‘Sagebrush Rebellion’ Forces Lose

In a major blow to the “Sagebrush Rebellion” movement that has been sweeping the West, a rebellious county lost its bid Thursday to wrest control of public lands from the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Lloyd George ruled that the federal government “owns and has the power and authority to manage and administer the unappropriated public lands and National Forest System lands within Nye County, Nev.”

Federal land accounts for 93% of the area in Nye County.

Mike Dombeck, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said he was “pleased that this issue was settled in the proper forum--in the courtroom before a judge.”

“Now we can look ahead to continuing and rebuilding positive relations with counties and constituents across the West,” Dombeck said. “It is time to find common ground.”

Roger Marzulla, a Washington, D.C., attorney who handled the case for Nye County, said he did not plan any appeals at this point.

“I think the federal government was brought to the point of recognizing that the wishes of the people who live with their decisions on a day-to-day basis can’t be ignored,” Marzulla said.

The county passed resolutions in late 1993 claiming ownership of all public lands and declaring that only county and state officials had the authority to manage the land.

Tensions escalated on July 4, 1994, when Nye County Commissioner Dick Carver bulldozed a closed Forest Service road. The move landed Nye County in court and Carver on the cover of Time magazine, making him the unofficial leader of the movement.

Ranchers from across the West have attended court proceedings in Las Vegas in support of Nye County and in hopes of achieving a precedent for their own battles.

Nye County sprawls over 18,064 square miles and is the nation’s third-biggest county, larger than Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It has about one person per square mile.

Since the lawsuit began, Nye County has changed its stance, arguing that the dispute should be handled as a simple trespassing case between Carver and the federal government, and that its resolutions were statements of opinion, not law, and thus should be treated as free speech.

Nye County recently tried to convince the judge that a formal judgment verifying the federal government’s authority over the lands was unnecessary because the county had changed its stance on the issue.

George rejected that claim, referring to a similar case in Otero, N.M., that was dismissed by a federal judge in January.

George said Nye County “plainly intended that the resolution would have the effect of law,” and said Carver used county-owned equipment and operated on behalf of the county in his confrontations with federal officers.

The judge also noted that the state of Nevada, from which he sought input last fall, has admitted that it has no constitutional claim to the federal lands in the state. Nevada passed legislation in 1979 claiming ownership of public lands, but state Atty. Gen. Frankie Sue Del Papa admitted that it was an unenforceable claim and sided with the federal government in the case.