Judge denies injunction in King ranch dispute with Washington Dept of Ecology

By Carrie Stadheim, Tri-State Livestock News

The state department of ecology has “doubled down” on efforts to stop Wade and Teresa King from grazing state and privately owned land.

A judge denied a preliminary injunction on March 20, 2026, and the case moves forward as the family continues to fight for their constitutional right to a jury trial.

“Today’s denial is disappointing, but Washington’s constitution is unambiguous that the right to a jury trial shall remain inviolate, and we intend to hold the State to that promise,” said Oliver J. Dunford, senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, in a Friday news release. “The Kings have spent generations building their ranch. They deserve to have their day in court before a jury of their peers, not a panel of government appointees,” he said.

“Right now we are in the administrative process and they don’t have the jurisdiction to empanel a jury,” said King.

“The state needs to dismiss the case or move it to Grant County superior court. That court has the jurisdiction to empanel a jury,” he said.

Washington Department of Ecology fined the King family $267,000 in 2023, claiming the Kings had disturbed wetlands.

A separate 10-year restoration order followed in January of 2025, bringing estimated compliance costs to over $3.7 million according to Pacific Legal Foundation.

Preliminary reports from a team of experts including a former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water specialist indicate the sites in question are not wetlands. “These are not wetlands. How can you restore non-wetlands into wetlands?” asked King, rhetorically.

The Kings say that “restoring” their arid desert rangeland into wetlands would be an unsustainable and unachievable goal.

“We’ve tried to get an understanding of what restoration might like from our team of experts,” said King. “One of the things we’d have to do is set up some kind of drip irrigation system to keep ‘wetland plants’ alive. They are talking about continually hauling water to create a wetland where there isn’t one,” he said.

“I remember our experts going out and looking at these sites and saying, ‘shouldn’t a wetland be wet,'” said King.

“Restoring” wetlands would actually be creating a man-made wetland in the region, the Kings say. “This would result in an ongoing expense for us. There is no way of estimating the cost of complying with this order for 10 years and we are well aware that the Department of Ecology will always be moving the goal post. Ten years won’t be enough for them, nothing will be enough,” said King.

While the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, has pledged her support for the family that has faced fines and canceled grazing leases over routine management of water dugouts on their own private land and state land, the state marches forward with its refusal to honor the Kings’ grazing leases, which according the lease terms, remains in effect until 2029.

Additionally, they have compiled over 1,500 pages of proof that they own the water rights and stockwater rights on their ranch and leased property, based on western water law and prior appropriations.

Wade King said his family has grazed this area in eastern Washington for over 70 years and has always used ground water in this manner to water their cattle, as did those who managed the land before them.

Because of the rough terrain and sparse forage conditions, the state and private land are “checkerboarded,” meaning they are not separated by fences in most cases.

“The Kings have done nothing wrong. The law allows for the digging of unpermitted stock ponds. These stock ponds have been in use on the Kings’ property for over 70 years. They weren’t dug by the Kings. There are 19 ponds on 20,000 acres. They are the only source of water for the cattle and wildlife,” explained the Kings’ attorney Toni Meacham. The digging and maintaining of stockponds without a permit is allowed under RCW 90.44.050.

“We aren’t hurting anything, we aren’t breaking any laws, we are the target of a government witch hunt to get cattle off the land,” said King. “We have broken no laws and we are not doing anything differently than we’ve done for decades.”

Ironically, the Ecology department has directed the Kings to “restore” the water ponds to their original state. By the Kings’ understanding, this would require them to push sludge, dirt and other materials that were moved from the water ponds back into the ponds, filling them in.

Secretary Rollins hosted the King family, along with the Maude family and others in a roundtable discussion and press conference on Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington, DC, to announce the implementation of a new Farmer and Rancher Freedom Framework intended to protect agricultural producers from just this kind of government “lawfare.”

Rollins emphasized during that press conference that “land is absolutely essential” for farmers and ranchers. “Their work cannot happen without it, and when that land is over regulated, penalized or taken away, American agriculture and our entire American system goes with it.”

On November 4, 2025, Secretary Rollins said on X, “I just got off the phone with the Kings from Washington State. What they have been subjected to by an out-of-control @ecologyWA and @waDNR is no less than egregious. Ranchers have a right to maintain stock water farm ponds and should not be faced with a closed door criminal action and over a quarter of a million dollars worth of fines just so their cattle can drink!”

The Kings point out that the state department of ecology relies on the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a portion of its funding. They say that perhaps that federal funding is not appropriate unless the state halts its “lawfare” activities.

TSLN asked the ecology department if it had responded by dropping any of the nearly $300,000 in fines against the Kings.

“No, the Department of Ecology has not rescinded or changed any of the fines against the Kings. The penalty and two administrative orders have been under appeal the past year, with a hearing on the appeal scheduled this summer,” said Curt Hart, a spokesman for the Department.

The Kings greatly appreciate Secretary Rollins’ intervention and are hopeful she can pressure their state into dropping what they consider ridiculous and unfounded fines.

“The ecology department is supposed to help manage water, to protect it. They are doing the opposite of that,” Wade King told TSLN.

In 2021 the state department of ecology informed the King family that it was in violation of state law for “disturbing wetlands” without a permit. The Kings maintain that because their water dugouts/ponds (not wetlands) are for agricultural use, the state law exempts them from being required to request permits before administering routine maintenance of the water holes.

While the state calls the water holes “wetlands,” the Kings explain the water holes in question are very small watering dugouts/ponds for livestock. Wildlife and birds also take advantage of the water in the dry high desert ecosystem.

Additionally, the Kings explain that they own the water rights because, based on western water law, they put the water to beneficial use by using it to water their cattle.