Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Prescott, AZ – At least three sets of appeals have been filed with the U.S. Forest Service, challenging the decisions made by Linda Jackson, Chino Valley District Ranger, to illegally reauthorize grazing permits for five huge grazing allotments that encompass over 126,000 acres of public land in the Prescott National Forest. WildEarth Guardians, Prescott National Forest Friends, and at least one individual have appealed the five decisions, which continue to allow overgrazing on the Antelope, China Dam, Muldoon, and Perkinsville and Sand Flat Grazing Allotments.

“Grazing has occurred on these five allotments for over one hundred years,” said Jim Powers, Chair of Prescott National Forest Friends. “As a result, the soil and watershed have been severely degraded; 39 percent of the allotments contain impaired or unsatisfactory soils and 38% of the area has unsatisfactory watershed conditions, according to the Forest Plan’s Environmental Impact Statement. In conducting the environmental analysis for these allotments, the interdisciplinary team failed to respect and consider the Chief Foresters’ directive to give watershed’s the highest priority in managing our national forest.”

Long-time Prescott National Forest activist Leslie Glustrom submitted another set of appeals. “These lands belong to the American people,” says Glustrom. “It isn’t easy to be involved in grazing decisions because the Forest Service process can be very ‘user-unfriendly,’ but it is important that the Forest Service be reminded that they are legally obligated to consider the best needs of all the American people. The fundamental issue is that these lands are extremely difficult to manage for livestock grazing. Arizona is a very dry state. There isn’t much precipitation and grazing pressure can do severe damage to the native grasses. Forest Service data indicates that in some areas live plants make up less than 10% of their data transects. Moreover, these studies were several years ago before the recent intensification of the drought, which has caused more trees, grasses and shrubs to die.”

The Forest Service claims they can maintain or increase current livestock levels in the allotments and still protect the soils and vegetation through better management. To do so, they plan to spend $487,000 of taxpayer money on water and fencing “improvements” in an attempt keep cattle more evenly distributed throughout the allotments. Meanwhile, the taxpayer will get back only about $15,00 annually from the grazing fees that the ranchers pay. Further, the agency violates the National Forest Management Act by failing to consider that each of the new water developments will cause significant impacts to the soil and vegetation for up to a mile radius around each of more that 40 new water troughs.

The plan for these allotments also completely fails to ensure that there will be forage available for the antelope or mule deer in the area. The Environmental Assessment (EA) for the five allotments makes it clear that the ‘No Grazing’ Alternative is best for mule deer: “With no livestock grazing in the project area, mule deer habitat would improve in quality as browse species plants improve in vigor with the lack of livestock browsing. The improved habitat may support more mule deer that the existing conditions would and lead to increased local populations.”

The EA and resulting decisions also violate the National Forest Management Act by failing to meet the requirement that they provide analysis or comparison to demonstrate that the benefits of livestock grazing are “relatively” commensurate with cost. “In this case, the costs and impacts clearly outweigh the only benefit discussed in the EA: bolstering these five ranchers through taxpayer subsidies. We have a responsibility to protect southwest lands and wildlife that live here,” said Billy Stern, Grazing Program Coordinator for WildEarth Guardians. “The Forest Service’s decision to blindly continue grazing on these valuable lands in the Prescott National Forest fails to protect the soils, wildlife or watershed in the area. If we really wanted to help these ranchers, we should pass the Voluntary Grazing Allotment Buyout Act (HR 3324), which will help these ranchers retire, and save these areas for wildlife and recreation.”