TUCSON, Ariz.— In response to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Bird Alliance, a federal court has rejected the Coronado National Forest’s methods to assess the threats cattle pose to endangered animals and their fragile stream habitat. Protected wildlife at risk include the Sonora chub and the Chiricahua leopard frog.
The judge’s order, issued late Tuesday, found that the Forest Service used metrics designed to track the grazing program’s goals, not the health of endangered species. The court also found that the biological opinion authorizing the grazing program lacked quantifiable limits on “take” — a legal term for harming or killing protected wildlife — for the chub, the frogs and their habitat.
“This order will force federal agencies to adopt long-overdue, science-based protections that keep cows out of the waters and streambanks endangered animals need to survive,” said Chris Bugbee, a conservation advocate at the Center. “For years cattle have been allowed to trash the Coronado’s streamside habitats. I’m hopeful this marks a new day for the forest’s endangered wildlife.”
The 2023 lawsuit challenged the biological opinion authorizing the grazing program, citing years of cattle damage to endangered species habitats masked by grazing program metrics in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Livestock grazing is a primary driver of species endangerment in the Southwest. Cows damage streamside habitat by trampling banks and streambeds, stripping vegetation to bare soil, preventing trees from reproducing, and polluting water with feces, urine, sediment and cattle carcasses.
Since 2020 the Center’s annual surveys of riparian critical habitat in the Coronado National Forest have shown extensive, ongoing damage from cattle grazing, including unauthorized grazing.
Other threatened and endangered species in the area include northern Mexican garter snakes, Sonoran tiger salamanders and Gila topminnows.
The plaintiffs are represented in this case by the public interest law firm Eubanks & Associates, PLLC.
