Forest Supervisor during Maude indictments retires; neighbors react

After 35 years at the Forest Service, Jack Isaacs' last day was the day after Brooke Rollins announced the federal government would be dropping charges against the Maudes.

In April, neighbors and legislators gathered with the Heather and Charles’ parents at the Maude ranch to tour the fence line and show support for the family. R-CALF property rights chair Shad Sullivan led the event in prayer. Photo courtesy Randi Hamilton

Jack Isaacs, the regional Forest Service (USFS) Supervisor when indictments were filed against Charles and Heather Maude, has announced his retirement.

After 35 years at the Forest Service, his last day was April 29, the day after Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins publicly announced the federal government had dropped charges against the Maudes.

Isaacs served as Forest Supervisor with the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, overseeing Buffalo Gap National Grassland. He told a local news outlet his reason for retiring was he felt it was time. His deputy supervisor Amanda Gehrt will assume the role of acting Forest Supervisor.

Fallout from Maude case continues

Charles and Heather Maude were charged with theft of government property in a dispute over 25 acres of federal grazing land. The couple inherited their existing fence, built shortly after Charles’ family acquired the ranch in 1910. The Forest Service claimed the fences were wrongly placed after an alleged complaint from a public land hunter, and that the couple were illegally grazing land that was actually part of Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Both Charles and Heather separately faced 10 years in prison and $250,000 before their charges were dropped by Trump administration officials earlier this week.

Ranching near Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Photo courtesy Scott Edoff

This region of South Dakota has a reputation for negative interactions with the Forest Service. Some of the Maudes’ neighbors said they believed Isaacs was behind the indictments and that Isaacs and Special Agent Travis Lunders had a history of working together.

“We’ve had things happening around this country from way back,” Frank Bloom says. Bloom ranches next to the Maude family. “It’s been a nightmare for years and years and years here, and I think a lot of it was Jack Isaacs and the administration.”

Isaacs did not respond to a request for comment.

History of conflict with regional USFS

Around the time the Maudes were indicted, Bloom had his own encounter with the Forest Service.

“Whatever affected them is going to affect me because my name was with the state attorney, waiting to be convicted,” Bloom says.

Last year, Lunders—the agent who also conducted the Maude’s survey and delivered their indictments—showed up to survey Bloom’s ranch. As in the Maudes’ case, Bloom says Lunders arrived on his ranch without warning or permission.

After completing the survey, Lunders and his team placed new USFS stakes in the ground marking off 11 acres of what Bloom had believed to be his land as Forest Service property. Bloom says Lunders and his team left without a word or explanation, and he never received a phone call, a letter, a map, or a copy of the survey. The only follow-up was a phone call from Isaacs at the Chadron, Nebraska USFS office.

“The only thing I heard was Jack Isaacs called me up and asked me when I was going to move my stuff off Forest Service land,” Bloom says. “He called me again the next week and asked again, ‘When are you going to get your stuff moved off of there?’”

He believes Isaacs and Lunders were working together.

Bloom says he still has never received a copy of the survey or seen any proof from the federal government that the 11 demarcated acres do not belong to him.

Bloom bought his property in 2007 with the current fence in place. He believes the buffalo fence that borders this particular section of his ranch was built in 2003 by neighbor Dan O’Brien of Wild Idea Buffalo Company. He says the Forest Service would have had to sign off on this fence.

“So whose fault is that? Dan O’Brien? Forest Service? I bought the ranch in 2007 not knowing there was any issue with the boundary.”

Wild Idea Buffalo Company did not respond to a request for comment.

“I really feel targeted by Lunders,” Bloom says. “It’s abusive.”

Bloom says there was no precipitating incident in his case, but he also questions the complaint that led to the Maude’s charges. The Maudes were asked to remove their sign at the request of an unidentified hunter on March 29, 2024.

“There ain’t no hunting season in March,” he says.

Neighbor reacts to Maude charges dropped

In her comments at Wednesday’s press conference in D.C., Heather Maude thanked neighbors who stood up for them “at the threat of retribution that they still face.”

Bloom says he watched the press conference.

“I jumped up and down and said, yes, that’s the way it should be,” he says. “Can you imagine the sleepless nights that poor Maude family has went through thinking they’re going to give up their children?”

Heather Maude thanked her neighbors for showing support despite the threat of retaliation they faced for standing with her family. Photo courtesy Randi Hamilton

When asked what change he would like to see at USFS, Bloom questioned the legitimacy of the armed branch of special agents the agency uses to manage public land.

“I would like to see D.C. get rid of Forest Service special agents and just turn it all back to the sheriff’s department like it used to be,” he says. “They have no right to be their own entity. There’s no reason. The sheriff can do everything those special agents can do. When you give somebody that much power, then you have some people turn bad.”