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Decision regarding Herbicide use on the Rio Hondo Allotment
Decision regarding Herbicide use on the Rio Hondo Allotment
Administrative Law Judge Robert G. Holt rules that the Bureau of Land Management must vacate its decision to use an aerial application of chemical herbicides for removal of woody shrubs on the Rio Hondo grazing allotment
Contact: US Department of Interior
The case began when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorized the chemical treatment of public lands in a decision issued by its Roswell, New Mexico Field Office on May 22, 2004. The BLM authorized treatment of 2,739 acres with the herbicide, tebuthiuron, by aerial application. Judge Holt found that the BLM’s assessment for aerial herbicide application on 2,700 acres of the Hondo Allotment (near the Rio Hondo outside of Roswell, New Mexico) considered too narrow a range of alternatives for brush management and too narrowly defined the scope of and remedy for the issue.