WildEarth Guardians

Friday, April 18, 2003
Judge Rules Forest Service Violated Endangered Species Protections by Authorizing Grazing in Lincoln National Forest

For the third time in the last five months, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Forest Service is violating federal environmental laws when permitting livestock grazing on the Southwestern national forests
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - For the third time in the last five months, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Forest Service is violating federal environmental laws when permitting livestock grazing on the Southwestern national forests. In the ruling, Chief Judge James Parker held that the Lincoln National Forest violated both the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) by failing to fully consider the effects of grazing on the Mexican spotted owl on the Sacramento allotment, the largest allotment in the Southwestern Region of the U.S. Forest Service. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of WildEarth Guardians.

In his ruling, Judge Parker rejected the Forest Service's claim that a 1995 federal budget law called the Rescissions Act exempted the agency from complying with environmental laws. To the contrary, Judge Parker held that the Forest Service violated section 7 of the ESA when the agency failed to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service over the full impacts of issuing the 1999 grazing permit on the Sacramento allotment. The Forest Service merely evaluated the effects of grazing 200 to 412 cows over a three-year period, rather than the permitted 553 cows over the entire ten-year term of the permit. Analyzing the impacts of grazing over a three-year term is much less likely to show the long-term adverse environmental impacts of grazing on threatened and endangered species and their habitat.

Judge Parker's ruling is analogous to federal Judge Christina Armijo's precedent-setting ruling last December, which ordered the Forest Service to consult over the entire ten-year term of the grazing permit on the Copper Creek allotment in the Gila National Forest. In January, WildEarth Guardians filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Forest Service in an effort to apply this precedent to 400 allotments throughout more than 9 million of acres of national forest lands on the eleven national forests throughout New Mexico and Arizona.

Judge Parker also found that the Forest Service violated NFMA by failing to ensure that the 1999 grazing permit on the Sacramento Allotment was consistent with the Lincoln National Forest Plan and 1996 amendments to the forest plan. The Forest Service failed to meet the forest plan's goal of bringing grazing use into balance with available forage for livestock by refusing to reduce livestock numbers, despite the agency's finding that permitting so many cows would likely adversely affect the Mexican spotted owl. The Forest Service also failed to ensure that forage utilization levels were not exceeded, as required by the 1996 amendments. Forest Service monitoring records from 1999 to 2001 show that grazing in many meadows and streams occurs at more than twice the permitted utilization level of 35 percent. In his ruling, Judge Parker ordered the agency to revise the permit to bring it into consistency with the forest plan.

"As this case demonstrates, the Forest Service continues to ignore its own scientific data to appease ranchers, at the expense of threatened and endangered wildlife," said Laurie Fulkerson, WildEarth Guardians' Grazing Program Coordinator. "This ruling is merely one step in a series of litigation that we hope will force the Forest Service to do its job to protect imperiled species and comply with environmental laws."

Forest Service records show that 90% of the streams on the Sacramento allotment are in poor condition due to historic and ongoing livestock grazing. Overgrazing of wet meadows and streams harms dozens of species of fish and wildlife, including the Mexican vole, the single most important prey species for the Mexican spotted owl in the Sacramento Mountains. Forest Service monitoring data shows that grazing each of the past four summers has reduced vegetation to the point that no or very few voles can survive. Despite the Forest Service's own monitoring results, Judge Parker accepted the Forest Service argument that a 4-inch stubble height requirement is adequate cover for the Mexican vole. Judge Parker determined that maintenance of a 4-inch stubble height requirement will not likely harm the Mexican spotted owl during the consultation process, as part of his denial of an injunction prohibiting livestock grazing on allotment until consultation is completed. "We are dissatisfied with this element of the ruling because we believe the 4-inch cover height will not provide sufficient prey for the Mexican spotted owl. We are also disappointed with the Judge's failure to grant an injunction. Injunctions prohibiting grazing are hard to come by since grazing is an ongoing activity, but WildEarth Guardians will continue to pursue injunctive relief in future cases in an effort to ensure recovery of biologically important areas before they are permanently lost," said Fulkerson.