WWP files lawsuit against Arizona BLM over desert grazing
Today, WWP’s Arizona office and our attorney at Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against ongoing grazing on the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The monument was designated to protect unique vegetation, desert wildlife, gorgeous scenery, and irreplaceable historic and cultural resources- all resources harmed by grazing. The Proclamation closed about half the allotments on the monument to grazing already, and it also stated that grazing should only continue on the other half if it can be determined to be compatible with protecting the monument objects.
The BLM didn’t need WWP to tell them that grazing is bad news for the monument because the agency already knows this. It has commissioned two studies that analyze the viability of livestock management on the monument, one of which reached the conclusion, “There is no known system of grazing that would be compatible with resource protection.” Sounds pretty clear, doesn’t it?
However, the BLM has been turning a deaf ear to conservationists’ pleas and the science, and the agency has even gone so far as to renew permits without having made a compatibility determination and without completing a NEPA review. You read that right: The BLM has renewed permits despite Proclamation language urging the agency to use utmost care in allowing grazing to continue, and it has done so without even an EA.
The BLM asserts that it is going to make the compatibility determination and permit adjustments in the forthcoming Resource Management Plan. We think that incompatibility has already been determined and that the agency should get the cows off now. We hope that the Court will agree.
Read more about the Sonoran Desert National Monument on our webpage.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
[…] WWP files lawsuit against Arizona BLM over desert grazing […]
August 13th, 2008 at 11:17 am
While I am thrilled to see someone fighting to get the cows off of our public lands, I am wondering how this litigation will effect our wild and/or feral horses roaming on these public lands.
Can you please clairify your position on wild horses for me?
Thanks!
CJ aka “MuleKist”
August 14th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Hi Christine,
The litigation pertains specifically to permitted livestock, which in this case means cows.
Thanks for your interest and support.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am
A note on “wild horses:” They are not native to the American landscape.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:01 am
Alan Gregory is right. In fact, they aren’t “wild horses”, they’re “FERAL horses”. With very, very few exceptions, they’re only a few generations removed from the farm and ranch horses that were routinely just kicked out on the public lands to russle for themselves until needed. (Free grazing, and you don’t have to feed them hay in the winter that way.) If you know what to look for, many still show the characteristics of the parent breedstock, It isn’t all saddle horse either: many individuals show a lot of draft animal blood.
They trash the range. An excellent example is at WWP’s Greenfire Reserve in Central Idaho, where an ever enlarging mob spends too much time. Half a dozen or so years ago there were only 4 head, now I think it’s over a dozen. They’ve beaten the property on the east side of the river literally to dust. I hope the BLM manages to cull - read wipe out - that mob, and do it soon.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
[…] About WWP « WWP files lawsuit against Arizona BLM over desert grazing […]
September 18th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I wish the WWP would put more photos up of the BLM lands you are mainly interested in protecting.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Bob W –
You “hope the BLM manages to cull– read wipe out– that mob, and do it soon?”
HOW BARBARIC! You’re advocating for what, let’s clarify: shooting horses???
September 19th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Bob W–
Although I appreciate WWP efforts to reinvigorate our public lands, your comment shows your complete lack of compassion and ignorance for the unbelievable persecution these feral horses have endured from cattle ranchers! –
September 20th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Dept of Interiors website re: Wild and Feral horses
http://www.nps.gov/thro/naturescience/feral-wild-horses.htm
I would imagine that Bob W. (comments above) trashes the range by his presence alone more so than the horses do.
October 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Barb,
Feral horses are no better than Feral cats. Horses are much harder on the enviroment than cattle per animal. I have watched wild horses run countless, deer, elk, and antalope off waterholes and the damage they have done in places like sheldon national wildlife refuge and other desert refuges is nothing short of horrible. Persecution, heck they should all be shot IMHO. The bottom line is they are a non native threat to habitat, you view cows with such disdain, but atleast there is some measure of control on there populations. Why is a horse so different.
Use reason and logic instead of emotions when reasoning through this matter.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Right on, Ryan !
I wasn’t going to respond — and haven’t — to Barb’s emotonal, non-factual and illogical posting. (It’s not a perfect analogy, but it’d be like trying to use reason in arguing religion: ideology or faith versus logic and reason). That said, I wonder if — as you implied in your posting — she is as concerned for the NATIVE, INDIGINOUS wildlife those feral horses displace as she is for the nags.
And when she whines about them being “persecuted” by the ranchers — HUH ??? They are after all, protected by the well-meaning, but far over-reaching Wild Horses and Burros Protection Act of 1971. Which in large part is why they’ve bred and multiplied like rats in a grain elevator.
Maybe we need an open hunting season on feral horses ! There’s a prejudice in the British Isles against eating horse meat that doesnt’ exist on the Europoean continent. My ancestors came from continental Europe. I ate horsemeat as a kid, during and shortly after WWII. It’s good: there isn’t a thing wrong with it — and it is, or once was, - ir o
October 12th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Right on, Ryan !
I wasn’t going to respond to Barb’s emotonal, non-factual and illogical posting. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it’d be like trying to use reason in arguing religion: ideology or faith versus logic and reason. That said, I wonder if, as you implied in your posting, she is as concerned for the NATIVE, INDIGINOUS wildlife those feral horses displace as she is for the nags.
And when she whines about them being “persecuted” by the ranchers — HUH ??? They are after all, protected by the well-meaning, but far over-reaching “Wild Horses and Burros Protection Act of 1971″. Which in large part is why they’ve bred and multiplied like rats in a grain elevator.
Maybe we need an open hunting season on feral horses ! There’s a prejudice in American and the British Isles against eating horse meat that doesn’t exist on the European continent. Most of my ancestors came from continental Europe. I ate horsemeat as a kid, during and shortly after WWII. It’s good. There isn’t a thing wrong with it. And it is, or once was, quite inexpensive.
October 12th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
OK. As long as I’m finally responding to Barb’s rants, I might as well answer this one, too: On September 20th, 2008 at 12:12 am, she said, “I would imagine that Bob W. (comments above) trashes the range by his presence alone more so than the horses do.”
Wrong as two left feet, Barb.
Although my property abutts BLM ground, when I go out on it or the Natioal Forest, I don’t drive off-road — except, in the interest of full disclosure, occasionally on the Forest, when I’m cutting firewood. With that exception, if I’m driving on public lands, I stay on established roads. Otherwise I walk. I obviously don’t use horses; and frankly, my attitudes toward off-road vehicles, whether they be pickups, four-wheelers, or trail bikes is as negative as it is toward feral horses.