Who We Are

Mike Dail

Chairman

Mason, Texas.
Mike Dail grew up on a ranch in western McCulloch County, Texas that his family settled in the 1880’s. Dail graduated from Eden High School and Texas A & M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He and his wife currently own and operate a real estate business in Mason, Texas. The business specializes in the sale of ranches. Dail also maintains a ranching operation.

Mr. Dail is retired from the Federal Farm Credit System with most of his tenure being in the Western Hill Country of Texas. He has been a key figure in the fight for private property rights and has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Land Foundation, now American Stewards of Liberty since 1993.

He and his wife, Dianna, are proud parents of 2 married daughters and 4 wonderful grandchildren.

Dan Byfield

CEO

Georgetown, Texas.
From 1994 to 2009, Dan served as president of the American Land Foundation and now serves as the CEO of the merged association, American Stewards of Liberty. Dan is a writer, a speaker, and a part time lobbyist. Dan has served as a legislative aide to a Texas state senator leaving to become a lobbyist for agriculture with the Texas Farm Bureau, Farm Credit Bank of Texas, and briefly for the Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas. Dan has represented landowner’s interests in New Mexico, Texas and Washington, D.C. While at the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, Dan produced two award-winning documentaries showing how environmental laws encroach on individual freedoms and private property destroying property values and personal wealth. They are called “Who Owns the Land? When the Environment Collides With the Constitution” and “Standing Ground: People, Property and Power.” Both have been shown on national cable and educational television, including PBS. Dan graduated from the University of Texas with a journalism degree, specializing in public relations and has a law degree from South Texas College of Law. He is a four-year tennis letterman for the University of Texas. Dan is married to Margaret Hage Byfield and has four children.

Margaret Byfield

Executive Director

Georgetown, Texas.
Margaret was raised on a large cow calf operation in central Nevada purchased by her parents, Wayne and Jean Hage in 1978. Her family experienced unprecedented regulatory pressures that eventually led to Hage v. United States, the first federal lands grazing case filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims.  The case was in litigation for 27 years, during which time Margaret launched the property rights organization Stewards of the Range.  Stewards merged with the American Land Foundation in 2009 forming American Stewards of Liberty (ASL).

Margaret works directly with policy leaders at the local, State and Federal level helping to advance strategies that protect the production of America’s food, fiber, minerals and energy. She runs the national “Property Rights Task Force” and “Multiple-Use Alliance” that confront the agendas eroding property rights in America. She is a national speaker, writer and commentator on natural resource issues.

Margaret has helped train, guide and advise elected leaders for the purpose of coordinating land use planning and management activities with federal and state agencies.  She has guided and participated in numerous government-to-government coordination meetings dealing with a variety of issues including federal resource management plans, endangered species, transportation corridors, power lines, high speed rail and many other concerns.  Additionally, she has helped local governments develop natural resource plans and specific policies for the purpose of conveying to federal and state agencies the local needs and priorities to be coordinated.

Margaret holds a Bachelors degree in English and Music received from the College of Idaho. She is married to Dan Byfield, CEO of ASL, and has one daughter and three step children.

Will Cavin

Vice Chairman

Chaves County, New Mexico
Commissioner Will Cavin is the former Chairman of Chaves County New Mexico Board of Commissioners where he served for 8 years. Cavin was also an active member of the National Association of Counties, serving on the Western Interstate Region Board of Directors, NACo Public Lands Steering Committee and New Mexico Counties Board of Directors. Previously, Cavin was a field representative for Congressman Steve Pearce and Chairman of Chaves County Republican Party, in addition to serving as a public educator and coach for 25 years.

Becky Norton Dunlop

Director

City, State
Becky Norton Dunlop has been a prominent national leader and strategist for many years. She has served in two Presidential administrations – Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Under Reagan, she was a senior official in the administration from 1981-1989, and served in the White House, at the Justice Department, and the Interior Department. In 2002, George W. Bush appointed her to a part-time post as chairwoman of the Federal Service Impasses Panel resolving several hundred cases of disputes between federal agencies management and labor unions.Becky has also served as Virginia’s Natural Resources Chief, where she streamlined, decentralized and down-sized state agencies while protecting the environment. She authored “Clearing the Air” (Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, 2000), chronicling her experiences as a “free-market environmentalist” during those years. Most recently, Becky was The Heritage Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow.Becky is a graduate of Miami University in Ohio and is married to George S. Dunlop.