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New Carson Reviews to Consider Wildlife

Date
May 19, 2005
Contact
Adam Rankin The Albuquerque Journal
In This Release
Wildlife  

Thursday, May 19, 2005
New Carson Reviews to Consider Wildlife

Carson National Forest officials failed to do several key wildlife evaluations in reviewing a pair of grazing allotments in the Questa Ranger District, so forest supervisor Martin Chavez is requiring the reviews be redone..
Contact: Adam Rankin The Albuquerque Journal

Carson National Forest officials failed to do several key wildlife evaluations in reviewing a pair of grazing allotments in the Questa Ranger District, so forest supervisor Martin Chavez is requiring the reviews be redone, this time taking into account possible impacts to endangered species.

“This is actually a surprise to us- we didn’t expect to win this appeal,” said Bill Stern, grazing reform program coordinator for the WildEarth Guardians.

Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, a conservation group opposed to much grazing on public lands, filed the appeal to a Feb. 10 environmental analysis that determined grazing on the allotments- known as Deer Creek and Columbine- would result in no significant impacts.

WildEarth Guardians challenged those findings in a 15-page appeal, attacking the review for failing to consider a host of potential damages, ranging from degraded water quality and loss of streamside habitat to possible harm to endangered species living in the Carson.

On May 6, Richard Stahn, the Forest Service appeal review officer, recommended overturning the decision, and Chavez agreed.

“I am directing this inadequacy be corrected and new decisions be issued based on new analyses,” Chavez wrote in a May 11 appeal decision.

The Deer Creek allotment, about 5,403 acres, was approved to graze up to 50 cattle from July 1 to Sept. 15. The Columbine allotment, at 9,017 acres, was approved for grazing for up to 57 cattle from July 5 to Sept. 5.

Both allotments were up for a 10-year permitting review analysis.

Stern said the Forest Service failed to confer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on potential impacts from grazing to endangered species, but that forest officials nonetheless reported there would be no effects.

“The fact that they simply really didn’t cover endangered species at all and didn’t analyze them is a sign of their priorities,” Stern said, which is to “get through the process, get the new permit out, get the land being used.”

In his review of the matter, Stahn wrote that “the decision is not consistent with policy direction related to evaluation and documentation of environmental effects to (key wildlife species).”

For the Deer Creek allotment, “a summary ‘No Effect’ statement was made with no rationale as to why the project would have ‘No Effect’ on the Mexican spotted owl, or any other listed species potentially occurring in the project area,” he wrote.

For the Columbine allotment, Stahn wrote that an assessment “determined the project would have ‘No Effect’ on any species except Mexican spotted owl; however, this determination was not explained.”

Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal – Reprinted with permission

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"This is actually a surprise to us- we didn't expect to win this appeal," said Bill Stern, grazing reform program coordinator for the WildEarth Guardians.