BLM and Sheriff dispute

April 30, 2001
News briefs from Southern California
By The Associated Press


SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - Fearing violent range
disputes, Sheriff
Gary Penrod canceled an agreement giving Bureau of Land
Management
rangers power to enforce such state laws as speeding and
drunken driving.

"I am taking this action because I am very concerned that
the Bureau of
Land Management is acting in an arbitrary and
unreasonable fashion in
threatening to remove cattle from grazing lands situated
within the
County of San Bernardino," Penrod wrote in an April 17
letter to the BLM.

Removing the cattle, Penrod said in his letter, "may
result in the
physical resistance by cattlemen attempting to preserve
their livestock."

"I do not wish to be associated with any (BLM) law
enforcement personnel
who may be precipitating possible violent range disputes
through their
official action," Penrod wrote.

The letter terminates the agreement between the two
agencies within 30
days. The agreement gave BLM officers permission to
enforce state and
county laws on federal lands.

"We're still looking into it," BLM spokesman Doran
Sanchez said. "This
impacts how the rangers enforce state laws like speeding
and drunk
driving."

The issue stems from a BLM out-of-court settlement in
January with an
environmental coalition that sued the agency for failure
to adequately
protect threatened and endangered species in the desert.

The BLM agreed to restrict cattle grazing on 285,000
acres of desert
tortoise habitat from March to June and from September to
November.
However, the BLM is first obligated to gather data and
public opinion
before kicking the cattle ranchers off the land.