Webb's inability to control his cattle is not only damaging a fragile streamside habitat, but also threatening human lives.
Webb also grazes cattle on a 383-acre plot he owns in Camp Verde known as Finney Flat, located a few miles from the Soda Springs Ranch. Since January of this year, his cattle have roamed off this property and throughout the area, wandering down public highways and breaking down fences on a neighbor's hay farm.
The Camp Verde Marshal's Office has received 40 calls since January 1 about loose cattle on Montezuma Highway and cattle trespassing on private property.
On March 5, the almost inevitable happened.
Sharon Lee Neill was returning home from work down Montezuma Castle Highway around 7 p.m.
"I was just driving home and this cow ran out into the road," she says. "I never even saw it until impact."
Her 1990 LeBaron was totaled, the passenger side crushed by the collision with a pregnant cow, which was killed.
The automobile accident was the second collision with one of Webb's cows this year. The first collision caused $1,000 damage to a police vehicle responding to a report of stray cattle on the roadway.
Neill's accident spurred Camp Verde Town Marshal John Wischmeyer to put some pressure on Webb.
Wischmeyer has prepared a criminal public nuisance complaint that claims the cattle pose a dangerous threat to the community. Webb hasn't been formally charged, because he removed the cattle from Finney Flat soon after Neill's collision.
Webb says people are making a big deal out of a common ranching problem. Cattle, he says, are inclined to roam.
"That's the nature of a cow. She always thinks it's greener over the fence," Webb says. "Once in a while, one gets out. That's nothing new. Anybody who has a bunch of cows knows this is kind of a normal operation."
Nevertheless, the Camp Verde turmoil has made an impression on Webb.
"He knows he has to move his cattle out," his friend Don Gunnell says.
Webb has his 383 acres in the heart of Camp Verde up for sale; he's asking $5.7 million. If the property sells, Webb would get a share of the proceeds out of his late wife's estate, Gunnell says.
Webb's free hand with the Forest Service at the Soda Springs Ranch also appears to be waning, despite his lifetime grazing permit. After years of turning a blind eye to Webb's operations, the Forest Service is beginning to pay closer attention.
Webb's permit includes a clause that will return the grazing rights to the Forest Service if Webb "is no longer able to personally conduct the ranching business."
Four days after signing the permit early last month, Webb received written notice from the Forest Service that he was failing to comply with fence-maintenance requirements.
The Forest Service warned that unless the fences were repaired by April 1, Webb's grazing permit would be in jeopardy.
Repairing long stretches of fencing is not an easy task for anyone, let alone an 84-year-old man. And Webb prefers to work alone, with friends lending only an occasional hand.
One Forest Service employee predicted that Webb's ranching days would soon be over.
"It appears his time has finally come," says Forest Service range conservationist Ken Vensel.
But Webb is not packing up just yet.
The required fences were back up on April 1.
After more than 50 years of ranching, Paul Webb is still firmly in the saddle.
And all indications are that Henderson, the superintendent of Montezuma Well National Monument, plans to do nothing to protect the national monument from Webb's cattle but wait for Webb to stop ranching, or die.
"I don't see any changes within the short term," Henderson says. "Certainly, over the long term, the situation will improve.
