WWPBlog

Today, the Office of Hearings and Appeals ruled in Western Watersheds Project’s favor over grazing at the Yankee Jim Area of Critical Environmental Concern for the second time in 2 months. Judge Sweitzer ruled that a BLM Alturas Field Office May 14, 2008 grazing agreement be set aside for failing to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

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.

For more information about WWP’s California program and a copy of the Order, please see our California webpage, here <http://www.westernwatersheds.org/wwpinfo/califO.shtml>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 2008
CONTACT:
Brent Fenty 541-330-2638
Jon Marvel 208-788-2290

Ninth Circuit orders Bureau of Land Management to evaluate wilderness values on public lands

PORTLAND, ORE. — The Bureau of Land Management must rewrite its land use plan for southeast Oregon due to a landmark decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. The BLM wrongly refused to evaluate impacts to wilderness values on the public lands in the challenged plan, according to the decision, which overturned a district court decision upholding the plan.
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BLM gets it right on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument:

BLM: Grazing doesn’t fit Ore. National Monument - Jeff Barnard - AP

The move makes for happy wildlife and for conservation activists including, those good kind folk over at Demarcated Landscapes, Happy with BLM, again !

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife begins its process of environmental review of a decision to graze livestock on state lands acquired to benefit wildlife:

Kittitas grazing on the agenda - Scott Sandsberry - Yakima Herald-Republic

The state resisted its legal obligation to undergo environmental analysis of the impact to wildlife and habitat of its decision to graze until Western Watersheds Project intervened.  Now, the state agrees to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement but is apt to employ fuzzy math in its determination as to appropriate use.

Steve Herman, WWP advisory board member, as quoted in the article:

“I’m concerned about the areas that are hammered. It’s absolutely inappropriate to average these things,” he said. “It’s like removing a limb from a person and then measuring the other three limbs and dividing by four and finding that there are still four limbs — they’re all just a little shorter.

“This is not science. This is sleight of hand.”

A federal judge has enjoined plans to graze and produce cattle feed on lands that recieve money from a federal program used to set aside those lands for their value to conservation.

Judge halts USDA’s cattle-grazing plans on Conservation Reserve Program lands -  Lynda Mapes - Seattle Times

The injunction holds until the judge issues a decision as to whether the program must undergo proper environmental analysis of its impact to wildlife and habitat.