Ranchers aren't supposed to graze livestock on public land without paying a fee to do so. The feds have tried to reduce the amount of livestock because they have been allowed to badly overgraze the land. A lot of federal parks that used to allow grazing have long since kicked out the cows and will even shoot them and leave them in the backcountry of the owners don't come get them after being notified of their straying onto public lands.

There was a ranching family that was grandfathered in with grazing rights in one park I worked in, and it took years for the park to finally get rid of them (when the family members got old they tried to sublet their grazing rights and that's when their asses (or at least cattle) were kicked off the land).

Mr. Bundy is a leech who has grown fat by stealing the grass on federal land. He's the kind of old fart who will cry for his right to do so and there are scofflaws who will support him. But he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on.

SRS