{"id":5359,"date":"2017-12-11T01:32:55","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T07:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/?p=5359"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:24:28","slug":"court-sides-new-mexico-cattle-ranchers-water-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2017\/12\/11\/court-sides-new-mexico-cattle-ranchers-water-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Sides with New Mexico Cattle Ranchers in Water Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal court has sided with a group of New Mexico ranchers in a case involving a dispute over stock watering rights in the Lincoln National Forest.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo via Blair Dunn, Albuquerque, NM<\/p><\/div>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US Forest Service (USFS) manages federally owned land within the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico.\u00a0 As part of that management, since 1910, the USFS has issued grazing permits to ranchers to graze cattle on the federally owned forest land.\u00a0 Each year the USFS determines the number of cattle that may be grazed on various portions of the forest, including the Sacramento Allotment.<\/p>\n

In 1983, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed designating the Sacramento Mountains Thistle as a threatened species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. A\u00a0 year later, the USFWS determined that “limiting or excluding livestock and humans from the critical habitat areas would help the Sacramento Mountains Thistle to recover.”\u00a0 Thus, the USFS planned to construct fences around 29 water bodies that had been designated as critical habitats for the Thistle.<\/p>\n

The Sacramento Grazing Association (SGA) was formed in 1989 to run cattle on an allotment in the Sacramento Mountains of the Lincoln National Forest.\u00a0 In 1989, the SGA acquired the Sacramento Cattle Company, along with all “cattle, water rights, range rights, access rights, and range improvements on the base property, as well as the appurtenant federally-administered grazing allotment known as the Sacramento Allotment.”\u00a0 The 1989 permit from USFS allowed 553 cows for a period of 10 years.\u00a0 SGA admits that they were aware of the fences serving as exclosures\u00a0at the Sacramento Lake area when it purchased the rights from Sacramento Cattle Company.\u00a0 From 1989-1992, SGA says their cattle were allowed to drink for weeks at a time inside the exclosures due to unlocked gates\u00a0or gaps.\u00a0 USFS took no enforcement action against SGA for this practice.\u00a0 When a new exclosure was built in 1992, stock water was pumped to the outside of the fence to allow SGA’s cattle to drink.\u00a0 In 1996, the USFS sent a letter to SGA stating that their cattle were not permitted to graze in wetlands along the Sacramento River.\u00a0 Due to drought conditions at the time, however, the USFS District Ranger allowed SGA’s cattle to enter the exclosures so long as SGA monitored forage levels and promptly moved cattle to another pasture.\u00a0 In 1998, the permit granted prohibited SGA’s cattle from grazing in six exclosures.<\/p>\n

In 1999, the USFS again re-issued the grazing permit for 553 cattle for 10 years, subject to cancellation or modification as necessary.\u00a0 This permit, however, contained a new clause, which stated that “livestock use” was not permitted on exclosures.\u00a0 In 2001, USFS denied SGA’s request to pipe water from within an exclosure to a nearby pasture to water the cattle.\u00a0 The next year, USFS found the SGA cattle inside that same exclosure and informed SGA they were violating the permit and had to remove the animals from the exclosure.\u00a0 In 2006, SGA sought permission to remove a fence to allow cattle to access water in an exclosure and install a temporary pipeline to pump water from another exclosure to a nearby pasture.\u00a0 Both were denied.<\/p>\n

For the next several years, there were numerous back-and-forth conversations between SGA and the USFS regarding the allowed number of cattle on the Sacramento Allotment. After a Biological Opinion written by the USFWS in 2004 recommended that all livestock be permanently excluded from the Sacramento Allotment, SGA filed the instant lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Procedural History<\/strong><\/p>\n

This lawsuit was filed in 2004 when SGA alleged that the USFS’s actions constituted a taking of their water rights, for which they were due just compensation per the Constitution.\u00a0 In 2012, the parties entered into settlement negotiations and sought to develop alternative water sources for SGA’s cattle.\u00a0 Although some alternative water sources were identified and developed, the parties were unable to settle all of their disputes.<\/p>\n

Opinion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Court of Federal Claims found in favor of the ranchers on three issues:\u00a0 (1) the statute of limitations did not bar their claims; (2) the ranchers had a property interest under NM law to make beneficial use of stock water sources in the Sacramento Allotment of the Lincoln National Forest; and (3) the US Forest Service’s actions with regards to the ranchers rights to use stock water sources constituted a taking in violation of the 5th Amendment.\u00a0 [Read full opinion here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

1. Statute of Limitations.<\/em>\u00a0 By law, a claim must be filed in the US Court of Federal Claims within 6 years of the claim accruing.\u00a0 This lawsuit was filed May 4, 2004.\u00a0 A dispute arose over when the SGA claim first accrued.\u00a0 Did the claims accrue in May 1998, when the USFS added language into the SGA permit prohibiting use of exlosures (in which case the statute of limitations did not bar the claim), or did the claims accrue when the exclosures were erected in the Lincoln National Forest, which occurred before 1998? SGA argued it was the inclusion of this language in their official 1998 permit that should be considered claim accrual.\u00a0 The USFS, on the other hand, pointed to various warnings issued to SGA prior to 1998 regarding cattle watering inside exclosures.\u00a0 The Court held that it was the May 5, 1998 permit that was the first official action by USFS resulting in accrual of a claim.\u00a0 Thus, the lawsuit was filed May 4, 2004, just within the 6-year limitations period.<\/p>\n

2. Right to Beneficial Use of Stock Water.<\/em>\u00a0 The Court based its decision on New Mexico water law.\u00a0 “Under New Mexico law, the right to benefical use of water is a property interest distinct and severable from a right to use land.\u00a0 The establishment, maintenance, and extent of this right depends on beneficial use.”\u00a0 Additionally, the court explained that the “federal appropriation of water does not,\u00a0per se<\/em> constitute a taking…Instead, a plaintiff must show that any water taken could have been put to beneficial use.”\u00a0 New Mexico water law recognizes two appropriative water rights–those based on common law prior to 1907 and those after 1907 based on the Water Code.<\/p>\n

Thus, SGA was required to establish a\u00a0prima facie<\/em> right to the beneficial use of stock water within the Sacramento Allotment.\u00a0 SGA offered Declarations of Ownership that had been filed with the New Mexico State Engineer between 1999-2003 for each of the stock water exclosures at issue in the case.\u00a0 \u00a0Declarations of Ownership allow a water rights holder of a pre-1907 right to set forth the use to which the water is applied, the date of the first appropriation, and the location of the water.\u00a0 Once certified by the NM Office of State Engineer, a Declaration of Ownership is\u00a0prima facie<\/em> evidence of the truth of its contents.\u00a0 Additionally, witnesses testified that prior to 1907, SGA’s predecessors grazed cattle on the Sacramento Allotment and made beneficial use of the stock water sources at issue in the case, and made these uses continually through the filing of the Declarations of Ownership.\u00a0 \u00a0 The Court held that SGA met its burden by offering the Declarations of Ownership and uncontroverted testimony of witnesses.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Court rejected the USFS argument that livestock watering did not constitute a “diversion” was required by New Mexico law.\u00a0 The Court noted that for pre-1907 permits governed by common law, a “diversion” was required only for irrigation uses, but for other uses such as livestock watering, “taking” or “direct appropriating” of water–such as consumption by cattle–was sufficient.<\/p>\n

3. USFS Actions Constitute a Taking.<\/em>\u00a0 SGA argued that their right to stock water was physically taken when USFS denied access to their cattle.\u00a0 The Court held that here, SGA’s right to stock water was “incrementally and then finally denied” by USFS.\u00a0 Because the USFS fenced off water sources in the Sacramento Allotment, a taking occurred.<\/p>\n

The case will now move to determining the adequate compensation owed to SGA for the taking.\u00a0 Before that begins, the Court instructed the parties to “undertake a renewed effort to ascertain whether alternative water sources can be made available to SGA to allow this family enterprise to continue in the cattle business on a viable basis.”<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

This case addresses important issues for all ranchers grazing federally owned land in the west.\u00a0 Although based on New Mexico law, there have been similar disputes involving ranchers in other western states and, unfortunately, water issues like this are unlikely to go away anytime soon.\u00a0 It remains to be seen whether the USFS will appeal this decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal court has sided with a group of New Mexico ranchers in a case involving a dispute over stock watering rights in the Lincoln National Forest. Background The US Forest Service (USFS) manages federally owned land within the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico.\u00a0 As part of that management, since 1910, the USFS has issued grazing permits to ranchers to graze cattle on the federally owned forest land.\u00a0 Each year the USFS determines the number of cattle that may be grazed on various portions of the forest,… Read More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2444,"featured_media":5425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCourt Sides with New Mexico Cattle Ranchers in Water Dispute - Texas Agriculture Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2017\/12\/11\/court-sides-new-mexico-cattle-ranchers-water-dispute\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court Sides with New Mexico Cattle Ranchers in Water Dispute - Texas Agriculture Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A federal court has sided with a group of New Mexico ranchers in a case involving a dispute over stock watering rights in the Lincoln National Forest. 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Background The US Forest Service (USFS) manages federally owned land within the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico.\u00a0 As part of that management, since 1910, the USFS has issued grazing permits to ranchers to graze cattle on the federally owned forest land.\u00a0 Each year the USFS determines the number of cattle that may be grazed on various portions of the forest,... 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