JUDY WOODRUFF: Tension between
ranchers and environmentalists
is nothing new, but climate
change could be exacerbating one
particular issue: water rights.
From Iowa Public TV,
Josh Buettner reports
about one decades-long
dispute in New Mexico.
JOSH BUETTNER: Like
generations before him,
Spike Goss runs cattle in
New Mexico's Sacramento
Mountains, land later designated
part of the Lincoln National
Forest by President Teddy
Roosevelt.
SPIKE GOSS, Sacramento Grazing
Association: My rights come
long before New Mexico became
a state, long before there
was a U.S. Forest Service.
JOSH BUETTNER: But in
recent decades, endangered
species protections
have resulted in cuts
to the number of head Goss
can graze on federal land.
SPIKE GOSS: Forest Service
says we are a permittee.
We're not permittees.
We're allotment owners.
We own our allotments.
We bought it.
And then we pay a grazing
fee on top of that.
And, yes, in 1978, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that
we own the water rights.
JOSH BUETTNER: In the late
1800s, Congress struck a unique
set of land, water and grazing
allowances by granting
settlers property,
known as allotments,
to encourage Westward
Expansion.
But, over decades, Goss alleges
shifting government policies and
court challenges have left land
and water rights unclear.
SPIKE GOSS: They want our water.
If they can get the water,
they can control us.
They have us.
I mean, we're finished
without water.
JOSH BUETTNER: In 1993,
the Mexican spotted owl
was listed as threatened
under the Endangered
Species Act.
Soon after, two plants, the
Sacramento Mountain thistle and
the prickly poppy, joined the
list.
The Forest Service erected
fences to protect critical
stream bank habitat.
Environmentalists say cattle
congregate around waterways,
strip away vegetation and upset
ecosystems.
Goss sued the federal
government, but it
took 13 years before a
judge ruled against the
Forest Service, saying
the agency violated
the Fifth Amendment by
blocking Goss' access
to natural water
sources for his herd.
Goss says, rather than all
the fences coming down, he's
actually seen more added.
SPIKE GOSS: They just started
this, putting these fences in
the exclosures, these small
fences in the exclosures.
JOSH BUETTNER: Beth Humphrey,
a retired district ranger, says
the Forest Service is governed
by a multiple-use policy that
requires weighing input from
several stakeholders, along with
other tasks, like
fire prevention and
wildlife management.
BETH HUMPHREY, Former District
Ranger, Lincoln National Forest:
In general, if we fence out
a piece of ground, it's
to protect for threatened
endangered species,
or, in some cases, we
will fence off an area
to protect erosive soils.
JOSH BUETTNER: In 2014, another
threatened species, the New
Mexico meadow jumping mouse,
was granted endangered species
protection, further deadlocking
rangers and ranchers over
water rights and habitat.
And in a meeting between
the Forest Service and Goss'
Sacramento Grazing Association,
his wife expressed
their frustration.
KELLY GOSS, Sacramento
Grazing Association:
This is wasting our time.
It's wasting your time.
If you want this damn
water, pay for it!
JOSH BUETTNER: The dispute
reflects the larger debate
over land use and water rights.
Legal battles and deadly
confrontations between
ranchers and federal
authorities have occurred,
most recently in
Nevada and Oregon.
Rural ranchers fear their
interests are losing
out to those who live
in urban areas and favor
environmental protections.
Patrick Nolan is a member
of Friends of Organ
Mountains-Desert Peaks.
PATRICK NOLAN, Friends of Organ
Mountains-Desert Peaks: I think
we need to be honest and say
that the land here has been
overgrazed, and we need to
really figure out a way to bring
it back to its glory
of what it used to be.
JOSH BUETTNER: But amidst New
Mexico's harsh cyclical drought,
water rights are critical
for ranchers like the Gosses.
And they say they will
continue to fight against
an agenda intent on
disrupting their viability.
KELLY GOSS: They just continue
to take and take and take.
JOSH BUETTNER: But ranchers'
hope, with President
Trump now in office,
their rights to access
natural forest resources
will finally be resolved.
SPIKE GOSS: We haven't seen it
yet, but we hope, hope soon.
We would like for somebody
back there to come out here and
take a good hard look at this
and look at our issues and
listen to some stuff that's
been going on and look at some
of our documentation and
mostly follow the law.
I don't believe they're
following the law at all.
JOSH BUETTNER: Goss' suit is
still in court while a judge
determines damages against the
Forest Service.
Because of that, the agency said
it can't comment on the case.
For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Josh Buettner in
Cloudcroft, New Mexico.