Friday, June 10, 2022
CapitalPress.com 3
Eight Oregon ranches join battle over grazing prohibitions
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Eight Oregon ranches will
join in a lawsuit against envi-
ronmental advocates who
want to shut down grazing on
13 federal pastures for sage
grouse research.
A federal judge has
decided the ranches should
be allowed to intervene in the
lawsuit because their interests
wouldn’t be adequately repre-
sented by the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management or another
ranch already involved in the
litigation.
The Oregon Natural Des-
ert Association and two other
environmental
nonprofi ts
claim the BLM has violated a
management plan for Eastern
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Cattle graze on rangeland in Oregon. Eight Oregon ranches have joined a legal battle
against environmental groups over grazing prohibitions.
Oregon rangeland by allowing
grazing to continue on the 13
pastures.
In 2015, the pastures were
designated as “research natural
areas” where grazing would
cease during studies on veg-
etation, which was part of the
Obama administration’s plan
for protecting the sage grouse.
A
subsequent
plan
approved by the Trump admin-
istration in 2019 removed the
provisions that would halt
grazing, but a federal court
decision later reinstated the
original Obama-era plan.
The environmental plain-
tiff s then fi led a lawsuit against
BLM for failing to implement
the “research natural areas,”
but the agency claims it’s been
delayed by bureaucratic pro-
cesses such as studying the
impacts of fence-building on
wildlife.
Cahill Ranches near Adel,
Ore., intervened in the lawsuit
and joined the BLM in arguing
against a temporary restraining
order against grazing sought
by environmental groups ear-
lier this year.
U.S. District Judge Michael
Simon denied that motion
in late March, ruling that an
injunction would impose a
greater burden on ranchers
than on the environmental
plaintiff s, who wouldn’t suf-
fer irreparable harm if grazing
continued.
Other ranches aff ected by
the litigation — Mackenzie
Ranch, Laird Ranch, Cow
Creek Ranch, Burgess Angus
Ranch, Rocking Club Cattle,
V Box Land & Livestock,
Mark Mackenzie LLC and
Tree Top Ranches — asked
to intervene in the lawsuit as
well.
The judge has now
decided they have a right to
intervene because they “do
not share the same ultimate
objective with existing par-
ties,” since they rely on dif-
ferent pastures than Cahill
Ranches.
The ranches may pur-
sue diff erent legal argu-
ments than BLM and expe-
rience varying economic
and operational eff ects from
grazing prohibitions and
fence construction, the judge
said. “These distinctions go
beyond mere diff erence in
litigation strategy.”
H-2A sheepherder sues ranchers claiming antitrust, wage-fi xing
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
A Peruvian herder is
suing the Western Range
Association, a livestock
industry group, accus-
ing its members of anti-
trust
violations
and
wage-fixing.
According to court
records, the plaintiff is
Cirilo Ucharima Alvarado,
a Peruvian citizen who
came to the U.S. on a tem-
porary H-2A visa to work
as a sheepherder on Lit-
tle Ranch in Spring Creek,
Nev., in 2020.
Alvarado v. Western
Range Association, filed
June 1 in the U.S. Dis-
trict Court in Nevada,
alleges ranch members of
the Western Range Asso-
ciation have colluded to
artificially depress work-
ers’ wages and have vio-
lated the Sherman Anti-
trust Act, a 132-year-old
law intended to prohibit
wage-fixing agreements
between employers.
The plaintiff’s lawyers
have requested the suit be
certified as a class action.
This suit is the latest of
several attempts to sue the
range association over this
issue. Previous attempts
were unsuccessful.
The Western Range
Association is a nonprofit
association of ranchers in
13 Western states who help
facilitate the employment
of H-2A foreign workers
for herding livestock.
Sheepherders in the
H-2A visa guestworker
program are typically from
Central and South Amer-
ica, often from Peru, a
country with a long history
of sheep husbandry.
In court documents,
the suit alleges that herd-
ers apply for jobs through
the Western Range Associ-
ation, which then assigns
them to ranches, giv-
ing them “no meaning-
ful opportunity to shop
between ranches for bet-
ter treatment or decent
wages.”
David Seligman, exec-
utive director of Towards
Justice, the nonprofit law
firm that brought the suit,
said sheep farms should
have to compete for work-
ers, and workers should
have more options.
“These workers are
immensely valuable and
important to this indus-
try, and they should have
the right to shop around
for decent wages,” said
Seligman.
Ellen Jean Winograd,
the Western Range Asso-
ciation’s general coun-
sel, said the associa-
tion
received
notice
June 1 that it was being
sued over alleged H-2A
sheepherding wage rate
violations.
“Based on having just
seen the complaint yes-
terday and investigating
it now, Western Range’s
position is that it’s not
legally or factually sup-
ported,” said Winograd.
H-2A
sheepherding
practices, said Winograd,
are “highly regulated” by
many state and federal
agencies.
The association faced
a similar suit a few years
ago in Llacua v. Western
Range Association, which
the 10th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals dismissed
because the court said
the herders had not suffi-
ciently proven collusion.
Seligman, of Towards
Justice, said his firm holds
the position that the 10th
Circuit’s decision was
“incorrect.”
Winograd, the range
association’s general coun-
sel, said that “the alleged
violations (in the Alvarado
suit) are being raised in a
civil lawsuit, apparently
seeking millions of dollars
of damages and attorney
fees on an issue previously
adjudicated in favor of
Western Range by the Col-
orado District Court and
the Tenth Circuit Court of
Appeals.”
Some of the attorneys
involved in the new law-
suit, Winograd said, “have
also been involved in sev-
eral unsuccessful and
pending lawsuits against
the Department of Labor,
Western Range and its
ranch members in Colo-
rado, Nevada and the Dis-
trict of Columbia.”
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press File
An H-2A foreign guestworker on an Idaho sheep operation. A lawsuit claiming ranch-
ers fi x wages was fi led this week in federal court.
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