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A South Dakota farming and ranching family has had their criminal charges dropped by the Trump administration. Charles and Heather Maude were in D.C. for the announcement on Wednesday. The family was alerted by the U.S. Forest Service that fencing on their property blocked access to the Buffalo gap national grasslands. The case started as a civil dispute over the 25 acres of federal land, but turned into criminal charges for theft of government property. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins spoke on behalf of them in D.C., acknowledging that the Forest Service allowed them to use the land informally for their cattle to graze, going back decades. No clear boundary was ever established, leading to a drawn-out legal battle that has now come to a close, in favor of the Maude family.
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