Pictured here, a present day and 1920 view of the landscape near the Coronado National Forest.
Environmentalists are challenging the authorization of livestock grazing in Arizona’s National Coronado Forest, claiming grazing is affecting the habitat and recovery of threatened species.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society allege the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are protecting cattle grazing “at the expense of endangered species and native wildlife dependent on fragile streams.”
The groups claim extensive damage has been documented from cattle grazing in the national forest’s streamside habitats, damaging habitat for the yellow-billed cuckoo and the Sonora chub.
“It’s wrong that the Forest Service favors cows over the health of our desert streams and endangered songbirds, who will edge closer to extinction without these critical habitats,” contended Charles Babbitt, Maricopa Audubon president. “We know cattle grazing amplifies the harms of climate change and drought, and it’s the one piece we can control.”
The Coronado National Forest covers 1,780,000 acres in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. According to USFS, cattle have existed in the area as early as the mid-1600s and livestock grazing was a boon to the Southwest in the late 1800s. In the current day, more than 35,000 head of cattle are permitted on nearly 200 allotments.
Lawsuit details
The lawsuit specifically challenges USFWS’ September 2021 biological opinion in authorizing livestock grazing on allotments in the forest. The environmental groups claim the agencies are violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by not ensuring their actions will not jeopardize the existence of threatened or endangered species or modify their critical habitats.
The Center for Biological Diversity claims that in 2020 and 2021, the group’s self-conducted surveys of designated riparian critical habitat in the forest found nearly three-quarters of the 114 miles had “significant or moderate harm” from cattle grazing.
“Although livestock grazing is adversely affecting these imperiled species and their habitat (including designated critical habitat) in various ways, USFS’s grazing authorizations relying upon FWS’s BiOp allow the permittees to continue business as usual in the Forest to the severe detriment of the federally protected cuckoo and chub,” the lawsuit read.
The group said more than 400 species of birds are found in the forest, and other threatened and endangered species in the area include northern Mexican garter snakes, Chiricahua leopard frogs, Sonoran tiger salamanders, Gila topminnow and Sonora chub.
In its biological opinion, USFWS found that livestock grazing would not destroy or adversely modify critical habitat for either species.
However, the lawsuit alleges, “The agencies relied heavily on the permittees’ compliance with forage utilization rates set by the agencies, which lack a causal connection to the authorized level of take, are unconnected from the needs of the cuckoo and chub, and defy the best available scientific evidence on what is necessary to protect these species and their habitat (including designated critical habitat).”
The lawsuit contends that USFS and USFWS are in violation of the ESA and have acted in a manner that is arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion. The groups ask in the suit for livestock grazing to be immediately enjoined, grazing authorizations to be vacated and remanded, and for the agencies to reengage in consultation under the ESA.
The group concluded, “In the desert Southwest, livestock grazing harms threatened and endangered wildlife and is the primary driver of riparian ecosystem degradation. Removal of livestock from riparian areas is a critical component of adaptation to climate change.” — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
