Nevada rancher convicted in fight over cattle on national forest

RENO, Nev. - Federal prosecutors will seek jail time for a Nevada rancher convicted of trespassing charges for illegally grazing his cattle on government land.

Ruby Valley rancher Cliff Gardner has battled the government for six years, defying orders to remove his livestock from a national forest even after losing an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben in Reno found Gardner guilty on Friday of two counts of failure to remove unauthorized livestock from the national forest system, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

The Justice Department sought the criminal misdemeanor charges after federal agents allegedly caught Gardner's cattle on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near Elko, Nev., again this past April and July.

''We will be seeking some jail time,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Sullivan said Friday after McKibben issued his verdict.

''It has been an ongoing thing for six years. He continued to challenge the jurisdiction of the Forest Service to administer the forest,'' he told The Associated Press.

Gardner did not immediately return telephone messages left at his home in Ruby Valley.

The Forest Service revoked Gardner's grazing permit in 1994 for violation of the terms and conditions outlining allowed uses of the national forest lands adjacent to his Ruby Valley ranch.

The Justice Department won an injunction in U.S. District Court a year later to keep Gardner's cattle out of the national forest.

But Gardner refused to recognize the Forest Service's control of the land and challenged federal ownership in an appeal to the circuit court in San Francisco.

The 9th Circuit reaffirmed the government ownership of the land in 1996, Sullivan said.

''That's what makes this case unusual - that someone has litigated it in a civil case in district court and then gone to the 9th Circuit and been told, 'No, they own the land and you are a trespasser,' and yet they continue to do it,'' Sullivan said.

''That's where it becomes a criminal action.''

Government agents say they caught Gardner grazing his cattle on the national forest April 27 and July 15 of this year.

''There were more than a dozen head of cattle that day - ones you could actually see the brand on,'' Sullivan said.

Sentencing is set for Feb. 21.