allotment to get to the water in the cistern. Ranger Zuber responded by suggesting that the cistern be drained. It was at that point that Mr. Alt changed his story and stated that he was actively grazing on the allotment.
View the video transcript.
To avoid a lengthy exercise in contradiction, Ranger Zuber indicated that although BLM ordinarily is the legal owner of anything permanently attached to the ground on grazing allotments, he would check the file on Stockton Flat and ascertain who legally owned the range improvements on this allotment. In the meanwhile the volunteers indicated that they would exclude the corral system from their clean-up, safety and reclamation activities. The volunteers also assured Mr. Alt that at no time had anyone discouraged any animal from getting water from the cistern nor did they intend to.
(For the record, nobody thought Mr. Alt actually believed anyone was preventing his cattle from accessing water from the cistern. For one thing the cattle would be hanging around if they were thirsty. Cattle tracks and droppings showed that cattle were using the cistern. Additionally, volunteers observed and recorded the cistern being refilled by truck as the cattle drew down the water. As an experienced cattleman Mr. Alt had to know that his cattle were drinking.)
November 20, 2007
One of the volunteers' issues of contention involved the main gate at the corral system. The corral system consists of a large main corral, a couple of sorting corrals, alleys, loading chutes and a squeeze chute. There are elements in this system that could be dangerous to trespassing children and young horses have been known to wander into the system, become disoriented and get separated from their bands. Volunteers are aware of two such instances prior to November 20th, one in which they had to extricate a foal from the system in the dark. Additionally volunteers photographed Mr. Alt opening the corral gate as a band of wild horses approached and enticing the horses into it.
Mr. Alt has insisted on keeping the gate open in order to feed his cattle.
The volunteers have asked BLM to lock down the corrals except during times of authorized grazing. BLM indicated that they needed to verify the legal ownership of the corrals. They intended to proceed "by the book" as there were administrative proceedings presently underway involving Mr. Alt. Volunteers should expect a decision after the Thanksgiving weekend. In the meanwhile volunteers were asked to document any cattle sighted on the allotment.
Around 15:30 Hrs. volunteer Karen Mayfield was asked to go to the allotment to check on a report of cattle sighted on the lower slopes. As she passed the cattle corrals she observed a panicked nursing foal caught up in the system. Volunteers contacted State Livestock Inspector Mike Holmes who authorized the volunteer to remove the foal from the corrals and attempt to get it to rejoin its band. Volunteer Mayfield was successful in this endeavor.
A foal caught up in the corrals.
Inspector Holmes indicated that he planned to contact BLM to get the corrals locked down.
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