Bunkerville, Nev. • Supporters of cattleman and anti-federal figure Cliven Bundy are protesting a presidential decision to give national monument protection to public land where Bundy grazes cows near his southern Nevada ranch.
The Spectrum of St. George, Utah, reports that Bundy family members and friends staged a peaceful rally on Saturday near the Bundy home.
Family matriarch Carol Bundy is expressing fear that the government will ban grazing in the Gold Butte area — although the U.S. Interior Department says grazing will be allowed.
An armed standoff in April 2014 stopped a federal roundup of Bundy cattle and led to the arrest on federal charges of 19 people including five Bundy family members.
Trial is set to begin Feb. 6 in Las Vegas for the first six defendants in that case.
FILE - This April 5, 2012 file photo shows rock formations in Gold Butte, located about 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas. President Barack Obama designated two national monuments Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, at sites in Utah and Nevada that have become key flashpoints over use of public land in the U.S. West, marking the administration’s latest move to protect environmentally sensitive areas in its final days. In Nevada, a 300,000-acre Gold Butte National Monument outside Las Vegas would protect the scenic and ecologically fragile area near where rancher Cliven Bundy led in an armed standoff with government agents in 2014. It includes rock art, artifacts, rare fossils and recently discovered tracks. (Jeff Scheid /Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
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