A trio of environmental groups is suing federal agencies for allowing livestock grazing in northern New Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Preserve.
WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project and Caldera Action allege a violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in their suit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
“The lawsuit follows years of inaction by the Forest Service to prevent livestock authorized to graze on adjacent Forest Service lands from illegally entering the preserve,” the groups said.
The Caldera National Preserve encompasses nearly 89,000 acres at the top of the Jemez Mountains in north-central New Mexico. The preserve contains habitat for the endangered Jemez Mountain salamander, New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and the threatened Mexican spotted owl, which the environmentalists said have been damaged by trespassing livestock.
The groups noted the preserve is managed by the National Park Service (NPS), which currently does not authorize cattle grazing in the preserve. Grazing is authorized along the preserve’s boundary on neighboring National Forest land on 12 grazing allotments.
The allotments are separated from the preserve by a barbed-wire fence, which the groups say are often down for extended periods of time and have new gaps appear after fence has been mended.
“Large numbers of cattle from the Allotments routinely cross the damaged fence and trespass on the Preserve, causing severe resource damage in areas still recovering from past overgrazing,” the lawsuit read.
The suit continued that each summer, hundreds of trespass cattle are reported to USFS and NPS and often remain on the preserve for days at a time, causing “extensive damage to natural resources.”
The groups met with the federal agencies several times last year to develop a solution to the trespass cattle and avoid litigation, but the suit said USFS has failed to prevent or substantively address the trespass cattle.
“The Forest Service authorizes livestock grazing even when they know it leads to trespass on the neighboring Preserve and is pushing threatened and endangered species to the brink of extinction in the Caldera,” said Andrew Rothman of WildEarth Guardians.
The groups filed a notice of intent to sue earlier this year in February, which USFS responded to with a letter.
“Cattle drifting onto the (Valles Caldera National Preserve) through illegal fence cuts or due to NPS fence maintenance decisions are neither authorized nor approved by the Forest Service,” the letter read. “Whether adjacent landowners choose to maintain their fences or act to enforce state and federal trespass laws is within the owners’ discretion.”
The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico to find the USFWS and USFS in violation of the ESA, vacate any existing annual operating instructions for the allotments, and enjoin USFS from authorizing grazing on the allotments until there is full ESA compliance. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
