The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has published an approved resource management plan for six allotments in the Sonoran Desert National Monument (SDNM) in Arizona.
The decision to open grazing comes after lawsuits by environmental groups resulted in several years of no grazing in the monument. The allotments are on approximately 255,000 acres of federal land north of Interstate 8; south of the interstate will continue to be closed to grazing.
“The approved plan amendment is a culmination of research, analysis and public input that has led to a decision that meets the multiple-use mission of the BLM and addresses the court remand,” said BLM Phoenix District Manager Leon Thomas in a statement. “The amended resource management plan allows for balanced resource management today and allows land managers the flexibility of decision-making based on conditions on the ground in the future.”
The decision amends the 2012 SDNM Approved Resource Management Plan/Record of Decision (RMP/ROD) to open previously unavailable allotments, making them “available for grazing with a level of use ranging from ephemeral use only to a maximum 4,232 perennially authorized animal unit months (AUMs) across all six allotments.”
According to the BLM, two of the six allotments currently have permits for livestock grazing.
The agency has not authorized grazing on the majority of the allotments due to the fact they “do not consistently produce enough forage to sustain a livestock operation, but may briefly produce unusual volumes of forage to accommodate livestock grazing,” according to the BLM.
The SDNM
The SDNM was established by then-President Bill Clinton in 2001 and comprises 496,400 acres. It is located 60 miles southeast of Phoenix, AZ, and is south of the town of Goodyear and east of Gila Bend. Interstate 8 divides the monument nearly in half with the Table Top Wilderness, Vekol Valley and Sand Tank Mountains to the south and the North and South Maricopa Mountains to the north of the interstate.
The proclamation signed by Clinton declared that livestock grazing should not occur south of the interstate, and areas north should be allowed to continue if the BLM determines “grazing is compatible with the paramount purpose of protecting the objects identified in this proclamation.” The BLM designated approximately 25,000 acres of land in the Maricopa Mountains area as critical habitat for the desert tortoise. The proclamation also states the area supports a large population of desert bighorn sheep in the mountains and other species, including mule deer, javelina, mountain lions, gray foxes, and bobcat throughout the monument. The monument also contains large saguaro cactus forests, a signature plant of the Sonoran Desert.
In 2005, the BLM requested The Nature Conservancy in Arizona to study literature relating to livestock grazing and its effects on the composition, structure, and function of plant communities, specifically the saguaro cactus. It also looked at its impact on cultural sites and wildlife. The Nature Conservancy found in their review of stocking rate and drought management considerations, “we conclude that continuous grazing in which livestock are maintained within fenced allotments yearlong is not a feasible grazing management strategy on Sonoran Desert public lands.”
The SDNM manager, Karen Kelleher, wrote to BLM’s state director in 2007 and said livestock grazing was not compatible because the standards and guidelines were not being met despite some improvement. Kelleher wrote the literature shows grazing’s long-term adverse effects to arid regions, particularly the Sonoran Desert. Kelleher did state “other grazing regimes, e.g., perennial vs. ephemeral grazing, could be used and thus an altered management regime could allow grazing to be compatible.”
After years of collaboration, the 2012 SDNM Approved RMP/ROD was released amid controversy. Several protest letters concerning the project’s scope stated the BLM’s research was insufficient and failed to explore all the alternatives.
In 2013, the Western Watershed Project and the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club sued in federal court, stating the BLM’s methods were flawed when determining livestock’s impact on the saguaro. The court found in 2015, “BLM failed to adequately explain some of its decisions that led to the determination to continue livestock grazing, and failed to address significant concerns raised in a peer reviewer’s comments,” according to a press release by the plaintiffs.
The court ordered the BLM to approve a new management plan by September 2020.
New plan
Much to the environmental groups’ chagrin, the new plan found no significant impact of livestock grazing on the area if certain measures were taken, such as allowing seasonal grazing and placing water for livestock in less sensitive areas. It also found there is little overlap in the habitat shared by the Sonoran Desert Tortoise and livestock, but authorizations will continue to be reviewed and modified to ensure adequate cover and forage for the tortoise.
“We’ve been fighting for more than a decade to force BLM to fulfill its legal duties to protect this special place, yet it continues to flout the law in its livestock grazing management with this new proposal,” said Laurie Rule, the attorney who represented Western Watersheds Project and the Sierra Club in the previous litigation.
“These are hundreds of thousands of acres and not many cows, so it’s not intensive grazing, it’s a management tool,” said Brian DeGanahl, spokesperson for Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association to AZ Central. “We are totally behind reinstating grazing on these national monuments. All these things can coexist and have support, including it being a designated monument and having grazing.” — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
