I have no sympathy for Mr. Bundy. He doesn't follow the rules when everyone else does.

By John M. Glionna

April 7, 2014, 2:10 p.m.

..."Cattle (click here) have been in trespass on public lands in southern Nevada for more than two decades. This is unfair to the thousands of other ranchers who graze livestock in compliance with federal laws and regulations throughout the West,” the BLM website announced. “The Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service have made repeated attempts to resolve this matter administratively and judicially. An impoundment of cattle illegally grazing on public lands is now being conducted as a last resort."...

...A father of 14, Bundy insists that generations of his family have ranched and worked this unforgiving landscape along the Virgin River since the 1880s. He says government over-regulation has driven scores of fellow ranchers out of business in sprawling Clark County, leaving him as the last man standing....

"A" is here Gold Butte is and where the cattle were grazing. Federal land is frequently affiliated with watersheds. This is Lake Mead. It is Las Vegas water supply. It is connected to the Colorado River.

  

With the worst drought (click here) in decades under way across the West, Lake Meads water levels have dropped more than 100 feet over the last 10 years. The Colorado River feeds into the lake, supplying water that comes from the snow run-off of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This water source accounts for 90 percent of the water used in Southern Nevada. On Jan. 1, 2004, a Drought Alert went into effect in the valley. Drought Alert is the second step in a three-phase alert system that calls for more progressive water-use restrictions based on drought conditions, Lake Meads water levels and the need to conserve...

Water rights is one of the most contentious issues in The West. The Colorado River is no exception. Mr. Bundy is illegally running several hundred head of cattle on federally protected land affiliated with the Lake Mead watershed. I don't care if the Desert Tortoise calls this it's home. The Desert Tortise doesn't eat that much and certainly doesn't drink that much. It also spends most of it's time underground.

Their (Desert Tortoise) (click here) most active time is in the spring when they will forage for food. During the hottest, driest periods of the year, the tortoise conserves water already stored in its body. This is especially important in the hot, dry Mojave Desert summers. Winter hibernation aids in minimizing water loss.

Cranky people that don't want to follow the rules frequently use conservation and species protections as an excuse to raise anger to assist their argument. Mr. Bundy wants everyone to believe the Desert Tortoise is more important than his cattle, ranch and 14 children. That is not the case. What is the case is the rare commodity called water in The West and Mr. Bundy is in violation of the law of the USA Government that has a larger picture to oversee than his cattle. 

Mr. Bundy's relatives may have come over on the Mayflower for all I care, but, that does not give him any special rights. He is a squatter. He doesn't obey the law and now he is seeking excuses to carry on as if he has a right to do it. He has broken the law and is being evicted from the land he and his cattle are occupying. Just that simple, as if anything in the west is that simple.

The Colorado River supports two major lakes, Powell and Mead. This is serious business and no one has more rights than anyone else.
 

By: Dr. Jeff Masters, 3:20 PM GMT on August 20, 2013

For the first time in history, (click here) the U.S. government has ordered that flow of Colorado River water from the 50-year-old Glen Canyon Dam be slashed, due to a water crisis brought about by the region's historic 14-year drought. On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation--a division of the Department of Interior that manages water and electric power in the West--announced that it would cut water released from Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam by 750,000 acre-feet in 2014....

Figure 1. Satellite comparisons of water levels in Arizona and Utah's Lake Powell between 1999 and 2013 show a huge reduction in the amount of water in the lake. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.