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I own a piece of property in North Central Arizona
The area is checker boarded State Trust Lands and Private Ranchets

The original Rancher that subdivided the property's is Clear cutting the Cedar trees off of the State Trust lands he says for the grazing for his cows
I have been on the phone with several State Departments and no one at the State level wants to do anything about answering our questions.

The Rancher is cutting every tree in sight and just leaving them where they lay.
He did this 4 years ago and the Ranchet owners were able the stop him but he never cleaned up the fallen trees (dead trees laying all over the place)
Saturday he had 2 crews cutting trees one of the Ranchet guys got Pissed and started lobbing bullets over their heads.

Today the Rancher brought in 6 crews and are destroying everything in sight Acres and Acres a friend up there says it is like a war zone fallen trees everywhere.
The State Trust lands are 1 sq. mile and are being eaten up by this ARSS HOLE.

If the Clearing was for more grazing land I and others up there think that he would clean everything up to open the ground for his cattle no cow is going to stick his head into a prickly dead cedar tree to get to 2 inch grass in the middle of it.

Most of the areas cut this go around have no sign of his cattle even being in the area and no grass in sight.

The only thing that is going to happen is it will drive all off the Deer and Elk out of the area leaving us with the unwanted pigs and rattle snakes.

I have called and left messages with the Mojave County Emergency Management (no call back yet) , State Forestry & Fire (promised to call me back today and did not) . State Water Resources Called me back today and told me they could not help us and gave me another # to call) State Game and Fish(No Help past me to BLM it is not their jurisdiction) Arizona Land Office (no help yet)


Anyone on the Fire have any suggestions

Need help before all the trees are gone and we have a desert for the surrounding State Trust lands

so your guys have already brandished firearms and laid down harrassment fire?

Did I read that correctly?

Jeff Whitney is the state forester

Call all the local and state news agencies. Call all,your Political leaders County and State tell them your getting the media involved and none of their agencies are helping.

Hell call some environmental agencies. The enemy of my enemy.

Sounds like he is leasing the ground from Arizona Dept of Lands. (or whatever they call the agency in your state). The cutting of trees would be between him and the managing agency.

Not my friend up there some other land owner. everyone that lives up there is getting pissed off that there homes and surrounding lands could possibly go up in flames due to the drought conditions and some A HOLE adding to the problem with what we can see as no just cause.

10-4

What is his beef with the trees? He must be getting something out of it. It must cost him money to hire the crews that are doing it. It makes no sense to incur the expense with no gain?

He has Grazing Rights and the State Fire Marshal told me today that he has some rights to clear cut but he also has a responsibility to follow what is called a (Land Treatment Application)
At this point no one up there has ever been told this Until I was today.
No one has provided any of us with this document EVER and the Fire Marshal told me they are required to give it to us.

Then he said the Clear Cutting could not be started with out the (Land Treatment Application)
The Land Treatment Application spells out everything that the Clear Cutter is required to do such as Burn the excess brush , Haul it away etc.

If that is on state trust land, he better have permission from the state to do that.
arizona state land department main number is 602 542 4631, director of natural resources is Fred Breedlove 602 542 2929.
i have seen in past years as i grew u p in prescott, them knocking down that stuff with a naval anchor chain hooked to two big cats.
at some point permits issued to go in and get the dead wood for firewood.
If he has permission, don't know what you are going to do.
If he does not, he could be in a world of hurt.
if the lobbing of bullets is true, keep in mind some of these guys shoot back.
there are some real wingie dingies living up in that area as you know, everything from white supremicists, to varied kinds of druggies, you name it. People that in some cases really don't want attention drawn to themselves.
I use to cut downed trees for firewood almost every summer just south of ash fork, and north of hell's canyon.

This is what we are trying to find out.
Cutting trees to just Cut does not make sense to any of us up there.

There have been tensions between all of us Ranchet owners and the Rancher for years
I guess after he made money from selling his property he got butt hurt when people started moving up in his area or something.

WE have to keep our Livestock on our property but he is aloud to let his Livestock wander anywhere they want to go and we can not do anything about it.
so in reality unless w fence our property's ours is still his in a way.

He doesn't want his bovines to have any access to shade, he has a contract with Jack Links

I already called the (602) 542-4631 # thanks for Freds # I will call him tomorrow.

Ya there are some real wing nuts up there
My neighbor to this day when I am up on my property stops in my driveway honks his horn and yell to ask if it is OK to enter my property.
I tell him to just drive on in and he tells me every time He does not want to get Shot and I ask him . Am I that scary .

Some crazys fur sure but most are good crazy at least the ones I have met so far.

I assume this is in an arid area if not desert. Correct me if I am wrong.

Trees suck a great deal of moisture from the soil, which starves any grass for moisture. Trees also hog all the sunlight and grass needs sunlight.

You say that there is no grass there and no cattle. Maybe the trees are the reason, and just maybe the state knows the land is worthless for grazing, (its intended purpose) until the trees are cut off.

It just might be that the rancher and his state managers know more about managing pastures than do you or your "ranchette" neighbors.

Here's a thought. If you do not like the way the lands are being managed, take up a collection among your neighbors and purchase the lease on these lands. Around here, most are up for bid.

Of course you might have to show a management, and grazing, plan before your bid will be accepted.

And, if people were purposely shooting in the direction of my crews going about their legitimate business....it is likely they would suffer well aimed return fire. Does Az have castle doctrine, or "no duty to retreat"?

In any case, the shooter you mentioned should be cooling his heels in the local jail.

They cut trees next to the only stream up there today.
It gos threw my friends property
He had to take 6 Dump Truck loads of muck out of the stream today to keep from flooding his home out.

Talk about PISSED

no one will listen to any of us so far.

Hilly area about 5300 to 5600 ft elevation

And yes they have the Castle Doctrine.

Tell them to leave you property , they do not leave , Shoot them till they stop movin wait a day to make sure then call the Sheriff and tell them to come clean the trash off your proprty it is starting to smell.

I guess shot were fired again today. My friend said they were going over his head as he was taking pictures of the destruction.

He said he did not know where or what side it was coming from.

Wild West stuff fr sure

Glad I am not up there right now I would be sootin back and get myself in a world of hurt.

It is called "Open Range". Pretty much everything West of the Rockies plus a bunch on the East Side are are Open Range. It is the landowner's responsibility to protect his own property with fence if he does not want livestock entering.

chit if he owns the land why are you bitching what he does, sound like a liberal

It is State Trust Land He Does not Own it.
He has Grazing Rights and we do not know why he is Cutting all the trees down on State Trust Lands and just leaving them as a fire hazard for the rest of us

I guess you have never read any of my posts to know what side of the isle I stand on when it comes to my political ways

This question is not a political question.

Just asking for advice before the entire area burns up and leaves a charcoal waist land.

I get that and signed off on it that I understood the CCR's when I purchased the property

We still can not figure out why cut down all the trees and leave the fire hazard.
If we could get a reasonable answer to our question maybe things would be different but no answers and no communication with this Arss doing the destruction to the Deer and Elk habitat and making a gigantic fire hazard in an area that is very dry and has been for many years.