Lords of Nature presented by WWP at the Idaho Outdoor Association

Tonight, March 8 · 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Location
Idaho Outdoor Association
3401 Brazil Street
Boise, ID

Wolves and cougars, once driven to the edge of existence, are finding their way back — from the Yellowstone plateau to the canyons of Zion, from the farm country of northern Minnesota to the rugged open range of the West. This is the story of a science now discovering top carnivores as revitalizing forces of nature, and of a society now learning tolerance for beasts they once banished. Narrated by Peter Coyote.

After the film Ken Cole and Brian Ertz of Western Watersheds Project will present their views of wolf management, the agencies that manage them, and the present political climate in which wolf management exists.

The event is FREE.

Visit the Idaho Outdoor Association website

To find out more information about the film visit: Lords of Nature

Visit the Western Watersheds Project website:

View on Google Maps

*NEWS: Conservationists Seek Emergency Injunction To Prevent Yellowstone Bison Slaughter

Conservationists Seek Emergency Injunction To

Prevent Slaughter of Yellowstone Bison

Harsh Winter Conditions May Lead to Repeat of 2008 Slaughter

Contacts:

Tom Woodbury, Western Watersheds Project: (406) 830-3099
Dan Brister, Buffalo Field Campaign: (406) 726-5555
Mike Mease, Buffalo Field Campaign: (406) 646-0071
Glenn Hockett, Gallatin Wildlife Association: (406) 581-6352

Bison in deep snow © Ken Cole

HELENA, MONTANA – A coalition of conservation groups, Native Americans, and Montanans filed an urgent motion for injunctive relief in federal court today to prevent a repeat of the 2008 slaughter of over 1400 wild bison captured on public wildlands near the border of Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

Many of the same factors that contributed to the mass slaughter in 2008, including heavy snowpack, bison population size, and the continuing agency intolerance for migrating bison, are in place this year as well.

With the Stephens Creek bison trap inside the Park already near capacity, and more bison migrating toward their natural winter range in Montana to forage at lower elevations, Park Service Spokesperson Al Nash indicated that the agencies may begin sending hundreds of bison off to slaughter whether they carry the disease brucellosis or not.  While it is concern over the possible transmission of brucellosis to cattle that is the justification offered for preventing bison from utilizing their winter range in Montana, at the present time there are no cattle present in the bison’s winter range corridor, and no risk of transmission.  And that, according to the Plaintiffs challenging the bison management plan in federal court, perfectly illustrates why the plan needs to be scrapped.

“One of the twin goals of the bison management plan is ‘to ensure the wild and free-ranging nature of American bison’,” said Tom Woodbury, Montana Director for Western Watersheds Project, “but ten years into the plan, there is still zero tolerance for bison being bison on our public wildlands.”

Western Watersheds court victory opens up ranchers names to public

No more hush, hush on who has grazing permits on your public lands-

Most people are amazed that the BLM won’t tell them who holds the almost free grazing permits they issue on the public land of the United States, but Western Watersheds and Wild Earth Guardians, represented by Advocates for the West have just won a court victory sweeping aside this contrived mystery.

Idaho federal district courts says BLM has to tell who holds grazing permits. By Rebecca Boone – Associated Press writer in the Magicvalley Times-News.

Final victory over Bush anti-public, anti-environment grazing regulations

It took a long time, but Western Watersheds and Advocates for the West seem to have a final victory

As a note, I am pleased to have been a plaintiff for the National Wildlife Federation in fighting this Bush era effort to exclude the public from having influence in grazing decisions, improperly grant property rights to livestock grazers, including water rights. Ralph Maughan
Below is the celebratory news release from WWP

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Online Messenger #184

Western Watersheds Project Victorious in Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals & Wins Another Federal Court Settlement Against the Forest Service on 386 Allotments in Seven Western States. ~ Jon Marvel Friends, Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Western Watersheds Project victory in Idaho District Court overturning the Bush Administration’s attempt to fundamentally change federal grazing regulations impacting hundreds of millions of acres of public lands in the West.  WWP was joined in this litigation by co-plaintiffs National Wildlife Federation, Idaho Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Idaho Conservation League, and famed Idaho conservationist and WWP Board member Dr. Ralph Maughan of Pocatello. The Bush Era Grazing Regulations would have : Removed public involvement from grazing decisions affecting public lands and wildlife. Granted ranchers private property-interest in public livestock grazing installations and developments including fences, water developments, and buildings on public lands. Granted ranchers water-rights on public lands currently held in trust by the American public. This significant victory at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is a welcome smack-down of Bush anti-environmentalism.  The win emboldens public participation and accountability, stymies the most recent livestock industry land and water grab, and maintains public ownership of the West’s vast water resources to benefit wildlife and future generations. Thanks to our attorneys Laird Lucas of Advocates for the West, Joe Feller of Arizona State University Law School and Johanna Wald of the Natural Resources Defense Council for their excellent legal representation. WWP would also like to acknowledge the decades-long legal work on the issue of public lands ranching by the late Tom Lustig of the National Wildlife Federation.  Before his untimely death in May 2008 Tom provided invaluable legal counsel on this critical litigation. Tom Lustig Read the Decision Western Western Watersheds Project Secures a Federal District Court Ordered Settlement with the Forest Service Halting the Agency’s End-Run Around the National Environmental Policy Act in Authorizing Livestock Grazing on 386 Grazing Allotments Across the West. WWP was joined in this litigation by Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity, California Trout, Environmental Protection Information Center, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Los Padres Forest Watch, Sierra Forest Legacy, Sequoia Forestkeeper, Grand Canyon Trust, Utah Environmental Congress, Red Rock Forests, and Oregon Natural Desert Association. This significant victory affects livestock grazing administration on National Forests in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and California and will ensure compliance with the nation’s most important environmental statute, NEPA. Read the Court Order Thanks to Laurie Rule of Advocates for the West’s Boise office for her stellar legal representation in this case. Jon Marvel Executive Director

Banner: Sawtooth National Forest, central Idaho © Lynne Stone Public Land Ranchers’ latest attempt to steal water from the public was averted © Christopher McBride Take this opportunity to spread the word. Like What Do? Let others know: Forward this message to a friend Receive this email as a forward from a friend ?

They’re baaaack!

Washington Cattlemen want to try an “experiment” on your wildlife management areas

It seems that bad ideas just never go away. Even after they’ve been spanked in court, the Washington Cattlemen still want to waste tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of taxpayer dollars on this ridiculous exercise which is damaging to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife owned and managed, wildlife management areas in Washington State. More welfare grazing disguised as an “experiment”.

Do you want to help WWP stop this again?

Cattlemen work to restart pilot project.
By DAN WHEAT – Capital Press

Judge Halts BLM’s Attempt to Revoke Valley Sun’s Grazing Permit for Lack of Use

BOISE — The Department of Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals has granted Western Watersheds Project (WWP) a stay of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to cancel Valley Sun, LLC’s (Valley Sun) grazing permit on public lands along the East Fork and main Salmon Rivers in central Idaho. BLM had attempted to cancel the permit for reasons related to Valley Sun’s failure to graze livestock on the allotments. In granting WWP’s request for a stay of the decision, the court cited the threat of irreparable harm to the environment, including endangered salmon habitat, on the steep public lands at issue should the allotments be subject to livestock grazing.

“The stay vindicates our position that public regulators have a primary legal obligation to protect the public interest, land, wildlife and fisheries habitat.” said Brian Ertz, media director for Western Watersheds Project. “In this case, BLM’s loyalties appear to lie with the industry it’s supposed to be regulating.”

Western Watersheds Project fights for fish, wildlife, and fiscal responsibility

Online Messenger #177

Western Watersheds Project wins in Oregon, Nevada, and Idaho and Continues our Push For Environmental & Fiscal Responsibility Throughout the West ~ Jon Marvel Friends, Western Watersheds Project, with the help of many of our allies in the conservation community, has been bringing much needed change to public lands and wildlife management throughout the west. Recently, WWP’s efforts have resulted in a favorable settlement on a Nevada allotment that served as center-stage of the controversial Calico free-roaming horse roundup, an extended closure of cattle grazing on key fish and wildlife habitat on the Payette National Forest in Idaho, and protections for hundreds of miles of fish habitat on the Malheur National Forest in Oregon. Also, WWP continues our push to insist that the federal government address the massive budget shortfall with its destructive public land grazing program in the west. Payette National Forest Closure of Cattle Allotment in Key Wildlife Area The Rapid River area near Riggins, Idaho provides some of the most important spawning waters in Idaho for chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout, all fish listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.  This area also has critical winter habitat for mule deer, elk and bighorn sheep, and is also home to the rare mountain quail.  With its scenic backdrop of the Seven Devils Mountains and plentiful wildlife, the Rapid River also provides outstanding recreation and hunting. A large cattle allotment of over 21,000 acres is located in the Payette and Nez Perce National Forests, the Fall Creek/Whitebird Allotment.  The Rapid River forms this allotment’s western boundary.  The Forest Service has documented ongoing degradation from livestock grazing, including to the springs and headwaters in this allotment, as well as problems with invasive weeds and unmaintained improvements.  Despite these documented problems, in 2009, the Payette National Forest New Meadows District Ranger approved continued livestock grazing, which WWP successfully appealed to Payette Forest Supervisor Suzanne Rainville. The Payette National Forest has agreed with the permittee to a voluntary closure to cattle grazing on the Fall Creek/Whitebird Allotment for resource protection for at least 7 years.  WWP is pleased that the Payette and the permittee reached this voluntary agreement, which will remove livestock from these outstanding public lands, and promote improved habitat for fish and wildlife. WWP and Partners Challenge Destructive Public Lands Grazing Subsidy Today, Western Watersheds Project and partners Center for Biological Diversity, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Oregon Natural Desert Association, and Wildearth Guardians sued the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to compel them to respond to a 2005 rulemaking petition that seeks to increase the fee for livestock grazing across 258 million acres of federal public land. Read the News Release Read the Complaint Read the Grazing Fee Petition WWP and Partners Win Protection for Steelhead trout on the Malheur National Forest Western Watersheds Project, along with our partners at the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) and the Center for Biological Diversity, have won litigation against the Malheur National Forest in Oregon in regard to livestock grazing on hundreds of miles of streams designated as critical habitat for Endangered Species Act listed ocean-run steelhead trout. WWP was well represented in this litigation by Dave Becker and Mac Lacy of ONDA with help from Kristin Ruether of Advocates for the West. Read the News Release Read the Decision Jon Marvel Executive Director

Banner: Black Rock Area in Soldier Meadows, Nevada © Katie Fite, WWP 2010 Big-head clover (Trifolium macrocephalum) © Katie Fite, WWP 2010 Click for more … WWP is now accepting donations via Paypal ! Photos: Thanks to Katie Fite and Don & Joyce Clarke ! WWP Wins Favorable Settlement of Soldier Meadows Allotment, NW Nevada The Soldier Meadows Allotment contains Bureau of Land Management public lands enjoyed by wildflower, wildlife, wilderness and free-roaming horse enthusiasts. Livestock use of this public land allotment is largely responsible for the controversial ‘Calico Roundup‘ of free-roaming horses. WWP is pleased to bring this victory to recreationists and non-consumptive users of all stripes, whose interests in these magnificent public lands are commonly diminished by public land ranching. WWP was ably represented by Advocates for The West‘s attorney, Todd Tucci. Read the Settlement Agreement You Can Help

“Experimental” Washington state grazing program put on hold

Have Western Watersheds/Advocates for the West killed this unfair, anti-wildlife program?

"Stalk-leaved Monkeyflower" Mimulus patulus ~ Asotin Wildlife Area © Dr. Don Johnson

I guess we don’t have many Eastern Washington readers because there were no comments on our earlier article (yesterday) on this, but today’s news in the Seattle Times is very encouraging. This graze-the-state-wildlife-areas-for-free-to-help-me-politically program of the governor’s, really made us furious.

Experimental Washington state grazing program put on hold. By Lynda V. Mapes. Seattle Times staff reporter. “A controversial cattle-grazing program on [Washington] state wildlife lands has been put on hold for the 2010 season after a sharp rebuke by a Superior Court judge.”
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Help support the important work that Western Watersheds Project does. No Washington conservation group seemed to be able to get themselves involved with this.

Marvel pays $250 ticket to BLM. Public grazing groups try to make it into a scandal

This has been very minor news, but the Idaho Cattle Association and Farm Bureau have been trying to pump it into a story-

They haven’t had much success, and today in the Idaho State Journal, columnist Michael H. O’Donnell slapped the livestock interests again. Best of all he relates it to the Johnson County War, which still reflects their basic attitude.

Gem State ‘Heaven’s Gate’. By Michael H. O’Donnell. Idaho State Journal.

Lawsuit Settled over grazing in Sonoran Desert National Monument

Joint news release by the BLM and Western Watersheds Project-

This is a victory for WWPs Arizona Office in Tucson.

NEWS RESEASE

(PHOENIX, AZ)—The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Western Watersheds Projects announced today settlement of a federal lawsuit involving the Sonoran Desert National Monument southwest of Phoenix, Arizona.

Western Watersheds Project filed suit in August of 2008 to challenge livestock grazing within the Monument.  “Our goal was to compel BLM to manage grazing in ways that protect the National Monument and its natural resources,” says Greta Anderson, the Arizona Director of Western Watersheds.

The BLM, a federal agency, is currently drafting a land use plan for the management of the National Monument, called a Resource Management Plan. The settlement stipulates that the Plan must be completed by December 15, 2011.  They will include a determination of whether or not livestock grazing is compatible with the protection of objects identified in the 2001 Presidential Proclamation that established the Monument.   “The Arizona BLM is dedicated to protecting the objects of the National Monument, and this settlement affords the staff a greater opportunity to focus on field work and achieve the deadline to complete the management plans,” says Jim Kenna, the BLM Arizona state director.

Western Watersheds sues to force decision on pygmy rabbits

Federal government is a year overdue deciding whether to protect the smallest rabbit-

Group sues to force decision on pygmy rabbits. By Nicholas K. Geranios. Associated Press Writer

Meet Western Watersheds Project in AZ on Feb. 18

Just a little help for one of my favorite organizations-
Western Watersheds Project has an event in Tucson, AZ on Thurs. Feb. 18.

Join WWP Executive Director, Jon Marvel, Arizona Director, Greta Anderson and Arizona Legal Counsel, Erik Ryberg, along with other WWP staff and members, for an evening in Tucson.  Learn about our work to save the Mexican wolf and Sonoran Desert Tortoise, to end destructive livestock grazing in Arizona’s hot deserts, and more!

The event starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18.  If you would like to attend, please contact Greta Anderson, greta@westernwatersheds.org, (520) 623-1878, for details and directions. Attendance is limited, so please contact Greta right away if you are interested.

Link to Arizona’s WWP office.

Editorial on Idaho Cattle Association plan to cradle ranchers on state lands

No on a constitutional amendment to protect ranchers from competitive bidding on state lands-

Lake Creek was the straw the broke the bovine's back - it prompted the organization of Idaho Watersheds Project (now Western Watersheds Project). Left: Condition of state land on Lake Creek, July 24, 1994 © Lynne Stone; Right: Condition of state land on Lake Creek July 18, 2007

Idaho was given over 2-million acres of federal land at statehood to be managed to provide maximum income for the public schools.. These school endowment lands do make money for the schools, but almost all of it comes from timber sales in northern Idaho.

The bulk of the stand land acreage, however, has been devoted to livestock grazing. In many years it returns nothing to the schools after administrative costs.  It is a nice thing for a few well placed ranchers — low grazing fees and no competition except when once in a while one outfit bids against another to graze the land when the 10-year lease expires.

Jon Marvel and the Idaho (now “Western”)  Watersheds Project changed this after a long battle to allow conservation and others to bid to use the land for 10 years.

Despite outbidding the ranchers only to have their winning bids overturned by the Land Board, the Land Board finally relented after losing lawsuit after lawsuit in state court. In 2007 they formally recognized the right of conservationists to bid and win some of these lands for a decade.  This not only protects and restores the usually overgrazed land;  it puts more money into the public schools. Conservationists are hardly going to snap up all the state lands. They have far too little money for that.

Nevertheless, the powerful Idaho Cattle Association, which nearly rules the Idaho legislature, wants an amendment to the state constitution to allow only ranchers to use these lands. This is at a time the public schools are reeling and Idaho school children even more disadvantaged than usual.

The Magic Valley Times-News editorializes on this latest effort on behalf of welfare ranching. Editorial: Land Board got it right: State lands open to all Idahoans.

Prepare for a disinformation battle. The livestock lobby will be talking about how a little competition will push ranch families off  “their” lands.

WWP, Advocates for the West post another victory regarding land baron grazing

Judge Winmill largely rules in favor of plaintiffs on the Nickel Creek case-

From Western Watersheds Project v. Department of Interior:

“For the reasons explained below, the Court will grant WWP’s motion in part, finding that the decision of the Interior Board of Land Appeals is arbitrary and capricious, and remanding the matter to the BLM to (1) include the Management Guidelines as mandatory Terms and Conditions, and (2) render a new decision on the Nickel Creek FFR allotment.”

Doubtful many here have heard of the Nickel Creek allotments in the Owyhee Country of SW Idaho, but this is cause for New Year’s cheers. WWP might have a news release by the end of the day. Here is the decision.  Winmill Nickel Creek decision 12-30-09

Victory for Western Watersheds Project on cutthoat trout

Western Watersheds Project wins appeal in Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest overturning a grazing decision for the Franklin Basin Allotment in northern Utah-

Over the years the popular Franklin Basin area of the Cache National Forest in Bear River Range just south of the Idaho border has been increasingly pummeled by cattle and sheep. One result has been a serious decline in the Bonneville cutthroat trout.
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Bonneville Cutthroat © Ken Cole

Dr. John Carter, Utah WWP Director writes:

Friends,

The Franklin Basin Allotment covers over 20,000 acres in the Bear River Range and on the Logan River, a critical Bonneville cutthroat trout fishery in northern Utah. The Bear River Range is the most critical wildlife corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the Uintas and southern Rockies.

The Bear River Range in Idaho and Utah is heavily grazed by livestock, has extremely high road density, and is overrun with dirt bikes and ATVs during the summer and snowmobiles during the winter. Cattle and sheep dominate the habitat, removing forage that would support thousands of deer or elk and many more sage grouse and other forms of wildlife.  Plant communities such as aspen, sagebrush and conifer are dysfunctional, having lost much of their native flora with undesirable species remaining.  Erosion is severe due to the loss of ground covering vegetation.

The Decision by the Forest Service continued unchanged the current stocking rate of 607 cattle from June until October each year and does little to restore the admittedly degraded conditions even though their own data shows the current stocking rate is 6 times what can be supported by the available forage. [boldface mine. RM] The Forest Fishery Biologist report recognizes that Bonneville cutthroat trout populations are declining and admits that the proposal will not improve their habitat.

The WWP Utah Office filed an appeal of this decision.   We were joined by our partners in the Utah Environmental Congress and Wild Utah Project.

The decision by the Uinta Wasatch Cache National Forest Supervisor remands the decision back to the Logan Ranger District to address improving the unsatisfactory conditions that they admit exists on the allotment.   We will continue to press the Forest Service to do an objective job.

Environmentalists, outfitters file suit to end grazing in Upper Missouri River Breaks

Western Watersheds new Montana office goes to work on another lawsuit-

Environmentalists, outfitters file suit to end grazing in Upper Missouri River Breaks. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press

Note that earlier they filed to let Yellowstone bison use national forests outside of Yellowstone. This lawsuit was assigned to Judge Molloy. The bison lawsuit went to another Montana federal judge.

Idaho to pay to settle lawsuit on who can bid for grazing leases

Lawsuit’s aftermath forces Idaho’s Land Board set rules allowing conservationists to lease state grazing lands-

The Western Watersheds Project was born when Jon Marvel outbid a rancher at a state grazing lease auction, and the Land Board gave the lease to the rancher anyway*. Finally, Idaho’s Land Board is apparently going to let other interests compete for grazing leases on the state’s school endowment lands. This is a victory for Idaho’s school children, wildlife. It is also a victory for the Idaho and U. S Constitution, that we are equal under the law . . .  a well deserved slap at Idaho’s livestock nobility.

Idaho to pay $50K to settle grazing lease lawsuit. By John Miller. Associated Press Writer.

I met the winner of lawsuit, Gordon Younger, one time. He is a self-made millionaire, orginally from Washington State. He speaks very directly and is not impressed by Idaho’s livestock nobility. Younger’s attorney was Laird Lucas, executive director of Advocates for the West.

This is great! 🙂

Update. Here are the opinions. The first was March 2007.It was a decision by US Magistrate Judge Mikal Williams, which upheld the validity of the equal protection claims under federal civil rights law.
The second is by US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed Judge Williams and held further that the individual state officials could be personally liable because their discrimination against conservationists violated clearly established law. The Ninth Circuit decision is reported as Lazy Y Ranch v. Behrens, 546 F.3d 580 (9th Cir. 2008). I couldn’t get an electronic copy of the published version, but have the slip opinion.
Lazy Y March 07 dismiss order
Lazy Y Ninth Circuit opinion

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*Actually Marvel didn’t strictly outbid the rancher. The rancher refused to bid at all. Nevertheless, he was given the grazing lease. Reading about this blatant unfairness, my spouse and I immediately joined Marvel’s  nascent Idaho Watersheds Project.

Western Watersheds puts up a bison page

A new resource page for the case Western Watersheds Project, et al. v. Salazar

I hope this new page will prove to be another site for good information on efforts to compell the Park Service and Forest Service to stop cooperating in the bison slaughter and eventually allow a significant number of bison to live on the open range outside Yellowstone Park in Montana.

See Yellowstone Bison. Western Watersheds Project.

Federal judge in Montana asked to end Yellowstone bison kills

Suit asks federal judge to stop Forest Service and Park Service from participating in Montana’s annual bison slaughter-

As winter comes, Montana Department of Livestock and 4 other agencies are again gearing up to kill bison that wander from the confines of Yellowstone Park under the discredited argument these will spread brucellosis.

This year they are being hit with a big fat lawsuit. Federal judge asked to end Yellowstone bison kills. AP. By Matthew Brown in the Billings Gazette. Please notice the excellent links attached to the story in the Billings Gazette.

The plaintiffs bringing the suit are Western Watersheds Project, Buffalo Field Campaign, Tatanka Oyate, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Native Ecosystems Council, Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation, Meghan Gill, Charles Irestone, And Daniel Brister.

More Media on suit.

Groups file lawsuit over Yellowstone-area bison. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole Daily.

Another Western Watersheds Project victory in Arizona

Western Watersheds Project Wins Summary Judgment on the 100,000 acre Byner Complex Allotments. BLM-

This no “family ranch” but a spin-off of Freeport-McMoRan mining.

Here is the WWP’s news release on the victory for the American people

♦Western Watersheds Project’s Arizona Office has been granted Summary Judgment byAdministrative Law Judge Harvey C. Sweitzer in a successful appeal of a grazing permit decision issued by the Kingman Field Office, Bureau of Land Management. ♦Judge Sweitzer agreed with WWP that the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act on the Big Sandy, Los Molinos, and Diamond Joe Allotments (collectively called the “Byner Complex”). ♦The successful Appeal and Motion for Summary Judgment were written by WWP’s Arizona Director Greta Anderson. The rancher on the allotments is not a ranching family at all but a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper Company, the Byner Cattle Company. Freeport-McMoRan is one of the world’s largest copper and gold mining companies http://www.fcx.com/ ♦The 98,736 acres of public lands in the Byner Complex encompass a range of vegetation communities, including Joshua trees and saguaros, and provide habitat for Southwestern willow flycatcher, bald eagle, yellow-billed cuckoo, Sonoran desert tortoise, and other native and imperiled wildlife. ♦The Big Sandy River passes through the Big Sandy allotment, and numerous seeps and springs and ephemeral washes occur on all of the allotments. ♦The Byner Complex of allotments has some serious rangeland health issues, and the proposed action sought to limit livestock impacts in some key areas by moving livestock to new unexploited areas through the development of new water sources. To do this, the BLM had proposed building five new wells, eleven new troughs, twelve new miles of pipeline and fifteen new miles of fence, which all could have extensive effects on the landscape and the riparian areas. ♦The BLM failed to analyze or even disclose the descriptions of the new water facilities. Administrative Law Judge Sweitzer found the BLM’s behavior to be in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.This legal decision remands the final grazing decision to the Kingman, Arizona field office of the BLM to redo its analysis before issuing a new grazing decision. ♦The new analysis will need to address the failures of the BLM to analyze many issues including the effects on native ecosystems of invasive species introduced by livestock, the inadequacies of setting rangeland health goals based on existing conditions, the failure to exclude grazing in sensitive riparian areas, the failure to consider effects to imperiled species, and the existing degraded condition of soils, cultural resources, and wildlife habitats. ♦WWP anticipates a more complete and detailed analysis of the Byner Complex allotments by the BLM the next time around !   — Read the Full Order – – – – – – – – – –

Joshua Tree photo: USFWSYou Can Help   Southwestern willow flycatcher photo: USFWS

Western Watersheds Project Is A West Regional Conservation Organization Working To Protect And Restore Western Watersheds And Wildlife. Consider joining Western Watersheds Project yourself or enrolling a friend with a gift membership. Joining is easy at WWP’s secure online membership pageBe sure to visit the WWP web site at http://www.westernwatersheds.org.

Environmental groups sue BLM to get names of the holders of public grazing leases

Can you even imagine that these things are kept secret?

Western Watersheds Project and Wild Earth Guardians are suing to make public that which should open and free to all.

Story on Fox12Idaho News. Environmental groups sue BLM for grazing info. Associated Press

Western Watersheds spreads bighorn campaign to Arizona

Rocky Barker notes this morning the Western Watersheds now is busy trying to prevent the transmission of disease from domestic to wild sheep in Arizona.

. . . some important additional information. WWP now has an office in Arizona. . . also an office in Montana (Missoula), and Wyoming, Utah and California. They have several offices in Idaho.

My view is if you want more wildlife of all kinds in your Western state, donate to the them. An office could come to your area too.

Scenic BLM roadless area next to Mt. Borah draws Western Watersheds lawsuit

Western Watersheds Project sues BLM to protect the Burnt Creek roadless area from livestock abuse-

Ever since I returned to Idaho in 1971, one place I wanted to see was Burnt Creek in the high colorful foothills on the east side of the Lost River Range. It has been selected as a wilderness study area by the BLM long ago, and assumed must be at least somewhat protected.

The truth was revealed in 2007 when I went with “kt” to see if the BLM was complying with removal of an illegal turnout of cattle in the area.

The steep, low mountains composed of Challis volcanics were very pretty, but the stinking mess made by the cattle was not. Thanks to indefatigable “kt” who seems to know all the hidden pockets where livestock operators try to stash their cattle, they were removed. However, the BLM just seems determined to screw up, ignore the law, and cater to the cowpersons on the grazing allotment. So, the Western Watersheds Project has gone to court.

Story: WWP files suit to protect sage grouse, bull trout, and wilderness values on the Burnt Creek Allotment, Central Idaho. Overview of the Burnt Creek Allotment

Sonoran Desert National Monument preservation effort moves forward

Sonoran Desert National Monument. Photo: BLM

Last Friday WWP won a reversal of a previous court decision that would have held that Presidents have the authority to designate – but not direct management of – national monuments.

Preservation and the President: A Positive Development in the Sonoran Desert – Ti Hays, PreservationNation

Last Friday, in a positive development, a federal district court in Arizona reversed a previous decision that held that President Clinton had exceeded his authority by including management directives in the proclamation for the Sonoran Desert National Monument.

The case began when an environmental group — the Western Watersheds Project — filed a lawsuit claiming that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had taken too long to prepare a resource management plan and grazing suitability analysis for the Sonoran Desert. President Clinton created the 486,149-acre monument in 2001 through a proclamation authorized by the Antiquities Act of 1906.

WWP sought to enforce very explicit conservation directives that then President Clinton had included in designating the Sonoran Desert National Monument.  The judge’s previous interpretation of law could have rendered many national monument designations largely impotent from a conservation perspective.  Fortunately, the judge thought twice and reversed that decision.

Commissioners work with feds to head off grazing lawsuits

Central Idaho threatened/endangered fish habitat is threatened by public land livestock grazing.  Federal managers drag their feet.  WWP threatens to file suit.

Chinook - photo: USFWS

Many folk don’t realize the impact to native fisheries habitat that livestock grazing can and does have.  The Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other land and wildlife management agencies work diligently to avoid acknowledging livestock’s impact to listed fish species such as Bull Trout, Chinook salmon, steelhead, and Sockeye salmon even when their own biologists and other scientists officially describe the deleterious effect.

It’s real – fish depend on stream-side vegetation for shade, filtering sediment, and as habitat for insects that fish eat.  Livestock grazing removes that vegetation and tramples stream-banks polluting spawning gravels and redds (fish nests) with sediment that suffocates fish eggs.  Grazing widens stream-channels increasing water temperature beyond tolerable levels and reduces the number of pool habitat fish need in streams.   A single livestock trampling event can wipe out entire redds (fish nests) killing thousands of protected fish eggs and baby fish.

Fish need water, water use to supply stock tanks on public land and diversions that irrigate  private pasture those cattle use on the off-season robs fish of the water-flow they need to survive and thrive.

I was recently interviewed by a local (Challis, Idaho) paper in response to Western Watersheds Project’s series of letters notifying government agencies of our intent to sue across central Idaho to ensure public land livestock management doesn’t unlawfully impact Bull Trout, Chinook salmon, steelhead, and Sockeye salmon.  The report was honest to the issue at hand – wildlife, a rarity for this state’s media – so I thought I’d post it :

Commissioners work with feds to head off grazing lawsuits. Todd Adams – Challis Messenger

It’s time to do something about the egregious mismanagement of these important and valued Idaho fisheries :

Saving Sage Grouse: SLT editorial

Leading Utah newspaper praises Western Watershed’s massive lawsuit-

Saving sage grouse. Judge is right to allow lawsuit. Tribune Editorial

Judge rejects splitting up suit over Western bird

BLM Resource Management Litigation hits “World News”

Update May 13:  The Salt Lake Tribune publishes an important Editorial on the recent news: Saving sage grouse :

A funny-looking bird that fluffs its feathers to dance an elaborate mating rite just might be able to accomplish what well-funded environmental groups have been struggling to do for decades: bring about regional protection of vast swaths of Western lands.[…]

[…]In protecting the sage grouse, we protect ourselves and the scenic wonders we treasure from the headlong rush to extract more fossil fuels, to pollute our air, and to mar our most fragile landscapes with excessive ATV traffic.

The Guardian is running Todd Dvorak’s piece on WWP’s recent successful argument in federal court to keep its West-wide comprehensive litigation in one courtroom :

Judge rejects splitting up suit over Western bird – Guardian vi AP

The New York Times ran a clip of the piece as well .

This ambitious case is a big deal and promises to be a headache for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose promise to clean up Interior is being tested by the suit in a manner that moves beyond photo-ops and talking-points.

Will Salazar do the right thing for Western public landscapes and wildlife for real ?

Bush BLM’s environmental legacy on trial; Will Salazar listen ?

Scope of litigation - map © Advocates for the West & Conservation Geography - click to view enlarged map

Judge B Lynne Winmill ruled in favor of Western Watersheds Project ordering that the group’s comprehensive challenge of over 16 Resource Management Plans, directing management of over 30 million acres, can be litigated in his single court.

Resource Management Plans (RMPs) guide management of livestock grazing, off road vehicles, energy development, and other potentially environmentally harmful administered uses of public land.

WWP argues that Bush BLM’s collective Resource Management Plans constitute a systemic effort to undermine fundamental environmental laws of the United States thereby threatening many imperiled species using the example of mismanagement and failure to consider impact to sage grouse – an imperiled landscape indicator species (‘canary in the coal-mine’ of sage-steppe habitat) across millions of acres.

Western Watersheds Project’s current legal docket

Aggressive conservation group’s current ambitious set of lawsuits-

“The litigation docket of Western Watersheds Project is large and varied.” WWP Blog.

WWP Blog feed is back up

Many of you might have noticed that the Western Watersheds Project feed was down for a couple months.

It is now fixed and located in about the middle of the right-hand column.

Major lawsuit by Western Watersheds Project over sage grouse

25-million acres of public land said operating under illegal BLM plans-

Conservationists decry ranching impact on sage grouse populations. By Scott Sonner. Associated Press Writer

Needless to say, this is no small piece of litigation.

Scope of litigation - map © Advocates for the West & Conservation Geography

Thanks to Advocates for the West for permission to use the map.

WWP win in Washington state underscores politicized wildlife management

Thurston County Superior Court has ruled in favor of Dr. Steve Herman and Western Watersheds Project deciding that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) violated the State Environmental Protection Act when issuing grazing permits on its state wildlife areas without undergoing environmental analysis.  The state and Washington Cattleman’s Association had claimed that such analysis was not required as the lands had been grazed in the past under a ‘verbal lease’ – a handshake, and that this arrangement exempted the parties from the need to undergo the analysis.

Court faults Fish and Wildlfie for granting Kittitas grazing lease – Yakima Herald-Republic :

Steve Herman, the Thurston County resident who filed the suit on behalf of the Western Watersheds Project, a regional conservation group based in Idaho, called last week’s ruling “a very clear-cut victory for those of us who would preserve some wildlife areas for wildlife.”

Whiskey Dick Wildflowers © Katie Fite, WWP (click to view slideshow)

The Whiskey Dick/Quilomene Wildlife Area was acquired by the people of Washington as critical wildlife habitat to preserve steelhead fisheries, big game, and other wildlife including the state-listed Greater Sage-grouse and other sage-steppe obligate species.

Sage Grouse Distribution in Washington State(click to enlarge)

The Wildlife Area is particularly critical for Greater Sage-grouse in Washington, whose populations have been significantly diminished given fragmented and degraded habitat, leaving the bird teetering on the brink of extinction in the state.

The Wildlife Area is located directly between the two remaining populations of sage grouse in Washington state, providing a critical link, a habitat corridor.  Grazing the area threatens this habitat, potentially exacerbating the isolation between the two remaining sage-grouse populations.

Cattle denude the Sonoran National Monument

ORVs were kicked out of monument; the real damage is grazing-

This is apparently, though a good place to find the bleached bones of cattle, a common visual theme of cartoons of people lost in the desert.

Inane official, public actions scar Sonoran monument. By Linda Valdez. The Arizona Republic

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Update. Link to WWP Arizona Office. Great photo of cattle in Sonoran Desert National Monument 😦

Bush admin screws bighorn sheep

Mark Rey orders APHIS testing of bighorn sheep reintroductions-

This is a slap at Western Watersheds Project for shutting down disease spreading domestic sheep operations in bighorn territory of Idaho.

It is also another attempt to try to subordinate Forest Service authority over wildlife to APHIS, the livestock friendly agency that should concentrate on foreign pests, not native wildlife.

Fortunately Mark Rey, another Bush Administration plunderer, will soon be gone. He is trying to create a controversy like the bison/brucellosis controversy where bighorn sheep become the problem instead of livestock.

Bighorn sheep don’t bring diseases. Domestic sheep bring diseases.

Link to story from Wilderness Sportsman. Bush admin screws bighorn sheep

Western Watersheds Project beats plan to increase grazing in Arizona’s Whetstone Mtns.

Water developments for cows are beaten back-

Water developments on public lands may sound good, but the reality is they are almost always intended to increase grazing of livestock.

These encasements, troughs, tanks, and pipelines do not benefit wildlife. Instead they often turn a spring, or an area of small springs or seeps, full of wildlife, into manure-mud, disgusting ponds that are surrounded solely by cattle.

Story in the Western Watersheds Blog. Win for the Whetstones.
Map of the Whetstone Mountains

Western Watersheds petitions for ESA protection of the Sonoran desert tortoise

Since 1987 population has declined by 51%-Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians petition for ESA status and the designation of critical habitat

 News story in the Arizona Daily Star. Endangered status sought for Sonoran Desert tortoise. By Tony Davis

Here is the news release from the petitioners-

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Federal Protection Sought for Rapidly Declining Sonoran Desert Tortoises

Take that, oh ye enemy of turtles! (Click)

Arizona, 10/09/08: Today, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians filed a petition requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) list the Sonoran desert tortoise population under the Endangered Species Act and designate critical habitat to protect the animal.

The Sonoran desert tortoise population has declined by 51% since 1987.

Severe population declines were documented in a recently completed report. The study found that monitored desert tortoise populations are declining by about 3.5% per year throughout southwestern Arizona. Although to the untrained eye they may look similar, Sonoran desert tortoises show marked genetic and behavioral differences from tortoises found in the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert population was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990.

Western Watersheds opens major Montana office

The Western Watersheds Project has opened its Montana office.

About 50 enthusiastic folks attended the word of mouth opening last night in Missoula.

Montana operations will be run by attorneys Tom Woodbury and Summer Nelson. Woodbury has a number years’ experience in Montana and Idaho conservation battles and Nelson is a new graduate at the top of her class at the University of Montana law school.

The WWP Board was represented by executive director Jon Marvel and myself.

Those attending came as far as Helena with tales of livestock operator abuse of land and water and lack of action by old line Montana conservation organizations. Enthusiastic welcomers expressed strong sentiment that Montana’s federal and state agencies need a wake-up call (or kick).

Things are not going to proceed as usual at neglected BLM and Forest Service offices in the states.

This a major office for WWP, larger than any but the Idaho office. WWP also has offices in Western Idaho, Central Idaho, Hailey, Idaho (main office), Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and California.

Opening of Western Watersheds Montana Office

In front of the new Montana WWP office.

From left: Tom Woodbury (Montana Director), Dr. Ralph Maughan (WWP Board), Summer Nelson (Montana Legal Counsel), Jon Marvel (ED WWP)

Big Western Watersheds Project victory on Slickspot Peppergrass

There have been a lot of posts here on the failure to protect and add the beautiful range plant, slickspot peppergrass to the endangered species list.

Once again, the federal courts have told the Administration to get off its butt. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was ordered by Idaho federal judicial district to reconsider its decision not to list slickspot peppergrass as an endangered species.

Judge: Feds must reconsider protecting Idaho plant. By Rebecca Boone. Associated Press Writer.

Legal counsel for WWP was Advocates for the West, Todd Tucci, senior staff attorney.

Judge’s-opinion-slickspot-decision

Judge Winmill holds feds to sage grouse deal

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has wanted to back out of a court mediated deal to conduct and complete a “status review” on the sage grouse by May 2009. A status review looks at the the scientific literature to see if adding a species to the endangered or threatened species list is warranted.

Earlier the USFWS had denied listing the rapidly declining bird, but that was during the Julie MacDonald period at the Department of Interior. Western Watersheds Project, represented by Advocates for the West sued and Idaho federal judge Winmill overturned their denial due to MacDonald’s political meddling on behalf of her industry friends.

USFWS has wanted to make a decision before Dec. 2008 because then it would be under control of the Bush Administration.

A status review is supposed to use the best scientific information available in making a decision, and a major scientific report on the sage grouse is due to come out in late 2008. Cynics would say they would like to make a decison before then not just because Bush will still be in office, but they won’t have to consider these new findings.

Story in the Casper Star Tribune. Judge holds feds to grouse deal. By Todd Dvorak. Associated Press writer

Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Challenging Illegal Sheep Grazing in Yellowstone Ecosystem

For years the U.S. Sheep Experimental Station, headquartered at Dubois, Idaho (not Dubois, Wyoming) has been grazing sheep in the top of the Centennial Mountains and elsewhere in the general area, and with no environmental analysis.

After yet another successful lawsuit by Western Watersheds and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Advocates for the West, they have agreed to do their first environmental analysis.

I recently found out they winter the sheep at the base of Lemhi Mountains in high semi-arid country. I had wondered since 1972, when I first went there, why this country looked so beaten out come spring.

Ralph Maughan
_____________________

For Immediate Release, February 20, 2008

Contact:

Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 534-0360
Jon Marvel, Western Watersheds Project, (208) 788-2290
Todd Tucci, Advocates for the West, (208) 342-7024

Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Challenging Illegal Sheep Grazing in Yellowstone Ecosystem: U.S. Sheep Experiment Station Agrees to Conduct Environmental Analysis

Boise, Idaho – The Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project have reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in eastern Idaho to resolve a lawsuit filed last summer. The settlement requires the U.S. Sheep Station to analyze the environmental effects of the sheep grazing under the National Environmental Policy Act and to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the impacts of the sheep grazing on threatened and endangered species. The Sheep Station is part of the Agricultural Research Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The presence of these thousands of domestic sheep, and management actions taken on their behalf, harms sensitive and endangered native wildlife such as Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, lynx, gray wolves, and grizzly bears – and yet these impacts have never been examined on the thousands of acres that are directly managed by the U.S. Sheep Station in southeastern Idaho and southwestern Montana. Analysis of impacts on the even larger tracts of national forest and Bureau of Land Management public lands is decades out of date and was cursory.

Bighorn advocates butt heads

This is a long summary of where the bighorn sheep controversy in Idaho stands and who is saying what. I think it’s a useful article for bringing folks up to date.

Bighorn advocates butt heads. By Lynea Newcomer and Kathleen Turner. The Wood River Journal

Idaho Fish and Game slaps at Jon Marvel. Is their account credible?

This has been in the news the last two days. I didn’t put the story up early because I knew Brian Ertz was right there when this alleged incident took place, and had all the details. He told me about it the day after the wolf meeting. At the time, I thought “end of story” — a F & G commissioner ignores public comment and doesn’t like to be questioned.

What a surprise when 6 weeks later, Jon Marvel, who did insist on some answers from the commissioner, was accused of some sort of assault or improper touching of the commissioner!

My speculation is that IF & G’s action had nothing to do with the wolf hearing in Hailey, and everything to do with Western Watershed Projects legal efforts, media efforts, and administrative efforts to derail the attack of the woolgrowers on Idaho’s bighorn sheep herds. Idaho Fish and Game was recently accused by one prominent woolgrower of being in bed with WWP. I have a copy of his letter.

What better way for a politically weak department to protect itself from the powerful livestock operators who have the support of a very friendly governor than slap at a person who symbolizes the conservation effort to bring the woolgrowers to respect the existence of bighorn sheep in Idaho?

In terms of state livestock politics, the bighorn issue is as lot bigger than wolves, which are mostly just a way for expressing their resentment that they lost (temporarily) on the symbolic issue.

At the WWP blog, Brian gives the details. Wolf meeting altercation.

New. Feb. 2, 2008. Marvel Strikes back. By David Cooper. Magic Valley Times News. 

Notice: this post is open to comment, but no personal name calling, not of Marvel, Ertz, Commissioner Wayne Wright, Virgil Moore, etc.

Judge Winmill: Government must reconsider giving the sage grouse protection under the ESA

Talk about a blockbuster decision!

Once again Julie MacDonald’s corrupt procedures at Interior have rebounded. The lawsuit was filed by Western Watersheds Project, and was represented by the conservation law firm, Advocates for the West.

Story by Rocky Barker in the Idaho Statesman. Judge: Government must reconsider sage grouse

I see where this is the big, or a big story, in most of the western newspapers on Dec. 5.

I wonder if the Bush Administration will ever figure out there are consequences to not obeying the law?

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Update. Statement from the Western Watersheds Project

Western Watersheds Project Wins Court Order Overturning Bush Administration Decision Not To List Greater Sage Grouse !

Tuesday December 4, 2007

Latest issue of the newsletter of the Western Watersheds Project

It’s called the “Watersheds Messenger.” I think most people will find it an interesting and valuable read.

Nov. 2007 issue.

The Western Watersheds Project has been out there, and in court, winning more battles.

From the the WWP blog. Good News.

There are victories on the pygmy rabbit, the desert tortoise, Nickel Creek and video of the recent tour of the Pass Creek grazing allotment in the Lost River Range which I went on.

Judge Orders Pygmy Rabbit Endangered Species Consideration

This is pretty amazing because federal judge Edward Lodge of Idaho rarely rules in favor of conservation groups. Once again this shows how compromised the Bush/Kempthorne USFWS is.

News Release

For more information

Katie Fite, Western Watersheds Project, (208) 871-5738
Todd Tucci, Advocates for the West, (208) 342-7024
Duane Short, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, (307) 742-7978 or (270) 366-3415
Josh Pollock, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Bill Marlett, Oregon Natural Desert Association, (541) 330-2638
Mark Salvo, Sagebrush Sea Campaign, (503) 757-4221

BOISE, ID – Wednesday September 26 Federal District Judge Edward Lodge of the District of Idaho struck down a decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the agency lacked sufficient scientific information to warrant Endangered Species Act listing consideration. The judge ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider this small sagebrush mammal for listing and to issue a new 90-day finding.

“Under this decision, the FWS can no longer ignore the plummeting pygmy rabbit populations”, said Todd Tucci, attorney with Advocates for the West. “The Service must put politics aside, and let science dictate the outcome of its review.”

The pygmy rabbit weighs about a pound and a half and can fit in the palm of a hand. This unique rabbit climbs high into the branches of sagebrush to browse on the leaves, making it the only arboreal rabbit in North America. Pygmy rabbits require areas of tall, old sagebrush, typically found in valley bottoms.

“The BLM in 2007 is still relentlessly mowing, chopping, burning and herbiciding pygmy rabbit habitats, said Katie Fite of Western Watersheds Project. “Remnant thick and old growth sagebrush is being destroyed in BLM and Forest Service projects dubbed ‘hazardous fuels reduction’ or wildlife habitat projects. In reality, these are the same as the old livestock forage projects that have already obliterated so much of the Sagebrush Sea.”

“Sagebrush dependent wildlife, from pygmy rabbits to sage grouse, are under siege from the dual forces of livestock grazing and cheatgrass-driven fires, turning thousands of acres of the West into a barren moonscape,” said Bill Marlett, Executive Director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association.