WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Streamside Habitat for Imperiled Mouse Harmed by Cattle Grazing

Group Alleges Forest Service is Failing to Protect Mouse
Contact: Bryan Bird 505 699-4719

Albuquerque, NM –WildEarth Guardians initiated its own legal battle today to defend the jumping mouse in New Mexico from the livestock industry. The conservation group alleged in federal court the U.S. Forest Service is allowing livestock grazing to continue to destroy streamside habitat where the mouse lives, breeds and raises its young. Guardians claims that ongoing livestock grazing authorized by the agency on the Santa Fe National Forest is violating the Endangered Species Act.

“This little jumping mouse is a bellwether for healthy rivers and watersheds in New Mexico,” said Bryan Bird, WildEarth Guardians biologist. “We are asking the Forest Service to keep cows out of 1% of public lands that have streams and rivers. The livestock industry needs stop kicking and screaming and cooperate to ensure clean water and healthy wildlife.”

The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse requires pristine streamside habitat and wetlands where vegetation grows to at least 24 inches in height for its food and sheltering needs.  Cattle grazing makes this growth impossible and has been identified by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as one of the primary causes of this mouse’s habitat destruction.  Without its habitat, the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse cannot breed and prepare for its 8-9 month hibernation, one of the longest known for any mammal.

Approximately 70 of the fewer than 100 populations that were located from the late 1980’s to the present have likely been extirpated, with only 29 populations located rangewide since 2005.  Grazing of livestock is the primary driver of this decline.  On the Santa Fe National Forest, the Cebolla-San Antonio and San Diego grazing allotments contain 2 of the mere 29 known populations remaining of this rare jumping mouse. Of these 29 populations the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers 11 compromised; some may be extirpated. The Forest Service has not yet consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on these allotments.

“The livestock industry has enjoyed special treatment from the federal government for so long that our streams have been trampled to death. We don’t know what healthy rivers look like anymore,” said Bird. “Most people would agree, fencing cattle out from streams to protect vegetation and banks is just common sense.”

The Santa Fe National Forest cut a deal with the livestock industry to allow cattle to graze at the very end of the mouse’s active season when it is most vulnerable without assurance that the mouse would be protected. Because of the significant risk that grazing poses to the continued existence of the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, WildEarth Guardians says the Forest Service must initiate formal consultation under the Endangered Species Act addressing grazing impacts on the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse in the Santa Fe National Forest.