Online Messenger #303
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In the latest episode of the livestock industry’s frivolous lawsuit alleging trespass in Wyoming, Western Watersheds Project filed a reply today. The ranchers, represented by industry ally Karen Budd-Falen, utterly failed to respond to WWP’s arguments. This demonstrates that the Plaintiffs are pursuing the trespass lawsuit not because of any perceived trespass, but because they dislike WWP’s work and the light it sheds on the ecological impacts of their Wyoming operations.
WWP filed its Motion to Dismiss in December 2014, and the ranchers’ response included only vague information, conclusory allegations, and indecipherable legal descriptions. Such allegations fall well short of the standards required by law, and indeed, reveal this litigation to be nothing other than a fishing expedition into WWP’s files.
The ranchers’ case is unfair and untrue, and plainly in reaction to the data uncovered by WWP in its water quality monitoring. It is unequivocally confirmed by the record that the ranchers were polluting public waterways; this lawsuit is about punishing WWP for exposing that truth.
This isn’t about trespass. This is about trying to shut down environmental organizations monitoring public lands. WWP will not be stopped and WWP will not be scared. People and wildlife need clean water, not E. coli muddied streams. Not in rural Wyoming, not anywhere.
