Environmental groups are after livestock grazing yet again, this time putting blame on cattle in Arizona’s Agua Fria National Monument.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on March 12, alleging habitat destruction for two species because of cattle grazing.
“This lawsuit seeks to jolt federal agencies into finally taking action to stop illegal livestock grazing from trashing endangered species habitat in Agua Fria National Monument,” said Chris Bugbee of the Center for Biological Diversity. “For four years these agencies have done almost nothing to keep cows out of these protected areas.”
The groups claim the endangered Gila chub and threatened western yellow-billed cuckoo’s habitats are at risk from “illegal livestock damage.”
The Center for Biological Diversity said they have conducted their own field surveys dating back to 2021, documenting livestock damage.
“In the monument, and across the desert Southwest, livestock grazing harms threatened and endangered wildlife and is the primary driver of riparian ecosystem degradation and species imperilment,” the group claimed. “Removing livestock from riparian areas is critical to curbing the extinction crisis in the Southwest.”
The environmentalists sued the BLM in 2022 for the same reason, and the BLM said it initiated new consultations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Center said its surveys contradict the agency’s claims and show continued unauthorized grazing. The group claims livestock grazing damage spans across five different grazing allotments and has affected streams, streambeds and banks, and vegetation along the Agua Fria River, Ash Creek, Little Ash Creek, Sycamore Creek, Silver Creek and Indian Creek.
The Center for Biological Diversity contends they have surveyed 70% of designated critical habitat for the yellow-billed cuckoo in Arizona and New Mexico and found damage in 80% of their surveyed areas.
The surveys have led to litigation and agreements that resulted in federal agencies monitoring and removing livestock from riparian critical habitat. The Center said agency compliance has been mixed.
A Feb. 1 hearing was held in New Mexico regarding feral cattle on public lands in the state. The hearing followed a 2023 lawsuit brought by the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association against the U.S. Forest Service.
“Here, these livestock aren’t being managed at all,” an attorney for the government said at the hearing. “There is no one there to control them to keep them out of the riparian areas and cause that damage.”
The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society concluded their lawsuit by asking the court to find BLM and USFWS in violation of the ESA by failing to complete consultation on the five grazing allotments in the national monument. They requested the court to order the agencies to reinitiate and complete consultation and to take action to prevent any further adverse impacts to the species and their habitats. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
