WWPBlog

On Friday June 20, a federal judge allowed the Alturas, California office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw a recent decision to authorize a ten-year grazing permit on the Yankee Jim allotment after that decision was appealed by Western Watersheds Project. The BLM’s Alturas Field Office had attempted to renew the grazing permit for Yankee Jim based on a claim that it was categorically exempt from environmental analysis but quickly backed down in the face of judicial review.

The Yankee Jim Ranch is a small allotment consisting of only 1,500 acres but the entire site was designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) in April 2008, a fact that BLM had ignored when it issued its decision in May. The Yankee Jim ACEC was designated due to the presence of numerous important archeological sites, including over 90 pre-historic sites in the meadow and upland areas, and important historical connections. According to the BLM’s own reports, cattle have been trampling, trailing and dispersing artifacts, pawing and digging, and even wallowing on the archeological sites and these disturbances have escalated in recent years. Despite this, the BLM had proposed to permit livestock grazing on the allotment without even the most basic environmental analysis.

The allotment is also important wildlife habitat for sage grouse, sandhill cranes, waterfowl, and one of the largest pronghorn herds in California. It includes unique riparian habitats including the only “fen” found in the BLM’s Alturas Resource Area.

“The BLM was required by law analyze the impacts of livestock grazing and to develop mitigation measures. The Yankee Jim ACEC is a national register-eligible treasure with irreplaceable cultural remains that are being irretrievably damaged by livestock,” said Michael J. Connor, California Director for Western Watersheds Project. “The BLM should have considered alternatives to the destruction of this culturally and ecologically important site, including ending grazing completely on this tiny 1,500 acre-allotment.”

We have now appealed the annual grazing authorization that BLM has been using to authorize grazing on a yearly basis since the last permit expired in 2005. The annual grazing authorization is based on no environmental documentation at all. We’ll be watching to see what the BLM tries to sneak through next. It just isn’t acceptable to green-light grazing projects in such special places.

For more information about WWP’s California program, please see our California webpage, here.

Western Watersheds Project co-sponsored a poll released Monday, June 16, in which it was revealed that voters in Arizona and New Mexico overwhelmingly support the recovery of the Mexican gray wolf in the southwest.

You can see the poll results for Arizona and New Mexico on Research and Polling’s website, but in summary:

• In Arizona, 77 percent of voters support wolf recovery;
• In New Mexico, 69 percent of voters support wolf recovery

More generally,

• The majority of respondents Support stronger protections under the Endangered Species Act;
• Understand the wolf to be a benefit to the West; and
• Believe that the US Fish and Wildlife Service should manage wolves to ensure against extinction.

WWP hopes that this broad support helps the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service come back on board with recovering this important species, instead of watching the numbers decline precipitously towards the second extinction. See our webpage for more information.

WWP Online Messenger #139

Federal Magistrate Judge Mikel Williams Grants Western Watersheds Project’s Motion For Summary Judgment And Overturns the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Decision Not To Protect Slickspot Peppergrass Under the Endangered Species Act.

May 6, 2008

Contacts:
Todd Tucci :208-724-2142
Katie Fite: 208-429-1679

Western Watersheds Project has won another round of federal court litigation over protection of the Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum).

Slickspot peppergrass is a rare annual or biennial Idaho endemic flower that grows in the sagebrush country of the Snake River Plain and portions of Owyhee County in the Jarbidge region.
Direct threats to slickspot peppergrass are cheatgrass invasion and fire. Cattle trampling and other disturbance to the fragile smooth desert “slickspot” soils in the sagebrush areas where this plant grows promote cheatgrass and weed invasion. For a complete photo essay on Slickspot peppergrass please visit WWP’s Slickspot peppergrass web page:

Slickspot Peppergrass and Cows

Read the rest of this entry »

George Wuerthner takes a look at the recently passed Farm Bill and takes a swing at big Ag’s self-aggrandizement and the disproportionate political representation enjoyed by those few landed elite:

Big Ag’s Deceptive Accounting Practices
Farm Economics
Counterpunch