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Notices of Appeal of Forest Service’s Decision to Rubberstamp Grazing
Notices of Appeal of Forest Service’s Decision to Rubberstamp Grazing
WildEarth Guardians and the Rewilding Institute filed appeals to the Forest Service’s decision to exclude grazing management from environmental review and public participation
Contact: WildEarth Guardians
The Forest Service recently authorized continued livestock grazing in southwestern New Mexico without considering its environmental impacts or giving the public a chance to weigh in. This relatively new Forest Service practice, known as “categorical exclusion,” eliminates the democratic process that typically accompanies grazing management decisions on public land. Categorical exclusions are supposed to be used for non-controversial managerial decisions. WildEarth Guardians and The Rewilding Institute appealed the agency’s decision to categorically exclude continued livestock grazing on the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, forcing the Forest Service to rethink its new rubber stamp approach to management.
A Notice of Appeal of the Forest Service’s Decision Memo to continue grazing on the SU Allotment was sent on 10/9/06. This allotment is just over 5,000 acres and sits in the central western portion of the Reserve Ranger District in southwestern New Mexico. It hosts 10 riparian acres, which consist of riparian vegetation and three springs/seeps. It sits wholly within the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area. Similarly, a Notice of Appeal of the Forest Service’s Decision Memo to continue grazing on the T bar Allotment was sent on 11/8/06. The T Bar Allotment is more than 72,000 acres and shares its southern border with a huge swath of ungrazed land. The T Bar contains inventoried roadless areas, wilderness areas, and 2.5 acres of unexclosed riparian areas within a Mexican spotted owl habitat. After receiving these Notices of Appeal, the Forest Service withdrew both decision memos. Rogers M. Steed, the Reserve District Ranger, has since said that the Forest Service will “revisit” the allotments this winter or next spring, and that he would complete his new decision on them in 2007.