JUDY WOODRUFF: Tension between ranchers and environmentalists is nothing new, but climate
change could be exacerbating one particular issue: water rights.
From Iowa Public TV, Josh Buettner reports about one decades-long dispute in New Mexico.
JOSH BUETTNER: Like generations before him, Spike Goss runs cattle in New Mexico's Sacramento
Mountains, land later designated part of the Lincoln National Forest by President Teddy
Roosevelt.
SPIKE GOSS, Sacramento Grazing Association: My rights come long before New Mexico became
a state, long before there was a U.S. Forest Service.
JOSH BUETTNER: But in recent decades, endangered species protections have resulted in cuts
to the number of head Goss can graze on federal land.
SPIKE GOSS: Forest Service says we are a permittee.
We're not permittees.
We're allotment owners.
We own our allotments.
We bought it.
And then we pay a grazing fee on top of that.
And, yes, in 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that we own the water rights.
JOSH BUETTNER: In the late 1800s, Congress struck a unique set of land, water and grazing
allowances by granting settlers property, known as allotments, to encourage Westward
Expansion.
But, over decades, Goss alleges shifting government policies and court challenges have left land
and water rights unclear.
SPIKE GOSS: They want our water.
If they can get the water, they can control us.
They have us.
I mean, we're finished without water.
JOSH BUETTNER: In 1993, the Mexican spotted owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act.
Soon after, two plants, the Sacramento Mountain thistle and the prickly poppy, joined the
list.
The Forest Service erected fences to protect critical stream bank habitat.
Environmentalists say cattle congregate around waterways, strip away vegetation and upset
ecosystems.
Goss sued the federal government, but it took 13 years before a judge ruled against the
Forest Service, saying the agency violated the Fifth Amendment by blocking Goss' access
to natural water sources for his herd.
Goss says, rather than all the fences coming down, he's actually seen more added.
SPIKE GOSS: They just started this, putting these fences in the exclosures, these small
fences in the exclosures.
JOSH BUETTNER: Beth Humphrey, a retired district ranger, says the Forest Service is governed
by a multiple-use policy that requires weighing input from several stakeholders, along with
other tasks, like fire prevention and wildlife management.
BETH HUMPHREY, Former District Ranger, Lincoln National Forest: In general, if we fence out
a piece of ground, it's to protect for threatened endangered species, or, in some cases, we
will fence off an area to protect erosive soils.
JOSH BUETTNER: In 2014, another threatened species, the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse,
was granted endangered species protection, further deadlocking rangers and ranchers over
water rights and habitat.
And in a meeting between the Forest Service and Goss' Sacramento Grazing Association,
his wife expressed their frustration.
KELLY GOSS, Sacramento Grazing Association: This is wasting our time.
It's wasting your time.
If you want this damn water, pay for it!
JOSH BUETTNER: The dispute reflects the larger debate over land use and water rights.
Legal battles and deadly confrontations between ranchers and federal authorities have occurred,
most recently in Nevada and Oregon.
Rural ranchers fear their interests are losing out to those who live in urban areas and favor
environmental protections.
Patrick Nolan is a member of Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks.
PATRICK NOLAN, Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks: I think we need to be honest and say
that the land here has been overgrazed, and we need to really figure out a way to bring
it back to its glory of what it used to be.
JOSH BUETTNER: But amidst New Mexico's harsh cyclical drought, water rights are critical
for ranchers like the Gosses.
And they say they will continue to fight against an agenda intent on disrupting their viability.
KELLY GOSS: They just continue to take and take and take.
JOSH BUETTNER: But ranchers' hope, with President Trump now in office, their rights to access
natural forest resources will finally be resolved.
SPIKE GOSS: We haven't seen it yet, but we hope, hope soon.
We would like for somebody back there to come out here and take a good hard look at this
and look at our issues and listen to some stuff that's been going on and look at some
of our documentation and mostly follow the law.
I don't believe they're following the law at all.
JOSH BUETTNER: Goss' suit is still in court while a judge determines damages against the
Forest Service.
Because of that, the agency said it can't comment on the case.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Josh Buettner in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.