BUNKERVILLE, Nev. -- Progressive groups cried foul when a federal judge released Cliven Bundy last week, but others say justice was served - even if the debate continues over federal control of public lands.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro found that the prosecution intentionally withheld evidence and ruled the case cannot be retried. Bundy was accused of inciting an armed insurrection in 2014 after the federal Bureau of Land Management tried to remove his cattle from federal land over unpaid grazing fees.

Maria-Theresa Liebermann, deputy director of the group Battle Born Progress, said this only emboldens those who break the law and threaten public lands.

"Twice they have decided to attack our federal public lands, attack the folks that are simply trying to do their job to protect them, and they got off scot-free, and it's not right,” Liebermann said. "They're domestic terrorists, and they should have been held accountable."

Two of Bundy's sons also beat charges related to the armed seizure of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon that turned violent. Several of his supporters won their criminal cases; others have yet to go to trial.

Bundy argued that the federal government has no right to own public land or charge grazing fees, and he wants to see the state take over control of federal public lands. Three federal judges have rejected that argument.

University of Nevada-Las Vegas law professor Ian Bartrum said the government had a strong case against the Bundys, but badly bungled the prosecution.

"It's surprising the way that the government handled the prosecution,” Bartrum said. "I was shocked to hear all the things that came out in the early phases of the trial that stopped the trial and eventually led Judge Navarro to dismiss the case with prejudice. I think it was a fair reason to dismiss the case."

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the judge made a fair decision, but he feels that doesn't exonerate the Bundys.

"We have to have fair trials in this country. Our democracy depends on it,” Suckling said. “Because if people don't believe they're going to get a fair trial, that's when they take up guns."

Suckling said it sets a terrible precedent to allow the Bundys to illegally profit from lands that belong to everyone - and she thinks the Bureau of Land Management should round up Bundy's cattle, even at the risk of another standoff.

Sam Toll with the Libertarian Party of Nevada takes issue with the idea of public lands at all, and said he thinks all government land should be sold off.

"Whether it's the BLM or it's the state of Nevada, we don't think that public land should actually exist,” Toll said. "We think that they should be held privately, and private property is a fundamental sort of right and certainly not a fundamental place for any government to be in."

Cliven Bundy has called on the county sheriff to protect him from federal agents, but the Clark County Sheriff said he recognizes federal authority and will not intervene. It is unclear how the BLM under the Trump administration will proceed.


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State and federal agencies are collaborating to increase the use of prescribed fires in the Northwest.

Prescribed fire is the controlled use of burns to minimize the larger risks of wildfires and smoke. It is seen as an increasingly important strategy as wildfire seasons pose greater threats to the Northwest.

Casey Sixkiller, Northwest regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said authorities want to work together to maintain forest habitats.

"Prescribed burn is one of the best tools we have for making our forests more resilient against catastrophic wildfires and they help to manage and target hazardous fuels and make for healthier forests," Sixkiller explained.

Sixkiller pointed out the EPA is involved because wildfire smoke poses risks to people's health. The collaboration is between federal agencies, departments in Oregon and Washington, and tribal governments.

Sixkiller noted the collaboration needed a formal agreement to move forward.

"That is what we've been able to do here with this agreement," Sixkiller emphasized. "To get federal land managers and states and us all in the same room, making sure that we're all on the same page about what success looks like."

Sixkiller added the collaboration has another advantage: It helps drive engagement with communities potentially in the path of prescribed burns.

"They have the confidence that the effort that's gone into planning that activity has been thought out from soup to nuts," Sixkiller acknowledged. "And that they have a seat at the table and are being engaged and their concerns are being addressed as we go forward with that activity."


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A new study in the journal Nature Communications by Montana researchers said suppressing small wildfires is leading to larger, more intense and damaging blazes.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, about 98% of wildfires are fully suppressed before they grow to 100 acres; most of them within 72 hours. In Montana, the latest data show crews kept 95% of wildfires in Montana to no more than 10 acres in 2022.

Mark Kreider, a doctoral candidate in forest and conservation science at the University of Montana and co-author of the report, said the strategy leads to what is known as fire "suppression bias."

"Removing more of one type of fire than the other, what we're left with is bias towards the higher intensity fires, these more extreme fires," Kreider explained.

Montana state policy calls for crews to extinguish fires as quickly as possible, even small ones. Kreider pointed out researchers recommend letting low-intensity fires burn where possible to reduce the risk and damage potential for larger, hotter-burning and more catastrophic blazes.

Kreider acknowledged as the population grows along the urban-wildland interface, letting fires burn is not always possible, but argued it might be the best strategy for heading off catastrophic fires later.

"Especially in the western U.S. where people live close to forests, fire suppression is very important and we still must do it," Kreider noted. "But this research helps to show when possible in places where it's safe to do so, we really may benefit from allowing more low and moderate intensity fire to burn."

The National Interagency Fire Center said the number of acres scorched by wildfire has doubled since the 1980s, and the cost to battle the fires has risen to nearly $3 billion a year.


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The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has awarded $3.1 million for 13 projects to reduce wildfire risk to communities and improve forest health.

The funding money is part of the $15 million Montana Forest Action Plan, which takes a big-picture approach to reducing the risk of wildfires.

Wyatt Frampton, deputy division administrator of forestry and trust lands for the Montana Department of Natural Resources, said the money will be used to foster fire-management cooperation between state and private landowners across 3,200 acres of forest.

"Through a variety of activities, such as prescribed fire, logging, mechanical thinning, hand activities as well as tree planting," Frampton outlined.

The 13 most recent restoration projects are spread across the state, including in Lewis and Clark County, the Bitterroot and the South Swan Valley.

Frampton said the DNR is aiming to create a cohesive fire-reduction plan across Montana's landscape, which has until now been inconsistent because of different sets of land-management practices.

"Right now when we see a patchwork of treatments across some of the landscapes in the state, from a fire-management perspective, it doesn't create a clean or effective barrier for trying to stop the fire in that area," Frampton explained. "Where, if we had a cohesive landscape-level treatment, that would help."

Frampton added having a statewide cohesive fire-management plan would also allow the DNR and other agencies to slow the spread of potentially destructive insects in Montana's forests.


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