BURLEY - After being served with a Bureau of Land Management notice of intent to impound their livestock last Friday, Bruce Bedke and his son Jared Bedke filed a complaint Tuesday in Cassia County Magistrate Court to stop the impoundment.

Included in the Bedkes' suit is a request to withdraw from a 1963 agreement between BLM and ranchers on the Goose Creek range. The agreement separated the range into individual and group allotments and establishing a fund for improvements to the range. The Bedkes' grazing permit expired Feb. 28.

BLM issued the notice of intent after repeated attempts to convince the Bedkes to sign a new grazing permit failed. According to a BLM press release, the Bedkes' cattle would be impounded if unauthorized use continued beyond July 26.

The Bedkes said that in 2004 BLM changed the original terms of the 1963 agreement by dividing the Goose Creek Group allotment, which allowed the Bedkes and three other ranchers to collectively graze their animals on land east of Goose Creek, into private allotments where each rancher has exclusive grazing rights.

Permit forms offered to the Bedkes require them to abide by terms and conditions established in that 2004 division. But the Bedkes said herding cattle from their winter shelter just south of Oakley to the proposed individual allotment at the southern end of the range creates extraordinary hardships.

"We were forced by the BLM's actions in this matter to file suit to protect our private property and private property rights," said Jared Bedke. "It looks like the only thing we have to fight this with is court action."

Mike Courtney, rangeland management specialist for BLM's Burley field office, said the 2004 division of the Goose Creek Group allotment was undertaken because the overall health of the range was suffering. He said although Bruce Bedke protested the division, he never submitted a formal appeal.

"This isn't stuff we just did to him," Courtney said. "He had a choice in this. He had a chance to go through due process, and he just didn't. I think we're being reasonable."

Courtney said the Bedkes should not face any major obstacle while driving cattle to their new private allotment from the winter shelter. The family, he said, can still use the pastures in the range's northern reaches to rest their cattle along the way.

"If they need to overnight there, they can," Courtney said.

The Bedkes also say the Goose Creek range is not public land and is therefore not rightfully managed by BLM. They say their family has grazed cattle on the range since 1878. In 1955, final allotment of grazing rights was awarded to ranchers in the Goose Creek range according to their prior, established use of the land. Because the Bedkes' right was among those allotted at that time, they say they believe those rights exclude the property from being considered public land.

The agreement in 1963 between ranchers and BLM, the family says, was designed to arbitrate the division of grazing allotments between groups and individuals, but did not surrender management of the range itself.

"They just keep pushing and pushing and pushing on these permits until the permit doesn't even resemble what my dad signed," Bruce Bedke said.