Forest Guardians' Frontline Online #69
12/20/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Frontline Online #69
Source: Forest Guardians
http://www.fguardians.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 20, 1999
* SUIT TO CHALLENGE LIVESTOCK GRAZING IN FLYCATCHER HABITAT Notice of
Intent Claims Grazing Incompatible With Stream Recovery
* NEW MEXICANS FAVOR ROADLESS AREA PROTECTION Enviros Outnumber
Industry Reps at New Mexico Roadless Hearings
* BLM ISSUES DRAFT GRAZING MANAGEMENT PLANS FOR NEW MEXICO STREAMS
Your Letters Needed Today: Support the No-Grazing of Streams
Alternative
* COURT RULING: GRAZING PERMITS PRIVELEGES NOT RIGHTS Supreme Court
to Hear Case on Grazing Permits Next Summer
* COWBOY SOCIALISM: SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS PRODUCES GRAZING SERIES
Forest Guardians Efforts Profiled in Indepth Story on Public Lands
Ranching
SUIT TO CHALLENGE LIVESTOCK GRAZING IN FLYCATCHER HABITAT Notice of
Intent Claims Grazing Incompatible With Stream Recovery
Forest Guardians has filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for allowing continued livestock
grazing of Southwestern willow flycatcher habitat within 5 livestock
grazing allotments along the Rio Salado in central New Mexico. The
BLM has been allowing ranchers to continue to graze livestock along
the Salado, even after researchers found migrating flycatchers this
past summer. Much of the Rio Salado is within an area designated by
the BLM as the Ladrones 'area of critical environmental concern'
which requires the BLM to take special measures to ensure wildlife
are paramount in all management decisions. The notice, filed 11-10-
99, claims that no livestock grazing is compatible with the
protection and recovery of endangered fish and songbirds. Steve
Sugarman will represent Forest Guardians.
NEW MEXICANS FAVOR ROADLESS AREA PROTECTION Enviros Outnumber
Industry Reps at New Mexico Roadless Hearings
In small towns throughout New Mexico, a majority of people attending
hearings on President Clinton's roadless initiative spoke in favor of
the proposal and extending protection to include Alaska's roadless
areas. The most hostile hearing was in Espanola where pro-logging
forces usually dominate. This time it was evenly divided. Jeff
Regenold, who hunts in national forest wilderness areas, said he
supports roadless area protection. In a hearing in Pecos the
following night, pro-wilderness speakers outnumbered the opposition
two to one. Forest Guardians helped mobilize turnout for both
hearings. Written comments are due today. See www.fguardians.org for
details.
BLM ISSUES DRAFT GRAZING MANAGEMENT PLANS FOR NEW MEXICO STREAMS Your
Letters Needed Today: Support the No-Grazing of Streams Alternative
The BLM has issued four separate draft management plans that could
permanently eliminate commercial livestock grazing on approximately
400 miles of stream in New Mexico. The BLM plans and Draft
Environmental Impact Statements address future management of riparian
habitats within the Farmington, Taos, Albuquerque and Las Cruces
field offices. The plans each include three separate alternatives,
one of which calls for the removal of riparian areas from grazing
allotments. However, the preferred alternative would allow livestock
grazing to continue along most streams. Although streamside zones
represent less than one percent of the landscape which is vital for
dozens of imperiled species, clean water and recreational
opportunities, the BLM continues to allow a handful of ranchers to
graze their cattle along streams. The BLM produced the plans in
partial settlement of a 1997 Forest Guardians' lawsuit alleging it
had violated the Endangered Species Act and the Federal Land and
Policy Management Act. Comments will be accepted on each of the plans
until January 12, 2000. Urge each of the BLM field offices to adopt
the no-grazing alternative. Sample comments and addresses of each
field office are available on our web page at
http://www.fguardians.org/.
COURT RULING: GRAZING PERMITS PRIVILEGES NOT RIGHTS Supreme Court to
Hear Case on Grazing Permits Next Summer
Efforts by the livestock industry to assert private rights on public
lands suffered a major setback in 1999, but a forthcoming review of
lower court decisions by the Supreme Court looms in the future. Twice
this year the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals denied ranchers' claims
that the government must compensate them anytime it reduces livestock
numbers to protect water quality or endangered species. In February,
the Court denied rancher Kit Laney's claims that he had property
rights in his grazing permit on the Gila National Forest's Diamond
Bar allotment. More recently, in October the Court denied a lawsuit
filed on behalf of a dozen ranchers with grazing permits on the Gila
and Arizona's Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The ultimate
influence of each of these decisions hangs in the balance until the
Supreme Court decides next summer whether changes implemented by the
Clinton Administration violate rancher's rights or are within the
government's discretion. A copy of the most recent Tenth Circuit
decision is available at
http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/1999/10/98-2211.htm
COWBOY SOCIALISM: SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS PRODUCES GRAZING SERIES
Forest Guardians Efforts Profiled in Indepth Story on Public Lands
Ranching
A lengthy front page story in the San Jose Mercury News entitled
"Cowboy Socialism" reviews the ecological and economic costs of
public lands ranching highlighting both the political and mythical
power of the western ranching industry. The story claims that
ranchers, many of whom are wealthy hobby ranchers, continue to have
undue political influence at the expense of native wildlife, the land
and the federal treasury. The story, portions of which also appeared
in the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Deseret News and numerous other
western newspapers, mentions prominently Forest Guardians' efforts to
eliminate and reduce livestock grazing on public land. The story,
which can be viewed at Forest Guardians' website, was the culmination
of a year-long research effort.