The fences alarmed ranchers who use the federal land for cattle grazing as well as outdoor enthusiasts.
Mancos resident Ryan Bouchers uses wire cutters to remove fencing that a group calling itself the Free Land Holders Committee erected within the San Juan National Forest in Montezuma County, in southwestern Colorado, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. Bouchers was joined by a number of area residents upset over the fence.
Angry residents — some of them carrying sidearms — cut down sections of the fence Thursday afternoon in the national forest outside the town of Mancos, about 30 miles northwest of Durango. They vowed to return Friday to remove more. But the sheriff insisted access has not been cut off, even though the fencing crisscrossed U.S. Forest Service property.
Forest Service records show the 1,400 acres in question have been owned by the federal government since 1927, Owen said. Pipkin confirmed the fences were being built by his group. He said he was not baptized into the FLDS church, but he had family members who belonged to it. When asked what the Free Land Holders Committee is and who its members are, Pipkin recommended reading the Declaration of Independence. He said there are “thousands of us.”Local residents gathered to remove a fence erected on San Juan National Forest by a group calling itself the Free Land Holders Committee, outside of Mancos, Colorado, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
Finch, who said he spoke Thursday morning with another member of Pipkin’s group to ask them to take down the fence, said he is worried about how events will unfold when one group insists public land belongs to them.
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