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

Santa Fe, NM – WildEarth Guardians filed suit today asserting that the Forest Service is violating the Endangered Species Act by permitting livestock grazing on 14 allotments on more than 275,000 acres in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service is allowing grazing to continue on these allotments despite the fact that doing so will degrade critical habitat, and prevent the survival and recovery of, the federally threatened loach minnow and spikedace.

According to the lawsuit, the Fish and Wildlife Service incorrectly determined in a 1-31-03 Biological Opinion that continued grazing on the allotments would not adversely modify critical habitat or jeopardize the continued existence of the loach minnow and spikedace, two fish native to the Gila River Basin. The Fish and Wildlife Service made its no-jeopardy determination notwithstanding its finding that continued grazing will delay or prevent the recovery of these critically threatened species.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is condemning these imperiled fish to extinction by failing to remove cows from habitat that is critical to their survival,” said Laurele Fulkerson, Grazing Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “The Blue and San Francisco rivers make up the largest unbroken stretch of this habitat, yet the Fish and Wildlife Service is permitting the continuation of an activity that it admits will prevent recovery of the fish?livestock grazing. In doing so, the agency is flagrantly violating the law.”

The loach minnow and spikedace originally existed throughout the Gila, San Francisco, and Blue River systems of southern New Mexico and Arizona. Both species currently occupy only a small portion of their former habitat. [see maps below] The loach minnow has been eradicated from 80-85% of its historical range, and the spikedace has been eliminated from 85-90% of its historical habitat. Both the spikedace and loach minnow are listed as threatened under the ESA and the Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized since 1994 that their declining populations warrant listing as endangered.

According to the Forest Service’s own data, nearly 75% of grazing allotments in the Southwest, covering more than 15 million acres of land, are currently violating one or more of the grazing standards. Moreover, WildEarth Guardians and the other environmental groups have gathered information from the Forest Service showing that streamside ecosystems and fragile grassland areas are being severely overgrazed.

Robert Wiygul, a Mississippi-based environmental attorney, is representing WildEarth Guardians in this lawsuit.

Go here for a copy of the complaint.