Ecos Appeal Rejection
Of "Unranching" Bids

SANTA FE — A radical environmental group is contesting denial of its "unranching" bids to the New Mexico State Land Office.

The Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians in September had bid on almost 3000 acres of state land along the Rio Grande Gorge in northern New Mexico. The activist group wanted to "unranch" the territory that had been leased for grazing, a plan to stop public lands grazing that the group had announced earlier.

The state land office, however, denied the three applications filed by the group, and the anti-grazing activists are appealing.

John C. Horning of the Forest Guardians accused the land office of pro-ranching bias, though Horning admits that the renewal bids by the ranchers who had been leasing the land were also rejected because the land was deemed overgrazed.

The activists bid three times what the ranchers had been paying.