National Cattlemen June 2025

National Cattlemen’ s Beef Association

JUNE 2025 | Vol. 41, No. 8 | NCBA. org

Since 1910, the Maude family of western South Dakota has raised cattle on land near the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Today, the ranch is run by Charles and Heather Maude who, in addition to cattle, now also raise hogs and crops. Charles and Heather homeschool their two children, instilling in them a respect for the hardworking agricultural way of life. Between Charles and Heather, their families have a combined 250 years working in production agriculture with only a brief pause during World War II when their grandfathers’ generation served in the Armed Forces.

Since that time, the Maude family worked with their neighbors, federal and private alike, to build a strong community in the area. Charles and Heather were federal grazing permittees in good standing, and their permit granted permission to graze their cattle at certain times on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland.

More than a year ago, their life was turned upside down. Last March, the U. S. Department of Agriculture( USDA) alleged that a hunter complained about a fence blocking access to a portion of the grassland. Immediately, Charles and Heather met with USDA and agreed to a land survey to settle the issue. Just days later, two armed U. S. Forest Service agents showed up to serve the Maudes with a federal indictment for“ theft of government property,” a trumped-up charge with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $ 250,000 in fines.

These types of boundary questions are common in the West because many land boundaries were determined by hand drawn maps linked to physical resources like trees or rocks, many of which have changed in the last 100 years. The unique and challenging topography of the West is another reason boundary lines might deviate from legal property boundaries but be perfectly logical to account for a creek or a cliff.

“ When a survey uses markers like‘ a large rock’ or‘ a big oak tree’ as part of determining the boundary, that leaves room for generations later when those landmarks change,” said National Cattlemen’ s Beef Association( NCBA) Executive Director of Natural Resources Kaitlynn Glover, who also serves as executive director of the Public Lands Council( PLC).“ Especially with the steep hills and valleys near the Maude family, it can be extremely challenging to actually pinpoint the boundary line between property, much less put a fence on the line.”

Photo courtesy of USDA.

Because of how common these boundary issues can be, the federal government has procedures in place for remedying these situations. The government can conduct a land swap to trade a portion of federal land for a portion of private land, issue a special use permit, sell the small parcel, or go through other disposal tools to address the boundary issue.

“ Instead of following the normal procedure, the Forest Service took a simple matter of correcting historical boundaries and tried to make criminals out of the Maudes,” Glover said.“ Charles and Heather were each indicted separately, forcing them to retain

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