Feds, Grazing Associations
Dispute Records Requirement

FARGO, N.D. —(AP)— North Dakota's two largest grazing associations have violated contracts with the Forest Service by refusing for more than a year to turn over records, the agency contends. The grazing associations dispute that contention.

The Forest Service, in letters obtained by The Associated Press, is threatening to cancel agreements with the McKenzie County and Medora grazing associations that allow them to manage leases on most of the Little Missouri National Grasslands in North Dakota.

The groups have been given until the end of the month to turn over grazing and land use records to the Forest Service. If they refuse, the agency says, their contracts to manage leases in the grasslands will be canceled, and the Forest Service will work directly with ranchers.

``This is a legal conflict between us and them. I guess our only comment right now would be that we can't discuss it,'' said Keith Winter, president of the McKenzie County Grazing Association.

Together, the McKenzie County and Medora associations have about 330 members with grazing permits on about 870,000 acres out of the estimated one million acres of national grasslands in western North Dakota.

Larry Dawson, supervisor of the Forest Service's Dakota Prairie Grasslands, said that in addition to their refusal to turn over records, the associations have removed hundreds of documents.

``Their response to our demand was to go through their files, cleanse their files and remove them from the association offices,'' Dawson said. ``At that point, it became a much more serious violation of the agreement.

``I do not know what they don't want us to see,'' he added. ``I am confused and perplexed.''

A lawyer for the McKenzie County and Medora associations, Constance Brooks of Denver, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

But in letters to the Forest Service over several months, Brooks maintains the associations have provided all the records to which the Forest Service is entitled. She suggested in a Dec. 10 letter that the agency's efforts are part of a ``campaign to terminate the grazing associations,'' an allegation Dawson vehemently denies.

The AP, through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained copies of more than a dozen letters between the associations and the Forest Service. The letters show the disagreement started in November 1998 after a separate request from the National Wildlife Federation, which sought specific records from the Forest Service dealing with grazing practices on the national grasslands.

The Forest Service controls the federal land, but has for decades contracted with local grazing groups to manage it. The grazing associations oversee leases with their individual members, who pay dues to the association as well as grazing fees.

As part of the agreement, the associations must keep records for the Forest Service on members' eligibility for leases as well as records dealing with property, livestock ownership and any enforcement action.

The contracts say records involving the ``administration of grazing'' on the grasslands must be available for Forest Service review.

When the Forest Service asked for those records after the Wildlife Federation's request, the associations refused to turn them over.

Brooks has maintained that the only documents not turned over are private records.

``The associations do not accept your broad and apparently limitless definition of what is related to the administration of grazing,'' she wrote last Dec. 10.

``If we cannot have cooperation on such basic, fundamental issues as access to documents pertaining to the administration of these national grasslands, then we will have little choice but to seek an alternative approach for management of these lands,'' Dawson responded earlier this month.

Dawson said the documents requested by his agency contain information similar to what the grazing associations have routinely provided Forest Service rangers in the past.

Brooks disputed that, saying in one letter that the Forest Service has never made such a demand in the more than 30 years it has overseen the grasslands.

Dawson said that if the contracts with the associations are canceled, the Forest Service would offer grazing lease agreements individually to ranchers, bypassing the associations.

``Our issue is not with the individual rancher out there,'' he said. ``Our beef is with the grazing associations, which are not living up to our agreement. We plan to do everything we can to make sure the ranchers themselves are not impacted.''