After catching a Wyoming rancher illegally subleasing
federal grazing permits, Forest Service officials cancelled half
his grazing privileges and suspended the remainder for three years.
The rancher, George Salisbury, who is also a longtime county
commissioner and state legislator, insists he is innocent. “I owned
the cattle, I just didn’t have the paperwork to justify it,” says
Salisbury, who accuses the agency of caving in to “environmental
zealots.” Forest Service officials, in a Jan. 4 ruling, said in
1992 Salisbury ran 517 head of cattle owned by three Nebraska
ranchers on his federal allotments in the Medicine Bow National
Forest. The agency’s probe produced cancelled checks paid to
Salisbury for pasture rent, plus testimony from Nebraska rancher
Randy Faessler stating that Salisbury never owned the cattle.
Salisbury has lost two appeals of the decision, and the issue is
now before Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas. According to
Craig Whittekiend, Forest Service regional range program manager,
the Salisbury case is one of seven decisions in the last five years
where the agency’s five-state Rocky Mountain region revoked
portions of a grazing permit. Almost all were due to illegal
subleasing.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Agency reins in Wyoming rancher.
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