Groups challenge expanded grazing plan across the West
Monique Merrill
PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — A conservation group is challenging the Trump administration’s new expanded grazing plan, accusing it of violating the Endangered Species Act and threatening critical habitat for imperiled wildlife.
The Center for Biological Diversity claims the new grazing plan, which will open up to 25 million acres of federal land to cattle grazing, was approved without proper consideration of the environmental impact.
“The Trump administration is again putting America’s wildlife and public lands at risk by catering to the livestock industry, so we’re suing to make sure our nation’s most vulnerable wildlife don’t pay the price,” Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation legal director at the Center, said in a statement. “Grazing on our country’s public lands harms vulnerable animals.”
The Bureau of Land Management, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Forest Service issued a memorandum of understanding at the end of March to implement the grazing action plan.
The agencies stated the plan is intended to “bring federal land grazing to the forefront and address the critical needs of grazing permittees.” The conservation group, however, argues the plan will harm federally protected species like grizzly bears, wolves, sage grouse and spotted owls.
The conservation group also claims the agencies were required to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to make sure the plants and animals were safeguarded but failed to do so.
“The federal grazing program is already a disaster for endangered species and the places they live,” Zaccardi said. “Expanding grazing across 24 million more acres will make that devastation even worse and likely drive more animals and plants to extinction.”
The group asserts that predators like grizzlies and wolves are often killed over conflicts with livestock and associated human interactions. Expanding livestock grazing could also displace wildlife like elk and deer, which may in turn increase the predator’s predation on livestock.
The illegal killing of grizzlies and wolves from livestock conflicts is referred to as “shoot, shovel and shut up,” according to the conservation group.
“More often than not, the Department of Justice declines to prosecute grizzly bear and wolf poachers,” the group writes in its complaint.
The plan will also damage public lands and streams that provide habitat to birds and fish, as cattle will trample banks and streambeds, the conservation group asserts.
“Moreover, numerous listed species, including birds, frogs and fish, rely heavily upon healthy riparian habitat, which livestock grazing degrades and impairs, for their survival,” the plaintiff writes.
The group claims a Bureau of Land Management map shows the plan would expand grazing into areas the Fish and Wildlife Service has designated as critical habitat.
Center for Biological Diversity surveys of critical habitat in public lands show cattle grazing is already degrading habitat for the western yellow-billed cuckoo in Arizona and New Mexico. In addition, livestock grazing can damage water quality and harm air quality by releasing methane and ammonia, the group claims.
The group also argues that by neglecting to consult with other agencies, the administration has “irretrievably committed resources and foreclosed the formulation or implementation of any reasonable and prudent alternative measures,” which is a violation of the Endangered Species Act.
The group is asking the court to vacate the grazing action plan and force the agencies to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service. The lawsuit was filed in Oregon federal court on Thursday.
The Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture declined to comment on pending litigation. The remaining defendants did not respond to a request before press time.