Wayne Hage, the Nevada man known for his battles with the federal government, and who came to epitomize the state's "sagebrush rebellion", has died.

Hage had battled the government since the Forest Service started scaling back the number of cattle allowed to graze on national forest land, in the early 1980s.

In 2002, U-S Claims Court Judge Loren Smith ruled that Hage had a right to let his cattle use the water, and forage on at least some of the federal land, where he had formerly held a federal grazing permit, north of Tonopah.

Hage died yesterday of cancer.

Friends say he was in his sixties.