Overview

• The Trump administration officially dropped charges against Charles and Heather Maude, who faced up to 10 years in prison over a grazing boundary dispute with the U.S. Forest Service.
• USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins called the Biden-era prosecution 'politically motivated' and announced a halt to similar federal land-use prosecutions.
• The Maude family, fifth-generation ranchers in South Dakota, had a decades-long informal grazing agreement with the Forest Service on poorly demarcated land.
• The Biden administration accused the family of 'theft of government property' following a boundary survey, sparking national criticism from agricultural groups over federal overreach.
• The case has become a flashpoint in debates over federal land management practices, regulatory enforcement, and the impact of partisan policy shifts on rural communities.