Prosecution, persecution, and prison for normal agriculture practices? An American ranching family targeted by a secret state investigation and treated like an organized crime ring?
The state of Washington is hellbent on penalizing livestock producers Wade and Teresa King for the sins of cleaning man-made stock ponds and allegedly damaging “cultural resources.” Their sentence? Potential incarceration, loss of legacy, termination of land leases, and millions of dollars in fines.
The state’s actions are stunning, replete with constitutional violations and denials of due process, according to the Kings.
“They’ve never set foot on our deeded ground or looked us in the eye,” Wade says. “They’ve withheld evidence. They’ve threatened witnesses. They’ve denied us a jury trial. And so much more.”
Why are the Kings in the state’s crosshairs for normal pond maintenance? “We’re in their way,” Wade contends. “They call it ‘environmental justice.’”
Or secrets and backroom deals?
Cease and Desist
Two days before Christmas, in December 2021, Wade and Teresa King, of King Ranch, in eastern Washington, received a cease-and-desist letter from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
The Kings were accused of destroying “wetlands” by disturbing 14 stock ponds across 13,000 acres of ground leased from the state: These ponds are also located within an area where cultural resource are known to exist. Prior written authorization was required prior to any ground disturbing work on your DNR leased ground.
Out of the gate, the Kings were convinced the directive was a mere paperwork error. “The letter came right before Christmas and all the state employees had gone home, so there was no one for us to contact,” Teresa recalls. “We showed our attorney, and she said, ‘This must be a technical issue. I’ll get it taken care of and enjoy your holiday.’”
“We thought the letter was a mistake,” Wade adds. “It described the maintenance of customary stock ponds we use to water our cattle, something we’ve done for decades, just like the generations before us. If you don’t have water for your cows, and if you don’t take care of the ponds, then you don’t have a ranch.”
In Grant County, headquartered south of Coulee City, the Kings run a cattle outfit. The family have operated for 70-plus years, and their 4th, 5th, and 6th generations live and work on the property. The King Ranch geography is extremely arid with 9-10” of annual rainfall, characterized by scab rock and pockets of shallow soil unfit for tillage. Hardly a “wetlands” environment. As in, wetlands must be wet.
Considering the lean conditions, King Ranch needs beaucoup acres to graze cattle. In addition to their deeded property, the Kings lease 12,383 acres (mostly landlocked by King Ranch and another operation) from the state and run roughly 600 cow-calf pairs. The Kings have held the lease since the 1950s—and cleaned ponds from the get-go. However, per DNR’s December 2021 letter, they were outlaws.
(Citing pending litigation, DNR declined Agweb interview requests related to King Ranch.)
“These are tiny ponds, vital to our operation, and sometimes the only source of water for livestock and wildlife,” Wade explains. “The very last thing we’d do is damage them. USDA has cost-share programs to do this exact same thing. We either clean the ponds or they fill with sediment and disappear.”
The Kings’ pond cleaning leaves no muddy mess, discharge, or runoff. There are no adjacent streams and no water nexus. The ponds are isolated and man-made.
“We asked DNR what kind of proof and evidence they were using,” Wade notes. “They told us, ‘File a public records request.’ For sure, we suspected there was a whole lot more to the story. Something dark was going on.”
Pay and Obey
By February 2023, the Kings’ alleged violations had increased to 23 ponds: 18 on state land, 2 on federal land, and three on the Kings’ privately owned land.
On Feb. 10, the State of Washington publicly portrayed the Kings as environmental villains in a Department of Ecology (DOE) news release, proclaiming the ranchers guilty of “illegally damaging at least 23 alkali wetlands.”
DOE told the public that the Kings had “excavated deep pools within the shallow wetlands” resulting in degradation of water quality and ruin of “habitat for migratory birds and unique plant and animal species.”
“Even though these are individually small wetlands, they play an important role in the environment of the region,” stated Joenne McGerr, DOE Shorelands and Environmental Assistance Program manager.
Remarkably “small wetlands,” indeed. In total, the “small wetlands” cited by DOE make up roughly 6 acres across the entire 13,000-acre lease. Not 6 acres per pond. Rather, 6 acres of total water when all 18 ponds on state land are added together.
And what was proper punishment for allegedly defiling 6 acres, according to state bureaucrats? A $267,540 fine and an order demanding a full
restoration program. Translated: The Kings were put on the DOE hook for almost $4 million.
Additionally, within the release, DNR stuck in the boot, ending the Kings’ generational land lease. “We are deeply disappointed with the actions taken by King Ranch, and we have terminated their lease as a result,” declared Michael Kearney, DNR’s Product Sales and Leasing division manager.
When DNR terminated the lease (February 1), the Kings had 60 days to remove their equipment and land improvements—in wintertime. Fence, corral, and improvements across miles and miles of ground, i.e., an impossibility. “They knew exactly what they were doing,” Wade recalls. “They were going to claim ownership of our improvements because they knew we’d never get everything off the lease. We appealed immediately, and are still fighting that.”
The state had spoken. The Kings were supposed to pay and obey.
“Nothing made sense,” Teresa recalls. “We asked for their evidence of our supposed infractions, and they wouldn’t tell us anything. Instead, they told us to file a public records request. We didn’t even know how this all began or how the ponds came on their radar. Did someone file a complaint? They wouldn’t tell us and they never looked us in the eye or sat down with explanations or met with us in person. No personal exchange. These are not rural people or anyone with an understanding of agriculture. When they refer to farming, they have no idea. No clue.”
“They fined us for customary pond cleaning on our own land, but they’d never been on our deeded property—ever,” Wade details. “We knew something else was going on behind the scenes, but at that point, we were completely in the dark.”
However, the DOE news release contained a hint within a single, incongruent sentence: “In addition to their habitat value, alkali wetlands are a source of plants and resources of significant cultural importance to local Tribes, who have depended on these systems for millennia.”
Kiss the Ring
Find the farm, find the crime? At the same time the Kings were fighting civil actions by DOE and DNR, a secret criminal state investigation of their ranching operation was unfolding. Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), using Washington’s racketeering statute (designed to combat organized crime), was investigating King Ranch.
Via “Special Inquiry Judge” proceedings, EPD ran a sealed, closed-door inquiry. “State prosecutors barred defense attorneys from hearings, refused to release evidence, and even threatened potential witnesses with jail if they disclosed the existence of subpoenas,” stated a Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filing.
The Kings were clueless. “We had no idea,” Teresa explains. “Our town is small, about 550 people. State investigators showed up and spent several days trying to find dirt on us. They walked into coffee shops to talk with our friends and neighbors. For example, ‘I’m Matthew Stratton and I’m from the attorney general’s office in the EPD, and I’d like to ask you questions about the Kings.’ That was to divide us from our own community by looking for something, anything, to make us seem like criminals. They were hoping for a disgruntled person to throw dirt on us. Didn’t work.”
In May 2023, by chance, the Kings learned about the state’s criminal investigation.
“We found out by accident when the EPD subpoenaed our one employee, but served his wife instead of him,” Teresa continues. “They threatened him with jail time and fines if he didn’t talk. They dragged him into court four times to compel him. He pled the fifth. It was all done in secret and the file is still sealed to this day.”
“Keep in mind, they were investigating us for felony charges, but they wouldn’t tell us anything. We had to brief everything and hire a criminal attorney in addition to our civil attorneys. Just imagine the stress and cost, and all while all of us were trying to run a ranch. It’s hard to describe the pressure. The state was relentless, hitting us with everything they could think of to do maximum damage to us. It was coordinated by three state agencies, DOE, DNR and EPD against the two of us: Let that sink in. Three state agencies with unlimited taxpayer funds, unlimited attorneys, and unlimited resources.”
Kiss the ring, or else.
Enviro Justice
How did the Kings and their stock-watering ponds come to DNR’s attention? Initially, a complaint was made to Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife regarding pond excavation activity on the King Ranch lease.
“After several years, we finally found out that Fish & Wildlife sat on the complaint for a year,” Teresa says. “Then, somehow, it went to DOE, who looked at satellite imagery, and immediately, on the second day they had the complaint, DOE turned it over for a criminal investigation at the EPD without ever setting foot on the land to confirm or to question if our stock-watering ponds were permit-exempt under RCW 90.44.050. The escalation was incredible.”
Who lodged the original complaint? “The public records request states it was a member of the Colville Tribes,” Wade notes. “We don’t know the individual’s name.”
In December 2025, DNR split the King’s leased acreage into three parcels and started a process to give the land to the Colville Tribes. Significantly, Glenda Breiler, DNR’s director of tribal relations, is a member of the Colville Tribes.
“People kept asking us, ‘Why you, why now?’ When we found all that out, it was an ‘aha moment.’ Finally, things started making more sense,” Wade explains. “To this day, we’re finding out new facts, but we’ve never been allowed to see the evidence. It looks like the state wants to cancel our lease, and they’re using our historical stock pond cleaning as a reason, as a justification for environmental justice. Once canceled, that makes the land eligible for the trust land transfer (TLT) program to the Tribes.”
War on Agriculture
DOE and DNR have made a mockery of due process, contend the Kings, who are fighting on multiple legal fronts.
The Kings want a jury of their peers to hear the case. DOE refuses. Represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, the Kings have filed a summary judgement in Superior Court of Washington/Grant County before Judge Melissa Chlarson, requesting a jury trial. They await a decision.
Their appeal of the DNR lease termination is pending. Additionally, they have an appeal before the Pollution Control Hearings Board, another administrative layer. The Kings are locked in a legal vise, Wade explains.
“DOE wants on our land,” he notes. “We told them to get a judicial warrant to comply with our due process rights as Americans—the same thing any government agency should abide by. They told us, ‘No.’ And they told us, ‘If you don’t let us on your land without a warrant, we’ll limit any evidence you can bring into the administrative hearing.’ We can’t count the ways DOE has abused our constitutional rights.”
NRCS reportedly found no wetland evidence on the King’s lease. Independent experts, hired by the Kings, also found no wetland evidence.
“How is it a wetland? If we don’t clean it, it’ll become an upland,” Wade emphasizes. “It’s not complicated; it’s not secret; it’s not criminal. It’s completely normal. Stock pond owners and ranchers across the country know what I’m describing. Rural people know it. Anyone with common sense knows it.”
On December 9, 2025, USDA Secretary Brook Rollins penned a letter to DOE Director Casey Sixkiller and DNR Commissioner Dave Upthegrove:
I am writing on behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture concerning actions theState of Washington has taken at the behest of the Department of Ecology and the Department of Natural Resources inappropriately targeting Wade and Teresa King with excessive penalties for normal ranching activities. The State of Washington imposed more than $250,000 dollars in civil penalties, it has also revoked leases on state land that have been ranched by the Kings fordecades, and pursued a secretive criminal action behind closed doors without any ability for the Kings to defend. Combined with the massive legal fees needed to protect this family’s way oflife, this amounts to the state of Washington threatening the existence of their legacy ranch. This war on agriculture must stop.
However, despite Rollins’ request, DOE and DNR kept a foot on the gas. The Kings have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees, and endured the deaths of both their fathers under state scrutiny, all while fighting state bureaucrats intent on prosecution, persecution, regulatory enforcement, and transfer of long-standing lease acreage for the crimes of traditional stock pond maintenance.
“It’s a nightmare,” Wade says. “From the time we wake up till we go to bed, we have to deal with what the state is doing to us. How do you fight against radicals that claim cattle can damage cultural resources? How do you reason with people that say cleaning a pond so your cows can drink is an environmental crime?”
“We’re standing up for every rancher and farmer in the country, and we’re standing for water rights, property rights, and constitutional rights,” Teresa adds. “God hasn’t put any load on us that He doesn’t help us carry.”
“We’ve been through a whole lot in our lifetimes. We’ve dealt with fires, droughts, storms, weather conditions, volatile markets, disease, birthing problems, and breakdowns. It’s all part of what we do,” she concludes. “But I never, never thought our own government would be the biggest fight of our lives.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Stealing the Farm: China Continues Raid of US Agriculture by Theft and Agroterror
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
Georgia Watermelon Heist Explodes into Epic Night of Pandemonium
Sisters of Farm Fraud: How 4 Siblings Fleeced USDA for $10M
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Cold-Busted: Frozen Deer Decoy Nabs Poachers and Cocaine in Spectacular Sting
Sticky Fingers: USDA Fraudster Steals $200M in Stunning Scam
