The jury didn't buy their range land improvement defense.
The public in general has zero understanding of how prescribed fire should be used so I don't have much faith in their judgement. But I don't think this collection of ranchers is aboveboard in general or actually fighting for the little guy as they claim to.
The 2006 fire was more questionable. A wildfire was burning on BLM land near the Hammond’s ranch, so to defend their land they lit a backfire on their own land. That would be standard procedure except, again, they didn’t tell anyone, and when their fire crossed over onto federal land, it endangered firefighters who the Hammonds apparently knew were located between the wildfire and their backfire. Due to severe fire hazards, the county had a no-burn rule which the Hammonds apparently violated
https://fee.org/articles/no-heroes-in-the-west-fire-feds-and-freeloaders/
Pretty suspect if all claims are true. Not that the feds are responsible with their own back-burning either.
(post is archived)