Colorado Activist Charged In Dispute On Utah Grazing Land
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - An environmental activist and her husband are facing charges stemming from a confrontation with ranchers in southeastern Utah.
The San Juan County Sheriff's Office says Rosalie Chilcoat was visiting her husband, Mark Franklin, in Lime Ridge when he shut the gate to a rancher's corral, denying the rancher's cattle access to water.
They are both charged with trespassing on state trust lands.
Deputies say the Durango, Colorado, couple was tied to the crime through evidence that included footprints and video surveillance footage.
The land involved in the incident is owned by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration and has been leased for cattle grazing.
Chilcoat is affiliated with Great Old Broads for Wilderness, which fought new grazing allotments under consideration on Colorado public lands.
Chilcoat declined to comment.
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